This button-sized instrument will fly aboard NASA's DAVINCI mission to Venus

A small, button-sized instrument will fly aboard NASA's upcoming DAVINCI mission to Venus, which will measure the oxygen fugacity - the partial pressure of the oxygen – in the deep atmosphere beneath Venus’ clouds, including the near-surface environment.

The oxygen sensor, called Venus Oxygen Fugacity (VfOx), will be designed, fabricated, tested, operated, and analyzed by undergraduate and graduate students as the mission’s Student Collaboration Experiment. It will be mounted on the outside of the mission’s probe, called the Descent Sphere.

VfOx will measure the amount of oxygen present near the surface of Venus as a “fingerprint” of the rock-atmosphere reactions that are going on today. Scientists will analyze these VfOx measurements to identify what minerals are most stable at the surface of Venus in the highlands and link the formation of rocks to their recent modification histories, NASA said.

Students will build this instrument, analyze the data it returns from the Earth's twin planet, and participate in science activities with the mission's science team.

When our DAVINCI mission sends a probe through the skies of Venus early next decade, it will carry a number of scientific instruments—including an oxygen sensor designed, built, and operated entirely by students: https://t.co/IDo65LON3m pic.twitter.com/Qgnn0DyxX2

— NASA (@NASA) June 3, 2022

NASA's DAVINCI mission, short for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging, will launch in 2029 to measure critical aspects of Venus’ massive atmosphere-climate system for the first time. It is the first mission to study Venus using both spacecraft flybys and a descent probe.

According to the agency, the spacecraft will track the motions of the clouds and map surface composition by measuring heat emission from the planet's surface that escapes to space through the massive atmosphere. The probe, on the other hand, will descend through the atmosphere, sampling its chemistry as well as the temperature, pressure, and winds.