Venus Intrepid Tessera Lander

The National Research Council''s 2010 Planetary Decadal Survey Inner Planets Panel commissioned the Goddard Space Flight Center''s (GSFC) Architecture Design Lab (ADL) to do an enhanced rapid mission architecture study, conducted under NASA Headquarters leadership. The charge was to conceive a Venus mission architecture capable of safe landing in one of the mountainous tessera regions of the planet on a budget comparable to New Frontiers. Using the ADL''s five step process (see Appendix), the study accomplished a systematic exploration, down-selection and optimization of the best architecture concepts for the Venus Intrepid Tessera Lander (VITaL).