Venus Volcano Imaging and Climate Explorer

Venus Volcano Imaging and Climate Explorer (VOICE) was a proposed orbiter mission to Venus by China National Space Administration. According to the proposal, VOICE will study "Venusian volcanic and thermal evolution history, water and plate tectonics, internal structure and dynamics, climate evolution, possible habitable environment and life information in the clouds". The mission is part of the Tianwen program, and is expected to be launched in 2026, and arrive at Venus at 2027.[1][2]

VOICE will have three instruments: Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR), Microwave Radiometric Sounder (MWRS) and Ultraviolet-Visible-Near Infrared Multi-Spectral Imager (UVN-MSI).[1]

The mission competed with 12 other missions under the Strategic Priority Program on Space Science III (SPP-III) for 2025-2030.[3][4] According to the National Space Science Medium- and Long-Term Development Plan (2024-2050), the mission was not selected for development. It was replaced by a Venus atmosphere sample return mission, but no details or timelines were announced.[5]

  1. ^ a b DONG, Xiaolong; LIU, Yang; HE, Jieying; ZHANG, Feng; XU, Jian; ZHAO, Yuyan; WANG, Yu; ZHU, Haotian; WANG, Yongmei; WANG, Wenyu; CAI, Zhiming (2022). "Venus Volcano Imaging and Climate Explorer Mission". Chinese Journal of Space Science. 42 (6): 1047. doi:10.11728/cjss2022.06.yg33.
  2. ^ Jones, Andrew (14 July 2022). "China's proposed Venus mission would investigate the planet's atmosphere and geology". Space.com. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  3. ^ Jones, Andrew. "VOICE: Will this Chinese candidate mission to Venus fly?". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  4. ^ Jones, Andrew (1 July 2022). "Venus orbiter, lunar constellation and exoplanets telescopes among candidates as China selects new space science missions". SpaceNews. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  5. ^ Jones, Andrew (22 October 2024). "Venus atmosphere sample return noted in China's long-term space science roadmap". SpaceNews. Retrieved 31 October 2024.