Nasa just gave four teams $ 3 million each to bring their solar system dreams closer to reality. Two of the scientific teams have their sights set on Venus. One is focused on Jupiter’s highly volcanic moon IO, and the last is targeting Triton, a moon of Neptune.

‘exploring any one of these celestial bodies will help unlock the secrets of how it, and others like it, came to be in the cosmos’.

discovery-class missions are considered NASA’s’small’ planetary science missions. These missions can cost no more than $ 450 million and are intended to complement NASA’s larger solar system exploration missions.

Of the four teams selected today, no more than two will actually be fully funded. Each team will present NASA with a study report and wait to see which of them actually makes the cut.

Veritas – Veritas stands for Venus emissivity, radio science, insar, topography, and spectroscopy. Its focus would be on mapping the surface of Venus and gathering data about how and why this planet developed so differently from earth.

davinci+ stands for deep atmosphere Venus investigation of noble gases, chemistry, and imaging plus. Instead of focusing on the planet itself, it would focus on the gases surrounding the planet. Its goals are to see how Venus’ atmosphere evolved and whether it had an ocean.

Ivo – the IO volcano observer would visit IO, a moon of Jupiter and the most volcanic body in the solar system. This mission would get a closer look at IO’s extreme volcanism and try to understand more about the moon’s structure.

The flyby mission would map the moon’s surface. It would look for clues as to whether the moon really has a predicted subsurface ocean.

Current discovery missions include the lunar reconnaissance orbiter and the Mars insight probe. The LRO has been in orbit around the moon since 2009.

Two other discovery-class missions were selected in 2017. Lucy will launch in 2021 and will explore seven asteroids. Her ambition will explore a giant metal asteroid.