OREANDA-NEWS. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is considering projects for two scientific missions to the planets of the Solar System, one of which will go to Venus to search for traces of life on the planet. According to the Reuters agency, the projects should receive final approval by April 2021.

The mentioned missions are DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, which in February were included in the shortlist of projects selected by NASA management as part of the small space missions tender for a 500 million dollars grant.

American astrobiologist David Grinspoon called the DAVINCI+ project the most logical option for testing the existence of life on Venus. “DAVINCI is the logical one to choose if you’re motivated in part by wanting to follow this up – because the way to follow this up is to actually go there and see what’s going on in the atmosphere,” he explained.

DAVINCI+ is a lander for studying the atmosphere of Venus. The VERITAS mission is developed to map the surface of the planet to better understand its geological history.