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An image of the surface of Venus taken by the Venera 13 mission of the Soviet Union. |
by Ajey Lele
Monday, September 21, 2020
For many years, the main focus of space exploration has been Mars and the Moon. Of course, the scientific community has been involved in missions in other parts of the solar system, but the agendas of the major space agencies have been dominated by missions to the Moon and Mars. Now, there is the possibility that another world could find its way into those agendas.
The discovery
Venus is known as the hottest planet in the solar system, with surface temperatures of up to 470 ° C. In fact, Venus is even hotter than Mercury because the thick atmosphere of Venus was filled with carbon dioxide, creating a greenhouse effect. runaway. Venus is sometimes called Earth’s sister planet, as it is very similar to Earth in terms of size and mass. However, the problem is that the temperature and atmosphere of Venus make it completely different from Earth.
| For many years, the main focus of space exploration has been Mars and the Moon. Now, there is the possibility that another world could find its way into those agendas. |
Last week, a group of scientists announced the discovery of phosphine gas in the clouds of Venus. The article, published in the magazine Nature astronomy, is based on observations of the atmosphere of Venus that detect phosphine, a gas on Earth that is only known to be produced by biological processes.
Phosphine was initially identified in the atmosphere of Venus in 2017, based on observations collected from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii. With this initial information, a more focused search with more precise observations was conducted using the Atacama Large Millimeter / submilimeter Array facility in Chile. These observations in 2019 supported the initial findings, so now, after detailed analysis, scientists have announced the possibility of life in the atmosphere of Venus.
The amount of phosphine found is a small amount: about 20 parts per billion in the atmosphere of Venus. In theory, Venus should be hostile to phosphine, as there is enough oxygen available on its surface and the surrounding atmosphere that it would quickly react with phosphine and destroy it. But, the small amount of phosphine was found in the high clouds over Venus, where the temperature is expected to be around 30 ° C. Phosphine is known to be produced as a result of a biological process and not through any process. natural chemical in the amounts detected.
Various missions
Throughout the Space Age a wide range of missions have been sent to fly, orbit, and land on Venus. Many missions performed during the early years of space flight failed. In 1967, the Soviets had success with Venera 4, which carried out chemical analysis of the atmosphere of Venus. In 1970, the first soft landing on a planet beyond Earth occurred when Venera 7 landed on Venus, although this mission had very limited success.
| Dmitry Rogozin, president of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, has said in the sense that Russia believes that Venus is a “Russian planet”. He has also argued that the United States once called Venus a Soviet planet. |
The US space agency NASA successfully flew several important missions that have added to our knowledge of Venus. ESA and Japan’s JAXA have also led some missions. However, most of the missions have been carried out by the Soviets. Interestingly, after the end of the Cold War, Russia stopped conducting missions to Venus. For the next decade, future missions would be from NASA, ESA, or the Indian space agency ISRO. The Russian agency Roscosmos has proposed to launch an orbiter / lander mission, Venera-D, between 2026 and 2031. There were initial indications that Russia wanted to involve other space agencies in this project as well.
Interestingly, less than a day after the announcement about the possibility of life on Venus was announced, Russia declared its intentions to explore Venus independently. Furthermore, Dmitry Rogozin, the president of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, has said to the effect that Russia believes that Venus is a “Russian planet”. He has also argued that the United States once called Venus a Soviet planet.
Power politics
Politics has always been an integral part of human attempts to explore outer space. Political scientists have identified “astropolitics” as a subset of geopolitics. There were nuances of technological improvement when the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik. The race to the Moon that followed was also part of this game of technological superiority. Today, Russia has called its COVID-19 vaccine “Sputnik-V.” The subtle message is obvious: “We were the first to launch a satellite and now we are the first to find a vaccine for a devastating pandemic.” The underlying message is that, whether in space science or biotechnology, Russia wants to be seen as a technology leader.
It is important to see Dmitry Rogozin’s statement that Russia believes that Venus is a “Russian planet” in this context. Today, space activities span five dimensions: science, technology, industry, war, and geopolitics. Nations have also begun to identify space exploration as an important component of diplomacy. One of the most relevant treaty mechanisms addressing various space-related issues is the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST). Since the late 1950s, there have been several attempts to formalize mechanisms to address various space challenges. For decades, there have been various debates about the possible introduction of codes of conduct, treaty mechanisms, international corporations and laws in space. But state-centered interests are not allowing a major global push toward the evolution of a globally acceptable space security mechanism.
The concept of alien real estate is not new. There have been some references to this idea since the 19th century. After the success of the Apollo missions, there was a hard sell on the idea. Some believed that since humans can now reach the Moon, it was possible to own land there. Some people took advantage of this situation and opened plans to buy land on the Moon or other celestial bodies, and some of them have claimed that they earn a lot of money doing it.
The OST prohibits nations from claiming celestial bodies. Like any other legal system, efforts have also been made to find loopholes with this treaty mechanism. The interpretation of any treaty mechanism is based on which side of the fence a state, an agency or an individual is on.
| Russia’s decision to declare “ownership” of Venus is a bit surprising. The last mission to Venus of the Russians (Soviets) was launched in 1984! |
There is a concept called the Common Heritage of Humanity (CHM) introduced during the 1960s. This is an ethical concept and a general concept of international law. However, CHM does not have global acceptance. You need to put CHM in the context of the solar system and interstellar space. It is important to argue that planets and other celestial bodies must belong to all humanity and that an individual state or private agency should not own the resources on them.
Unfortunately, the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 in the United States allows companies there to engage commercially in the exploration and exploitation of space resources by mining the bodies in space, including asteroids. Such mechanisms can be said to go against the spirit of both the TMB and the 1979 Moon Agreement.
conclusion
The recent discovery indicating the possibility of life in the atmosphere of Venus is very exciting news for the scientific community. It can be expected that more research on Venus and its atmosphere will now be funded, including missions from NASA and other space agencies.
Russia’s decision to declare “ownership” of Venus is a bit surprising. The last mission to Venus of the Russians (Soviets) launched in 1984! It seems that since Venus came on the news (suddenly), Russia took the first opportunity to convey to the rest of the world that this planet belongs to them. They have wisely used their past record to substantiate their claim. Now the question is, what is the motive for this Russian claim? Is this the only way to express your love for Venus? Probably not. Worlds like Venus were once considered too difficult and expensive to explore, but the situation is changing, particularly with private players like Rocket Lab, who have proposed their own Venus mission, entering the field. There is an urgent need to begin debating the need for rules-based mechanisms to address the various challenges that arise from such exploration amid appropriation concerns.
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