WASHINGTON — America's national debt is currently climbing past 28 trillion dollars, and the White House is asking for 6 trillion dollars more for its federal spending bill. <br /><br />This bill would give NASA a total of 24.8 billion dollars, making it the largest budget request for NASA science, ever. <br /><br />NASA says it will use 1 billion dollars to send two missions to check out Venus. Here are the details:<br /><br />The BBC reports that NASA has announced it is sending two new missions to Venus in order to examine the planet's atmosphere and geological features. <br /><br />The missions, which have each been awarded half a billion dollars in funding by the Biden administration, are due to launch between 2028 and 2030. <br /><br />The last probe to visit the planet was the Magellan orbiter in 1990. However, other vessels have made fly-bys since then. <br /><br />Venus is the second planet from the sun and the hottest planet in the solar system, with a surface temperature of 500 degrees Celsius — hot enough to melt lead. <br /><br />The Davinci+ mission will measure the planet's atmosphere to gain insight into how it formed and evolved.<br /><br />It will also aim to determine whether Venus ever had an ocean. <br /><br />The second mission, called Veritas, will map the planet's surface to understand its geologic history, and investigate how it developed so differently from Earth. <br /><br />It will use a form of radar to chart surface elevations and to find out whether volcanoes and earthquakes are still happening.<br /><br />NASA administrator Bill Nelson said the missions would offer the "chance to investigate a planet we haven't been to in more than 30 years".
