Talk:VERITAS (spacecraft)

Edit request
Hello Wikipedia editors!

I'd like to work with you all to make some updates and slightly restructure the article. See below for details.

Updates to introductory paragraphs ✅

Add sources to the last introductory paragraph:


 * VERITAS was again proposed for the Discovery Program in 2019 and was selected for Phase A funding on February 13, 2020.
 * Its Concept Study Report will be submitted in November of 2020. NASA expects to announce the next Discovery class mission selection in April of 2021.

Move section titled "VERITAS Scientific Payload" to precede "VERITAS Objectives and Goals."

Updates to VERITAS Scientific Payload section ❌

Remove ✅


 * The primary mission goals, accomplished by seven objectives, require two instruments and a gravity science investigation over a 2-year orbital mission.[6]

And replace with


 * VERITAS would produce global, high-resolution topography and imaging of Venus' surface and produce the first maps of deformation and global surface composition, thermal emissivity, and gravity field. VERITAS flies two instruments and a gravity science investigation.

Update sources for the two instruments and gravity science investigation (gravity science having its own bullet):


 * VEM (Venus Emissivity Mapper) would map surface emissivity using six spectral bands in five atmospheric windows that see through the clouds. It would be provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). VEM also carries eight atmospheric bands for calibration and detection of near-surface water vapor.
 * VISAR (Venus Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) would generate global data sets for topography (250 m horizontal by 5 m vertical accuracy) and SAR imaging at 30 m resolution with targeted resolution at 15 m. It will create the first planetary active surface deformation map (1.5 cm vertical).


 * Gravity science would be carried out using the spacecraft's telecom system, providing uniform resolution of better than 160 km and the first estimate of Venus' core size.

Updates to VERITAS Objectives and Goals section❌

Retitle section to “VERITAS Scientific Goals and Objectives.”

Remove


 * VERITAS would produce global, high-resolution topography and imaging of Venus' surface and produce the first maps of deformation and global surface composition,[3] thermal emissivity, and gravity field.[4] It would also attempt to determine if Venus hosted ancient aqueous environments. Also, current data are highly suggestive of recent and active volcanism and this mission could determine if current volcanism is limited to mantle plume heads or is more widespread.[4]


 * High-resolution imagery would be obtained by using an X band radar configured as a single pass interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR)[5] coupled with a multispectral near-infrared (NIR) emissivity mapping capability. VERITAS would map surface topography with a spatial resolution of 250 m and 5 m vertical accuracy, and generate radar imagery with 30 m spatial resolution.[3][5][6]

And replace with


 * VERITAS addresses three broad science goals:


 * 1. Past and Present Water on Venus. Is there evidence for past and present interior water? Are Venus' plateaus like Earth's continents, implying formation in a wetter past? Is interior water being volcanically outgassed today, implying Earth-like concentrations?


 * In the tessera plateaus, VERITAS seeks to find the chemical fingerprint of past water. Tessera plateaus have been suggested to be equivalent to Earth’s continents, which are characterized by low Fe and high Si rocks and require basalt to be melted in the presence of water in order to form. VEM will make a global map of iron content to determine if tesserae are analogous to continental crust. Additional VEM bands will detect the presence of near-surface water vapor. If they are above background levels, it would indicate that volcanic outgassing contains water. Those observations and additional signs of surface changes would function as proof of present-day outgassing. Because of Venus’ high surface pressure, detectable outgassing could only result from several % of water in the magma; this would place valuable constraints on the overall evolution of Venus.


 * 2. Current Activity on Venus. What geologic processes are currently active? Does Venus’ young surface display signs of active deformation and volcanism as well as geochemical weathering signatures of recent volcanism?


 * Several VERITAS datasets will provide evidence for geologic activity on Venus now. Both Venus Express VIRTIS and Magellan emissivity data imply that chemical weathering is incomplete in some areas, even in the harsh Venusian environment. This is interpreted to reflect recent volcanism. Another indicator of activity comes from Venus Express, which also observed SO2 variations likely due to volcanic outgassing.


 * According to the VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy): A Proposed Discovery Mission abstract, presented at the 51st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), VERITAS employs multiple methods to search for evidence of current activity, including:

"1) cm-scale geologic deformation, 2) recent, chemically un-weathered flows, 3) volcanic thermal emission, 4) topographic or surface roughness changes, and 5) comparisons to past mission data sets including Magellan radar images and Venus Express NIR spectra at 1.02 microns."


 * VERITAS will compare its X-band SAR imaging to Magellan S-band SAR imaging after accounting for look and wavelength. In order to be detected, lava flows and other new features need to have a unique radar backscatter. These analyses are key to investigating global activity because ~40% of the Venus surface consists of smooth plains, where radar backscatter does not suggest specific flows. Even if new flows in these areas resemble prior flows in backscatter and are invisible in SAR images, they could still be seen from their emissivity contrast in VEM images.


 * 3. Geologic Evolution of Venus. What processes shape rocky planets? What is the global composition of the surface? Is there evidence for past plate tectonics? Is volcanism steady (at Earth-like levels) or catastrophic (episodic plate tectonics?). Is subduction initiating today, showing how plate tectonics begins?


 * According to the abstract presented at the 51st LPSC,

"VERITAS answers key science questions via: 1) examining the origin of tesserae plateaus—possible continent-like features, 2) assessing the history of volcanism and how it has shaped Venus’ young surface, 3) looking at craters and modifications subsequent to their formation, 4) characterizing possible subduction zones and the processes governing their formation, 5) looking for evidence of prior features buried by volcanism, and 6) determining the links between interior convection and surface geology."

Morgensteorra (talk) 00:40, 21 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Hello Morgensteorra, and thank you for your suggestions. I will be reviewing your edit requests. As this is quite a long edit request, I will be reviewing the items one-by-one, and it may take me some time to go through all of them. Best, Altamel (talk) 16:37, 27 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Thank you, Altamel, for taking on this edit request. I see you made some initial edits on June 27 (thank you, for those!) and am hopeful the other suggested I posted will be accepted and implemented soon. Please reach out if you have any questions. - Morgensteorra (talk) 22:52, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Hi there, Altamel and P,TO 19104. I was notified that this edit request has been marked as "This edit request by an editor with a conflict of interest has now been answered." Just wanted clarification on what this means. Is this just to show that an editor has been assigned and is continuing to work on changes? Or does this mean that the edit request is now marked as done and no further changes to the article will be made? It looks like only a few minor changes have been implemented from this edit request. Altamel, are you still reviewing the suggested edits? Thank you for any guidance/clarification you both can provide. Best, Morgensteorra (talk) 18:56, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Morgensteorra, they took it out of the queue, but I will still be reviewing (though others are welcome to jump in, if they so wish). Unfortunately I'm rather busy during the week, so I will probably be working on this during weekends. If you could help me expedite the process, review the remaining changes and make sure none of them are closely paraphrased from the sources they cite or any other source. I had to rephrase parts of the edits I did implement, and that's implementing this request has taken a long time. Probably I'm being overly cautious with close paraphrasing, but I just want to play it safe. Best, Altamel (talk) 02:24, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for clarifying, Altamel! Glad to hear you're still on this. I absolutely understand about playing it safe. And thank you for working your weekends on this article and others. Prior to submitting these edits, I did go through and checked for close paraphrasing using the search engine method mentioned in bullet 2 of . I also checked the sources I provided as citations. Would you like me to do another pass to double check for this? Sincerely, Morgensteorra (talk) 23:20, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Looking into this, let me see if I could help. OkayKenji (talk • contribs) 03:50, 6 August 2020 (UTC)
 * I added ✅ or ❌ to help make it clear what changes were done and not done. OkayKenji (talk • contribs) 04:16, 6 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Thank you for jumping on this, OkayKenji! Another check for close paraphrasing was done. I made some minor tweaks to the Updates to VERITAS Objectives and Goals section. Looks you haven't started on that part yet, so that shouldn't interfere with what you may be working on now. Best, Morgensteorra (talk) 04:24, 6 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Morgensteorra and Altamel I've removed that fact that this has been removed there's still a few changes that have not been done yet. OkayKenji (talk • contribs) 22:51, 13 August 2020 (UTC)
 * It's partially done, so it's been updated now. &#8211; MJL &thinsp;‐Talk‐☖ 03:58, 7 September 2020 (UTC)

Hello editors, Morgensteorra has passed responsibility for communicating with you to me. Checking to see if there's anything we could do to make this suggested content easier to review and implement. Extremely grateful for anything you can do to update this page, as it's the only comprehensive resource for readers to learn about the mission at this time. Zoomanova (talk) 19:40, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Updates for this article could be made. There has been more coverage since 2020.
Does anyone else have interest in updating this article's tone and style. More coverage about the mission has appeared since last year and the DAVINCI+ mission has received some nice improvements. I think this article could do with the same treatment. The information in the article looks good to me but a lot of it is presented in a research paper tone where the information came from. It needs some work to make it more of an encyclopedic tone. Shortscircuit (talk) 03:22, 15 June 2021 (UTC)