Abstract
The Thalassa mission concept was developed in response to the 2019 NASA Planetary Mission Concept Studies call. Using a multi-platform mission architecture, Thalassa seeks to address a single science goal: to determine the extent to which water has played a role in the geological evolution of Venus.
Highlights
There is substantial evidence that Venus once possessed much more water than it does today (Treiman, 2007; Elkins-Tanton et al, 2007; Way and Del Genio, 2020), raising the tantalizing prospect that the second planet may have long been Earth-like and even habitable
Stemming from the “follow the water” theme, the Thalassa mission concept features four scientific objectives that explore the role of water at Venus from the upper atmosphere to the surface
The deuterium–hydrogen (D/H) ratio in the atmosphere of Venus is about 100 times Earth’s value (Donahue et al, 1982; Donahue and Hartle, 1992; Hartle et al, 1996). This enrichment in deuterium can be interpreted as either the signature of a lost primordial ocean of at least 0.3% the volume of a terrestrial ocean, or of a steady state in which water is continuously supplied to the surface of Venus by comets or volcanic outgassing, balancing loss through hydrogen escape (Grinspoon et al, 1993)
Summary
The Thalassa mission concept was developed for a proposal submitted to the NASA Planetary Mission Concept Studies call in May 2019. In this White Paper, we describe the mission concept, its overarching scientific focus and objectives, and our notional implementation for tackling those objectives. By combining a comprehensive instrument suite with multiplatform architecture—an orbiter, an aerial platform, and dropsondes—the Thalassa mission concept has been designed to explore the upper and middle atmosphere and the surface of Venus, motivated by a single scientific focus: Determine the extent to which water has played a role in the geological evolution of Venus
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