European Venus Explorer

The European Venus Explorer (EVE), known until 2007 as the Venus Entry Probe (VEP), is a proposed European Space Agency space probe to Venus. In the timeline of the 2005 TRS (technology reference study), the spacecraft was proposed to be launched on a Soyuz-2/Fregat launch vehicle around 2013.^[1] However, requests to fund and develop the spacecraft in 2007^[2] and 2010^[3] were rejected.^[4] EVE was a Medium-Class mission proposal in the Cosmic Vision programme.^[5] The mission concept consisted of an orbiter and balloon which would circumnavigate the planet over the course of one week, and a lander probe which would operate for approximately one hour on the surface.^[5]

Overview

The mission concept calls for two satellites: the Venus Polar Orbiter (VPO), for remote sensing of the atmospheric, and the Venus Elliptical Orbiter (VEO), which deploys the entry probe from a highly elliptical orbit. The entry probe would contain a balloon-aerobot which floats in benign conditions at 55 km altitude in the middle cloud layer, and would drop up to 15 microprobes into the lower atmosphere.^[1]^[5]