MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd October, 2020) Russia may send an urgent space mission to Venus in 2027 to study possible signs of life in the planet's atmosphere, a spokesperson for the Russian aerospace company NPO Lavochkin said.
Scientists from the UK Cardiff University and the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology have recently discovered the presence of phosphine, which is on Earth produced by anaerobic organisms, in the atmosphere of Venus. The presence of phosphine was suggested in 2019 as an indicator of life on other planets.
"Now [Russia] is studying an opportunity to organize in 2027 an urgent specific mission to the atmosphere [of Venus] to study the origins of phosphines," the spokesperson said at a conference in the Russian Space Research Institute.
Russia's current plans include three scientific missions to Venus from 2029 to 2034.
