Date with Earth's twin

A mission to Venus is both challenging and rewarding

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) recently called upon the academic community to design and submit proposals for scientific experiments for its planned Venus orbital mission. The mission, which will probably be called “Shukrayaan”, is an ambitious but logical follow-up to the moon missions, Chandrayaan I and II and the Mars Mission, Mangalyaan. Venus will ensure that Isro develops new capabilities. It could be a huge boost to the Indian astronomy and planetary science community. The mission could derive useful new data and key insights into the hot button issue of climate change. 

But a Venus probe presents very different