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Although terrestrial wireless communications often must function under harsh environmental conditions, there are peculiar demands on communications systems for planetary exploration. For example, the mil-spec electronics temperature range is generally regarded as −55–+125 °C. A probe on the surface of Venus will experience a nearly constant operational temperature of +460 °C. Conversely, the temperature of Europa at the equator never exceeds ≈−140 °C, and the temperature at the poles never exceeds ≈−220 °C. The (physical layer) communications channel for each represents unique challenges, which are described. For example, RF opacity of the toxic Venus atmosphere is inversely proportional to wavelength ${(}\mathit{\lambda}{)}$ squared, imposing an upper limit to a viable lander-to-orbiter link frequency. Similarly, communicating from Europa’s presumed deeply buried liquid ocean through a thick, briny (electrically conductive) ice layer renders a conventional RF link useless. Plus, Europa receives approximately 5.4 Sv of radiation per day, roughly 1,000 times the average annual dose experienced by humans on Earth (only a fraction of that comes from outer space).

The possibility of life in the venusian clouds was proposed in the 1960s, and recently this hypothesis has been revived with the potential detection of phosphine (PH3) in Venus' atmosphere. These o...

The cloud layer has been hypothesized to be the most habitable region of Venus. In the lower clouds, both temperature and pressure fall within bounds that support reproduction of microbial life on Earth, although the water activity of the sulfuric acid cloud droplets makes the clouds uninhabitable to known life. In this study, we carried out an analysis of CHNOPS (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur) elements and potential redox couples in the cloud layer, and we used a microbial energetic growth model to investigate quantitatively the chemical energy available for microbial growth from methanogenesis, sulfate reduction, and hydrogen oxidation at temperatures between 278 and 350 K. The purpose was to improve knowledge of how far the venusian cloud layer comes from being habitable. Hydrogen oxidation was favorable at all temperatures; however, negative Gibbs free energies for sulfate reduction and methanogenesis depended critically on the assumed concentrations of electron donors, acceptors, and products. Improved measurements and the investigation of new molecules will allow us to better assess quantitatively how far Venus comes from possessing a habitable cloud layer and what would need to be different to make it habitable. We identify specific required measurements. These data will advance our understanding of the habitability of planetary atmospheres on extrasolar greenhouse worlds and the habitability of Earth when the planet eventually enters a greenhouse state.

This study contains predictions for mass spectrometry and plasma instrument measurements during upcoming Venus flybys of BepiColombo and Solar Orbiter and discusses the possibility of a phosphine detection with mass spectrometry in Venus’ upper atmosphere. The results extend the ones published previously in Gruchola et al. (2019) , where predictions for the proposed ESA mission EnVision and the Venus flyby of JUICE were included. Both the Venus flyby of BepiColombo and the one of Solar Orbiter will take place in August 2021, only 1 day apart. BepiColombo, carrying the neutral mass gas spectrometer STROFIO, could probe the atmosphere around closest approach and obtain data on the thermal and hot neutral particle populations in the upper atmosphere. According to this study, the thermal hydrogen population as well as the hot species H, C, N and O, including isotopes, should be visible to STROFIO. Especially data on the abundance of the hot species would yield important insight into the planetary escape processes. The Solar Orbiter on the other hand carries the plasma instrument SWA-HIS, designed to measure the energetic solar wind ions. During its second Venus gravity assist it will traverse the magnetosheath, the region between bow shock and ion composition boundary, where in addition to the solar wind ions energetic planetary ions are present. The planetary pickup ions can be measured by SWA-HIS, providing important information on the outflow of planetary ions and the ionization processes in the upper atmosphere itself. The recent reports of phosphine in Venus’ cloud decks with an abundance of 20 ppb at 80 km probably overestimate the actual PH3 abundance, as the data are currently being reanalyzed (Greaves et al., 2021). However, even with this upper limit of 20 ppb a phosphine detection with a mass spectrometer e.g. on-board ESA’s proposed EnVision mission, seems unlikely. To resolve the PH3 peak and the 16O18O peak a mass resolution of almost 10’000 is required, and the PH2D peak is masked by the Cl fragment peak of HCl. Furthermore, NGMS on-board Pioneer Venus with a mass resolution of around 440 did most likely not detect phosphine, as it scanned only a few masses in the mass range of interest where more abundant species than phosphine are present.

Introduction The volcanic settings of the Eolian Islands, Italy, offer access to various types of volcanic terrains, with diverse morphology and mineralogy. This study focuses on Vulcano, whose last eruption is dated to 1890 but still shows volcanic activity [1]. The dry landscape and easy access to layers of older and more recent volcanic material, in addition to the possibility of investigating secondary minerals, make this site a very promising analog for our neighbor planets; Mars and Venus. Building on previous expeditions, we have acquired experience and knowledge about the potential of these analog environments and their habitability [2 - 4]. Our objectives for the June 2022 field campaign are: to investigate the surface roughness and active surface processes, as well as spectral characterization of volcanic material (Venus analog) and secondary minerals (Mars analog) with both field and lab instruments (detailed hereafter). We are also interested in the astrobiological aspects of these environments, which could represent early Venus/Mars, pertaining to the questions of life detection, using spectroscopy techniques, and habitability, looking at microbial colonization. In-situ Instrumentation Field measurements are collected with the following portable instrumentation: VEM (Venus Emissivity Mapper) Field Prototype - simulating the VEM and VenSpec-M instruments that will fly on the next VERITAS NASA and EnVision ESA missions to Venus, respectively [5]. The prototype is composed of a commercial camera and optics with narrow filters at 850, 910, 990 and 1000 nm, corresponding to four spectral windows in the Venus atmosphere where it is possible to obtain mapping of Venus’ surface features. Portable Raman - the RaPort handheld Raman instrument by EnSpectr equipped with a 532 nm excitation laser (same wavelength as used for the ExoMars rover) operating at -1 (> 2.5µm) at 6-9 cm-1 spectral resolution and a spot size of around 0.5 mm. Portable XRD/XRF Terra - is a portable X-ray diffraction/ X-ray Fluorescence instrument born from the need to perform XRD analysis on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and is being now widely applied for Earth on field applications. Mini-PAM - instrument used to detect the presence of chlorophyll and photosynthetic activity. Portable spectro-radiometer (PSR+3500) operating in the visible and near-infrared spectral range (350 – 2500 nm) with a spectral resolution between 3 and 8 nm and a measurement spot size of 3 by 3 mm and is best used for mineralogical investigations. The Integrated Positioning System (IPS, developed at DLR) combines stereo camera, inertial and GNSS measurements for localization, 3D reconstruction and inspections in unknown environments. Equipped with a thermal imaging camera (Optris PI 640, spectral range of 8 - 14 µm), the hand-held prototype is investigated for exploration and thermal mapping of fumarolic fields [6]. Laboratory analysis Further measurements on collected samples from Vulcano are performed at the Department of Planetary Laboratories (PLL)[7] at the German Aerospace Center (DLR, Berlin, Germany) in the: Planetary Spectroscopy Laboratory (PSL) - by mean of three Bruker Vertex80V FTIR spectrometers at PSL we can measure bi-directional bulk sample spectroscopy of the collected samples completely under vacuum in the whole spectral range from UV to FIR (0.25 µm to at least 25 µm spectral range). A Bruker Hyperion 2000 FT-IR microscope allows mapping smaller grains from VIS to MIR (0.4 to at least 16 µm spectral range) with a spatial resolution down to 50 µm. Raman-Mineral- Biology Detection Lab (RMBD) - equipped with a confocal WITec alpha 300 system, a piezo-driven scan table, a UHTS 300 spectrometer with an ultrafast EMCCD detector and a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm excitation wavelength. The spot diameter at the sample is ~2.5 µm and the spectral resolution of the spectrometer 4–5 cm-1 at 600 l/mm grating. Planetary Analog Simulation LABoratory (PASLAB) and Mars Simulation Facility-Laboratory (MSF) - selected samples are further tested in our simulation facilities able to recreate Mars and other planetary environmental conditions by a controlled gas mixing system (up to 5 gasses, e.g. CO2/N2/Ar/CH4/O2) with H2O, a resulting pressure of 6 – 10 mbar (Mars) and up to 1 bar (Earth-like conditions) and diurnal cycles of radiation (190 nm – 2200 nm), humidity (rh % 0 to 100) and temperature (-70°C to 130°C). Discussion This is the sixth time a field campaign coupled to a summer school takes place on Vulcano. It is a remarkable site to test and train instruments, rovers, or data processing techniques of high interest for planetary science (for instance, testing the potential of portable LIBS and VIS/NIR spectrometers [2-4] or mapping using drone and camera data [8]). The comparison between field and laboratory measurements, as well as with data acquired from previous field campaigns to the same site, provides useful hints on the further understanding and characterization of these terrestrial sites as planetary analogs. Moreover, it plays an important role in enhancing the capabilities of these in-situ techniques for the characterization of extraterrestrial environments in the view of the analysis and interpretation of orbital and in-situ planetary data. In terms of habitability and the search for life, the identified extreme and unique environments present at Vulcano inform us on strategies and protocols on how to detect life elsewhere. Acknowledgements The Vulcano Summer School is provided limited support by the ARCHES Project (Helmholtz Association Project Alliance ZT-0033) and institutional support from various universities and research institutions such as DLR, Jacobs University and University Freiberg. References [1] De Astis G. et al. (2013). Geol. Soc. Lond. Mem. 37 (1), 281 LP – 349. [2] Rammelkamp, K. et al. (2021).. Spectr. Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy, 177, 106067. [3] Stephan et al. (2019), EPSC Abstracts Vol. 13, EPSC-DPS2019-2062, 2019. [4] Stephan, K. et al. (2020), LPSC2020, p. 2411. [5] Helbert et al. (2020), EPSC 2020, EPSC2020-260, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2020-260. [6] Irmisch, P. et al. (2021), Geometry and Vision. ISGV 2021, vol 1386, pp 68–84. [7] Helbert et al. (2022), 53rd Lun. and Planet. Sci. Conf., Co #2678, id. 1850. [8] Gwinner, K. et al. (2000), Eos 81, 44, pp. 513, 516, 520.

The article examines the transformation and functioning of the myth of Venus Anadyomene in the early lyrics by A. Kruchenykh in the context of the main trends of the futurism aesthetics and literary/painting studies on Venus-Aphrodite iconography of 1910-1925. The myth remains at the level of the plot basis as a relic; however, there is a shift of emphasis from the female ideal of beauty and cultural symbol to the male figure, usurping the power of creation.

This article explores sexual boundary violations and their clinical implications in forensic settings. In particular, the authors consider whether female professional and male patient relationship transgressions have similar clinical meanings as the inverse, or whether there is an inherent or perceived difference between genders. Furthermore, attention is brought to the problematic aspects of reductive, dichotomous interpretations of victim–violator relationships. Composite cases of such clinical "accidents" are presented. These are set within secure environments in the United Kingdom. The scope of these cases encompasses incidents between clinician and patient, as well as inter-professional boundary violations. By discussing these vignettes, the authors demonstrate the risk of a subtle, gradual, and insidious erosion of boundaries, alongside more overt incidents of a sexual nature and abuse of power. Contemporary societal factors that may influence conscious and unconscious biases will also be considered in the post #MeToo world. Where clinical examples are given, they are composites of cases reported in the public domain known to the authors. They are clinically accurate but do not involve actual identifiable people and cases.

A number of new Venus mission concepts are being currently evaluated for final approval, such as the NASA VERITAS and DAVINCI+, the Roscosmos-NASA Venera-D and the ESA EnVision proposals. These missions would analyze different aspects of the Earth’s twin planet: the chemistry and structure of its atmosphere, the spectral characteristics and composition of its surface, and its gravity anomalies. The wealth of high-resolution data to be produced by these future missions would likely shed new light on the major science questions. In this regard, one of the major debates concerns whether Venus underwent (and it is currently undergoing) through several episodes of abrupt and catastrophic resurfacing which rejuvenated its entire surface in a short amount of time, or its volcanism has been more steady and constant in time. Recent studies of Imdr Regio, one of the young volcanic rises, have provided hints indicating that volcanic as well as tectonic activity may be still ongoing in that area. The young volcanic rises are generated and supported by underlying active mantle plumes and can be considered as the some of the youngest geologic terrains of Venus. Studying how the rate and styles of volcanic and tectonic activities are evolving through time will tell us more about the interior structure of Venus, shedding some light on the major debate between catastrophic and equilibrium resurfacings. For this reason, we propose here the young volcanic rises, and in particular Idunn Mons of Imdr Regio, as potential target sites for future orbital and in-situ investigations.

Recent and past observations of chemical and physical peculiarities in the atmosphere of Venus have renewed speculations about the existence of life in its clouds. To find signs of Venusian life, a dedicated astrobiological space exploration mission is required, and for this reason the Venus Life Finder mission is currently being prepared. A Venus Life Finder mission will require dedicated and specialized instruments to hunt for biosignatures and habitability indicators. In this contribution, we present the ORIGIN space instrument, a laser desorption/laser ablation ionization mass spectrometer. This instrument is designed to detect large, non-volatile molecules, specifically biomolecules such as amino acids and lipids. At the same time, it can also be used in ablation mode for elemental composition analysis. Recent studies with this space prototype instrument of amino acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, lipids, salts, metals, sulphur isotopes, and microbial elemental composition are discussed in the context of studies of biosignatures and habitability indicators in Venus’s atmosphere. The implementation of the ORIGIN instrument into a Venus Life Finder mission is discussed, emphasizing the low weight and low power consumption of the instrument. An instrument design and sample handling system are presented that make optimal use of the capabilities of this instrument. ORIGIN is a highly versatile instrument with proven capabilities to investigate and potentially resolve many of the outstanding questions about the atmosphere of Venus and the presence of life in its clouds.

There Were Few bright spots in the pandemic summer of 2020. One of the most dazzling was the flight of U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station and their safe return to Earth aboard a commercial spacecraft from SpaceX. This demonstration was significant for many reasons, one of which was that it suggested a future in which NASA, freed from the demands of getting people to low Earth orbit, could aim much farther. Perhaps as far as Venus.

An often-overlooked aspect of human missions to Mars is that the optimal path to the Red Planet could include a flyby of Venus. As part of so-called opposition missions, a crewed spacecraft would, after departing Earth, approach Venus en route to Mars. Such Venus flybys would offer unique opportunities to practice deep-space human operations during phases of flight for which a direct return to Earth would be a viable abort option. Indeed, crewed flyby missions to Venus provide a basis for longer-duration human spaceflight activities before committing to longer-duration and lower-launch-cadence missions solely to Mars. During Venus flybys, astronauts bound for Mars could carry out opportunistic “human-in-the-loop” scientific activities, such as controlling an aerial platform or directing in situ sampling by a landed spacecraft for much lower cost than a dedicated crewed mission to Venus. An independent crewed Venus flyby could also serve as a useful systems demonstration mission prior to a first human mission to Mars. With a renewed focus on landing humans on Mars in the 2030s and the formidable challenges still ahead for safe and successful long-duration human spaceflight, the time to consider incorporating Venus on the path to Mars is now.

With recent progress of observational astronomy, the next generation of space telescopes (JWST, ARIEL, OST, HabEx, LUVOIR) will be able to determine the composition of exoplanetary atmospheres in t...

The Sun comprises 99.9% of the solar system mass so it is expected that Sun terrestrial planet interactions can influence the motion as well as the rotation of the terrestrial planets. Gravity affects the planet orbital motions while the changing magnetic fields of the Sun can influence the planet rotations. Planets that manifest a magnetic field dominate any weaker magnetic fields from the Sun, but the rotation of terrestrial planets without a magnetic field interacts with the changing Sun’s field dependent on the electrical conductivity of the core region. It is determined that the average planet density becomes a useful quantity to describe the magnetic state of a terrestrial planet. An average density of 5350 ± 50 kg/m3 is hypothesized to separate planets that develop magnetospheres from those that do not. Planets with higher average densities, Mercury and Earth, developed magnetospheres. While those with lower average densities, Venus and Mars never developed magnetospheres. Terrestrial planets with magnetospheres are the ones to also exhibit plate tectonics. The small size of Mercury led to Mercury only exhibiting a frozen in magnetization of potentially magnetic regions. The lack of magnetospheres as well as lack of plate tectonics prevented the continual transfer of core heat to the surface that limited the surface vulcanism to an initial phase. For Venus, it meant that the surface regions would only sporadically convulse. In this picture, the apparent anomalous axial rotation of Venus is a natural consequence of the rotation of the Sun. For Mars with relatively low surface temperatures, it meant that there was little heat exchange through the crust that would allow the lower crust to retain large amounts of water. For Mars to have initially had flowing liquid water required that the atmosphere at that time contained high concentrations of infrared absorbing gases at least as compared to the present level of infrared absorbing gases on the Earth. The terrestrial planets have iron based cores because iron has the highest binding energy per nucleon that can be made in the steady state lives of massive stars no matter how massive. This suggests that many of the conclusions reached here may also be applicable to exoplanets.

Materials used in the fabrication of landers for Venus exploration need to be carefully selected to assure functional durability throughout anticipated prolonged future mission durations in the har...

Measurements of trace gases in planetary atmospheres help us explore chemical conditions different to those on Earth. Our nearest neighbour, Venus, has cloud decks that are temperate but hyperacidic. Here we report the apparent presence of phosphine (PH3) gas in Venus’s atmosphere, where any phosphorus should be in oxidized forms. Single-line millimetre-waveband spectral detections (quality up to ~15σ) from the JCMT and ALMA telescopes have no other plausible identification. Atmospheric PH3 at ~20 ppb abundance is inferred. The presence of PH3 is unexplained after exhaustive study of steady-state chemistry and photochemical pathways, with no currently known abiotic production routes in Venus’s atmosphere, clouds, surface and subsurface, or from lightning, volcanic or meteoritic delivery. PH3 could originate from unknown photochemistry or geochemistry, or, by analogy with biological production of PH3 on Earth, from the presence of life. Other PH3 spectral features should be sought, while in situ cloud and surface sampling could examine sources of this gas. The detection of ~20 ppb of phosphine in Venus clouds by observations in the millimetre-wavelength range from JCMT and ALMA is puzzling, because according to our knowledge of Venus, no phosphine should be there. As the most plausible formation paths do not work, the source could be unknown chemical processes—maybe even life?

An experimental dowsing of the planetary and lunar bodies of the solar system suggests that all planetary and lunar names evoke some degree of energetic excitation reflecting that of the bodies themselves. The highest values of pranic energy were found for Jupiter and the other large distant planets, and for moons close to their planet which are subject to gravitational forces and show volcanic activity. The Earth, Venus and Mars show similar moderate-high levels of pranic energy, but the low-moderate scores for pranic energy shown by Mercury and the Sun seem to verify that subtle energy production is incompatible with high production or high levels of conventional photonic radiation. A short discussion of the implications of these observations follows.

Modern models of terrestrial planet formation require solids depletion interior to 0.5-0.7 au in the planetesimal disk to explain the small mass of Mercury. Earth and Venus analogues emerge after ~100 Myr collisional growth while Mercury form in the diffusive tails of the planetesimal disk. We carried out 250 N-body simulations of planetesimal disks with mass confined to 0.7-1.0 au to study the statistics of close encounters which were recently proposed as an explanation for the high iron mass fraction in Mercury by Deng (2020). We formed 39 Mercury analogues in total and all proto-Mercury analogues were scattered inward by proto-Venus. Proto-Mercury typically experiences 6 extreme close encounters (closest approach smaller than 6 Venus radii) with Proto-Venus after Proto-Venus acquires 0.7 Venus Mass. At such close separation, the tidal interaction can already affect the orbital motion significantly such that the N-body treatment itself is invalid. More and closer encounters are expected should tidal dissipation of orbital angular momentum accounted. Hybrid N-body hydrodynamic simulations, treating orbital and encounter dynamics self-consistently, are desirable to evaluate the degree of tidal mantle stripping of proto-Mercury., MNRAS published

A defining characteristic of the planet Venus is its thick, CO2-dominated atmosphere. Despite over 50 years of robotic exploration of Venus, including thirteen successful atmospheric probes and landers, our knowledge of N2, the second most abundant compound in the atmosphere, is highly uncertain1. We report the first measurement of the nitrogen content of Venus’s atmosphere at altitudes between 60 and 100 km. Our result, 5.0 ± 0.4 v% N2, is 40% higher than the value of 3.5 v% N2 reported for the lower atmosphere (

Progress in the geosciences has often followed the same fundamental paradigm for about two centuries: Earth’s present is the key to understanding its past and its future. This concept is at the root of most of what is known about the Earth. Similarly, knowledge of Earth’s geological and atmospheric processes can be, and has been, applied when studying the history of other planetary bodies. More recently, however, observations from other planets have fed back into our understanding of Earth. In this Perspective, we argue that many scientific mysteries about the Earth can be solved only by looking beyond it, and describe instances where other bodies, such as Mars, Venus and the Moon, have or could augment our understanding of processes on Earth. Future space missions offer the opportunity to probe the rich diversity of planetary environments and compositions, and further explore how they might serve as analogues, experiments and archives. Though lessons learned from Earth are frequently applied to other planets, there is much to learn about our own planet from the Solar System and beyond. This Perspective highlights examples from geological and atmospheric sciences in which other planetary bodies have acted as analogues, experiments and archives for the Earth sciences.

There has been considerable attention on how to detect life on other worlds by searching for biomolecules. However, there has been much less clarity as to when it becomes warranted to focus a mission on the search for life on another world. At a minimum, a life-detection mission should follow convincing evidence of (1) Liquid water of suitable salinity, past or present; (2) Carbon in the water; (3) Biologically available N in the water; (4) Biologically useful energy in the water; (5) Organic material that can possibly be of biological origin and a plausible strategy for sampling this material. Based on these prerequisites, the most promising targets for a life search are currently the plume of Enceladus and the subsurface of Mars-in equatorial lake bed sediments and in polar ice-cemented ground. Neither the surface of Europa nor the clouds of Venus meet the criteria listed here but may with further exploration.

The start of the Earth-Moon system has been studied to show that this was an exceptionally violent event. One result was that Earth became the terrestrial planet with the highest average density. Another result was that Earth acquired enough mass and radioactive elements that it is expected to maintain a molten core region and magnetic field for the expected life of the Earth. Earth alone of the terrestrial planets was then able to develop plate tectonics as a long term energy release mechanism. The dipole magnetic field of the Sun reverses periodically, currently at the rate of about every 11 years, so that there was a magnetic braking action acting on the core of Venus that accounts for the slow rotation of that planet. A key result is that the impact event that resulted in the Earth-Moon system led to long term stability on Earth that allowed the eventual development of complex life forms on the Earth.

Though the buying pieces of the Classic and Italian art of the Petrine time seemed to lack strategy, one can perceive some tendencies that show an aim to create what the German call Antikensammlung, a collection of Classic art kept at the royal court and organized under museum principles. One of plausible proves of this activity is an unfulfilled project made by Iuriy Kologrivov, who was busy buying pieces of art for the Imperial compilation in Rome. Having acquired some education as an architect, he proposed to Peter the Great an extant draft of the Venus’ Gallery meant to adorn his residence. For the center of the composition the statue of the Tauride Venus was chosen. Whereas this masterpiece was purchased by chance almost last of all, the average quality of the whole collection seems to be rather high, the display having been planned not as decorative one, but as an exhibition based on both art and historic principles. Some new for Petrine culture context traits include discrete exposition of Classic statues (and their copies) and modern Italian pieces along with presence of several statues of the same character (untypical for garden and interior decorative style of the period). This way of thinking coms back to Kologrivov’s culture experience gathered in Italy and even in a shape of an unrealized proposal is an interesting example of a classic art museum space and reflected the latest trends in perception of the Antiquity in Russia and Europe in the beginning of the 18th century.