Artist impression of the ESA EnVision-Mission in front of Venus.
Credit:
ESA/VR2Planets/Damia Bouic
The Venus Mapping Spectrometer (VenSpec-M) is part of a spectrometer suite for the ESA’s mission EnVision which will be launched in 2031. VenSpec-M is designed to focus on mapping the surface of Venus using the spectral range around 1 µm. It’s development is led by two DLR Institutes in Berlin: the Institute of Optical Sensor Systems (OS) and the Institute of Planetary Research (PF). The institute OS is responsible for designing, manufacturing, assembly and verification of the instrument. The institute PF focuses on the scientific definition and implementation, validation and operation. A French contribution, the optics including spectral filter assembly, is provided by the “Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales” (CNES) and the “Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique” (LESIA).
Technically the VenSpec-M instrument bases on the VEM instrument for the NASA space mission VERITAS with almost identical technical parameters, see further information here.
