VERITAS: A mission to study the highest priority Decadal Survey questions for Venus

The Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography And Spectroscopy (VERITAS) Mission, a proposed NASA Discovery mission, seeks to produce high-resolution altimetry and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, thermal emissivity, and an improved gravity field. VERITAS addresses the highest priority Decadal survey questions: 1) Did Venus host ancient aqueous environments? 2) Can understanding the roles of physics, chemistry, geology, and dynamics in driving planetary atmospheres lead to a better understanding of climate change on Earth? 3) How have chemical and physical processes operated, interacted, and evolved? Using an interferometric mapping radar, a near infrared spectrometer, and radio science experiment, VERITAS will examine 1) the similarity of tessera plateau formation to continents on Earth, 2) the current forces driving tectonics and volcanism, and, perhaps most importantly, 3) inform our understanding of how stagnant lid planets evolve. Data from VIRTIS on Venus Express show that the highly deformed tessera plateaus, possible remnants of a prior regime on Venus, may be more felsic in composition than the surrounding plains, supporting the hypothesis they are similar to Earth's continents. However this interpretation is equivocal due to uncertainty in the available altimetry. VERITAS is designed to collect data with sufficient resolution to answer this question definitively, and also aid in the assessment of tesserae as a touchdown point for a future lander. Similarly, the enormous rift zones and mountain belts are manifestations of global scale tectonics within the last billion years on Venus, but present data are not adequate to determine the driving forces or whether they are presently active. VERITAS will provide such data through fine-resolution topographic maps and, if possible, measurements of any current-day crustal deformation. Finally, current data are highly suggestive of recent and active volcanism. VERITAS observations can tell us if current volcanism is limited to mantle plume heads or is more widespread. The geologic setting of present day volcanism or tectonism also holds lessons for predicting activity on Earth-sized planets elsewhere in the galaxy. Together these investigations allow us to assess just how similar or dissimilar the evolution of Venus and Earth has been.