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Venus has almost become a “forgotten planet”, with only one space mission carried out there in the last 30 years. But the recent resurgence of interest in Earth’s closest neighbor led NASA and ESA to commit to three new missions to Venus, all set to launch in the early 2030s. ESA’s EnVision Venus mission is scheduled to take high-resolution optical, spectral and radar images of the planet’s surface. But to do so, the van-sized spacecraft would need to perform a special maneuver called aerobraking to gradually slow down and lower its orbit through the planet’s hot, thick atmosphere. Aerobraking uses atmospheric drag to slow the spacecraft and EnVision will make thousands of passes through Venus’ atmosphere over about two years. Aerobraking maneuvers are a necessity for the mission. Remove All Ads in Universe Today Join our Patreon for only $3! Get an ad-free experience for life “EnVision as it is currently understood could not have occur...

In space nothing can keep it clean, with the total mass of all objects in orbit said to be equivalent to about 9,900 tons. To combat this, Chinese scientists have developed large sails, which they say can be used to change the orbits of dead rockets and satellites so that they burn up in Earth’s atmosphere and don’t become space junk. The 269 sq ft (25 sq m) ‘de-orbiting sail’ works by slowly slowing its malfunctioning payload until it is moved out of orbit. The debris would then burn up in Earth’s atmosphere within a few years – a process that could take more than a hundred years. The display has been developed and successfully tested by Institute 805 of the Shanghai Academy of Spacecraft Technology (SAST) in China, according to the English-language China Global Times newspaper. The news comes after the British Government announced last month that it wanted to start tackling the millions of debris in Earth orbit. This includes organizing commercial satelli...