Europe will go it alone on Venus mission after NASA yanks radar instrument
Europe will go it alone on Venus mission after NASA yanks radar instrument
在NASA撤出雷达仪器后，欧洲将独立执行金星探测任务
The European Space Agency is moving “full steam ahead” with development of a robotic mission to Venus after NASA officials determined they were unlikely to fulfill a commitment to provide a US-built radar instrument for the spacecraft, the mission’s project scientist said. 欧洲航天局（ESA）的项目科学家表示，在NASA官员确定无法履行提供美制雷达仪器的承诺后，欧空局正“全速推进”一项金星机器人探测任务的开发。
The European orbiter, named Envision, will map the Venusian surface at 10 times higher resolution than the last radar mission sent to Venus by NASA in the 1990s. The planet is enshrouded in a blanket of thick clouds of sulfuric acid, rendering its mysterious surface unseen by optical cameras in orbit. Radar is the most effective way to penetrate the clouds of Venus to reveal the terrain below, and scientists will use Envision to look for signs of active volcanism. 这颗名为“Envision”的欧洲轨道飞行器，其测绘金星表面的分辨率将比NASA在20世纪90年代最后一次派往金星的雷达任务高出10倍。金星被厚厚的硫酸云层笼罩，导致轨道上的光学相机无法观测其神秘的表面。雷达是穿透金星云层以揭示下方地形的最有效手段，科学家们将利用Envision寻找活跃火山活动的迹象。
NASA and ESA signed a memorandum of understanding in 2024 outlining their partnership on Envision. NASA agreed to supply a US-made synthetic aperture radar instrument, Envision’s primary means of mapping the surface of Venus, along with providing tracking and communications support through NASA’s Deep Space Network. In exchange, ESA would include US researchers on Envision’s science team. Europe would build the Envision spacecraft and the rest of its science instruments and provide the launch on an Ariane 6 rocket. NASA和ESA于2024年签署了一份谅解备忘录，概述了双方在Envision项目上的合作关系。NASA同意提供一台美制合成孔径雷达，这是Envision测绘金星表面的主要手段，并承诺通过NASA的深空网络提供跟踪和通信支持。作为交换，ESA将把美国研究人员纳入Envision的科学团队。欧洲则负责建造Envision航天器及其余科学仪器，并提供阿丽亚娜6号（Ariane 6）火箭进行发射。
But NASA’s budget for science missions is under the gun from the Trump administration, which proposed slashing the agency’s science funding nearly in half in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. Congress rejected most of the cuts in 2026, when lawmakers passed a budget with $2.54 billion for NASA’s planetary science division, far above the White House’s request, but about $220 million shy of last year’s funding. That saved several key science missions from the chopping block, including one of NASA’s own Venus missions, called DAVINCI, designed to send an entry probe into the planet’s crushing atmosphere. 然而，NASA的科学任务预算正受到特朗普政府的压力，该政府提议在2026和2027财年将该机构的科学经费削减近一半。国会否决了2026年的大部分削减计划，议员们通过了一项为NASA行星科学部门提供25.4亿美元的预算，这远高于白宫的请求，但比去年的资金少了约2.2亿美元。这使得几个关键的科学任务免于被砍，其中包括NASA自己的金星任务之一——旨在向金星高压大气层发送进入探测器的DAVINCI任务。
But the shortfall is forcing NASA managers to make tough decisions. The primary targets for cuts in science are NASA’s funding for operating missions, especially those well beyond their original design lives, and support for partnerships on international missions. 但资金缺口正迫使NASA管理层做出艰难的决定。科学预算削减的主要目标是NASA对在役任务的资助（特别是那些已远超原始设计寿命的任务），以及对国际任务合作伙伴关系的支持。
Reneging on a pledge / 背弃承诺
Most prominent among the cuts in the latter category are NASA’s contributions to three European-led science missions. Two of the missions are big, new space-based observatories, LISA and New Athena. LISA will be the first space mission to measure gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime emanating from cataclysmic cosmic events like mergers of black holes. New Athena will be the largest X-ray telescope ever built, a successor to NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, still operational after launching in 1999. 在后一类削减中，最引人注目的是NASA对三个由欧洲主导的科学任务的贡献。其中两个任务是大型的新型空间天文台：LISA和New Athena。LISA将是第一个测量引力波的空间任务，引力波是黑洞合并等灾难性宇宙事件产生的时空涟漪。New Athena将是有史以来建造的最大的X射线望远镜，它是NASA钱德拉X射线天文台（1999年发射至今仍在运行）的继任者。
Before NASA’s contributions were in doubt, LISA and New Athena were on track for launches in the late 2030s. But the most pressing impact for ESA is how to fill the void left by NASA in the Envision mission, which was supposed to launch in 2031. NASA and ESA signed an agreement in early 2024 detailing each partner’s role on Envision, and contracts were awarded for construction of the Envision spacecraft and its instruments. NASA had spent more than $50 million on its contributions to the mission as of 2025, when the Trump administration first proposed canceling it. 在NASA的贡献出现变数之前，LISA和New Athena原定于2030年代末发射。但对ESA来说，最紧迫的影响是如何填补NASA在Envision任务中留下的空白，该任务原定于2031年发射。NASA和ESA在2024年初签署了一项协议，详细说明了双方在Envision项目中的角色，并授予了建造Envision航天器及其仪器的合同。截至2025年特朗普政府首次提议取消该项目时，NASA已为其贡献投入了超过5000万美元。
With NASA’s fulfillment of its part of the agreement in doubt, ESA officials issued contracts to begin technology development on a European radar payload for Envision. Industrial teams in the United Kingdom and Italy are now studying radar designs under contract with ESA, with the goal of delivering a radar for Envision with similar capabilities as the NASA-funded radar, which was to be built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. 由于NASA履行协议的能力存疑，ESA官员已发布合同，开始为Envision开发欧洲雷达载荷的技术。英国和意大利的工业团队目前正根据与ESA的合同研究雷达设计，目标是为Envision交付一台与NASA资助的雷达具有相似能力的雷达（原计划由加州喷气推进实验室建造）。
“We don’t know what the final design will be, but we have the same requirements, so we’re expecting that we can do exactly the same science,” said Anne Grete Straume-Lindner, ESA’s project scientist for Envision, in a presentation at the Europlanet Science Congress. “We’ll have the same modes, but in detail, of course, there can be differences.” “我们还不知道最终设计会是什么样，但我们有相同的要求，所以我们预计可以实现完全相同的科学目标，”ESA的Envision项目科学家Anne Grete Straume-Lindner在欧洲行星科学大会上表示。“我们将拥有相同的模式，但在细节上，当然可能会有差异。”
Carole Mundell, ESA’s director of science, told Ars earlier this year that the agency’s 23 member states committed “unprecedented” funding for ESA science at a meeting of government ministers last year. The member states agreed to increase ESA’s science budget by 3.5 percent per year through 2028, plus inflation. Still, ESA’s science budget is a fraction of that of NASA, averaging out to about 750 million euros (less than $900 million) each year. That’s enough to start work on a European radar for Envision, even as ESA still awaits a formal notification from NASA on the status of its contribution to the mission. ESA科学主任Carole Mundell今年早些时候告诉Ars，该机构的23个成员国在去年的一次政府部长会议上为ESA科学承诺了“前所未有”的资金。成员国同意在2028年前每年将ESA的科学预算增加3.5%，外加通货膨胀调整。尽管如此，ESA的科学预算仍仅为NASA的一小部分，平均每年约7.5亿欧元（不到9亿美元）。这足以启动Envision欧洲雷达的研发工作，尽管ESA仍在等待NASA关于其任务贡献状态的正式通知。
“NASA conversations with ESA regarding Envision are ongoing,” a NASA spokesperson said. But time is of the essence if Envision is to launch in the early 2030s. ESA officials have already delayed Envision’s launch by one year to 2032 to give teams in Europe more time to deliver the radar. “At the moment, we are finalizing our agreement with NASA, but it is looking like they are not able to provide the radar,” Straume-Lindner said in response to a question from Ars. “So that is why we are going full steam ahead with the European solution.” “NASA与ESA关于Envision的对话仍在进行中，”NASA发言人表示。但如果Envision要在2030年代初发射，时间至关重要。ESA官员已将Envision的发射推迟了一年至2032年，以便给欧洲团队更多时间交付雷达。“目前，我们正在敲定与NASA的协议，但看起来他们无法提供雷达，”Straume-Lindner在回答Ars提问时说。“这就是为什么我们正在全速推进欧洲方案。”
Cancellations and delays / 取消与延期
A complementary mission to Envision, NASA’s VERITAS radar orbiter, was supposed to launch in the late 2020s, but funding woes at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory forced a delay until no earlier than 2031. Its development remains in limbo. The DAVINCI mission, led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, continues working toward a launch in the early 2030s. The work of the Venus Science Coordination group, established jointly by NASA and ESA, has also been suspended due to “changes to the budgetary situation in the US,” Straume-Lindner said. Meanwhile, ESA is also assessing how it can fill the roles of NASA on LISA and… 作为Envision的补充任务，NASA的VERITAS雷达轨道飞行器原定于2020年代末发射，但NASA和喷气推进实验室的资金困境迫使其推迟到2031年之后。其开发仍处于停滞状态。由NASA戈达德太空飞行中心领导的DAVINCI任务仍在继续努力，争取在2030年代初发射。Straume-Lindner表示，由NASA和ESA共同建立的金星科学协调小组的工作也因“美国预算状况的变化”而暂停。与此同时，ESA也在评估如何填补NASA在LISA和……上的角色。