(Press-News.org) Daejeon, South Korea, and Vilnius, Lithuania, 2 June 2025 – Kongsberg NanoAvionics (NanoAvionics), a leading small satellite bus manufacturer and mission integrator, has been selected by the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea to build the first CubeSat for the world’s first long-term planetary science campaign which will use a series of CubeSats to monitor Venus from low Earth orbit.
This long-term Venus observation initiative, the CLOVE project (Chasing the Long-term Variability of Our Nearest Neighbor Planet Venus) has been a research project within the IBS Planetary Atmospheres Group since 2022. Its first satellite, CLOVESat-1, an 8U CubeSat bus to be designed and manufactured by NanoAvionics, is scheduled to launch in 2026. IBS plans to launch a new satellite every three years over a 15-year period to span at least one full solar activity cycle (11 years).
Under the contract, NanoAvionics will also integrate the scientific payload provided by IBS, conduct environmental testing, arrange launch services, and manage launch and early orbit operations (LEOP).
CLOVESat-1 will investigate Venus’s atmospheric temporal variabilities of cloud top altitude, vertical structure of clouds, gaseous sulfur dioxide abundance, and mysterious unknown absorber(s).
LEE Yeon Joo, Chief Investigator of the Planetary Atmospheres Group at IBS, said: “The payload for this mission was developed through a domestic partnership and reflects South Korea’s growing capabilities in planetary science instrumentation. With the support of NanoAvionics and their flight-proven CubeSat platform, we will gather continuous space-based data that has been inaccessible through previous missions. The findings will help us better understand the evolving nature of the Venusian atmosphere, its climate, and how it compares to Earth’s. We welcome collaboration for space exploration and data analysis, as we plan to make the data public.”
The first CubeSat built by NanoAvionics will carry instruments covering ultraviolet to near-infrared at four selected wavelengths and a total of eight channels including polarization filters, which will work in tandem with ground-based observatories.
Atle WØLLO, CEO of Kongsberg NanoAvionics, said: “This mission reflects a growing trend in space science, where small satellites play an increasingly important role in complementing larger-scale missions. We’ve already seen this in multimessenger X-ray astronomy, where NanoAvionics-built smallsats provide valuable data alongside flagship observatories, filling critical observational gaps and providing more data points and agility.
“With more than 20 research-focused missions using our satellite buses to conduct everything from material research to Earth science and astrophysics, CLOVESat-1 will extend our platform’s heritage into planetary research.”
The satellite’s high temporal resolution data will help researchers track elusive atmospheric changes and, over 15 years, provide valuable insight into Venus’s climate evolution. These clues may help scientists better understand volcanic activity, solar-atmosphere interactions, and planetary climate shifts—such as how a planet once resembling Earth became hostile to life.
Consistent and long-term monitoring from follow-up CLOVESats is expected to overlap the operative time with the upcoming NASA and ESA Venus missions, DAVINCI, VERITAS, and EnVision. The simultaneous observations by CLOVESats can provide a cross-comparison reference of the planet's time variable reflectance of the global view, while the orbiters acquire high spatial resolution data.
END
New Venus observation mission - World's first long-term planetary cubesat study by Korea’s Institute for Basic Science and NanoAvionics
Korea’s Institute for Basic Science pioneers 15-year multi-satellite programme to monitor Venus from low Earth orbit
2025-06-02
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Brain training game offers new hope for drug-free pain management
2025-06-02
A trial of an interactive game that trains people to alter their brain waves has shown promise as a treatment for nerve pain – offering hope for a new generation of drug-free treatments.
The PainWaive technology, developed by UNSW Sydney researchers, teaches users how to regulate abnormal brain activity linked to chronic nerve pain, offering a potential in-home, non-invasive alternative to opioids.
A recent trial of the technology, led by Professor Sylvia Gustin and Dr Negin Hesam-Shariati from UNSW Sydney’s NeuroRecovery Research Hub, has delivered promising results, published in the Journal of Pain.
The study compared ...
Attachment theory: A new lens for understanding human-AI relationships
2025-06-02
Artificial intelligence (AI) is ubiquitous in this era. As a result, human-AI interactions are becoming more frequent and complex, and this trend is expected to accelerate soon. Therefore, scientists have made remarkable efforts to better understand human-AI relationships in terms of trust and companionship. However, these man-machine interactions can possibly also be understood in terms of attachment-related functions and experiences, which have traditionally been used to explain human interpersonal bonds.
In an innovative work, which incorporates two pilot studies and one formal study, a group of researchers from Waseda University, Japan, including Research ...
Self-powered artificial synapse mimics human color vision
2025-06-02
As artificial intelligence and smart devices continue to evolve, machine vision is taking an increasingly pivotal role as a key enabler of modern technologies. Unfortunately, despite much progress, machine vision systems still face a major problem: processing the enormous amounts of visual data generated every second requires substantial power, storage, and computational resources. This limitation makes it difficult to deploy visual recognition capabilities in edge devices—such as smartphones, drones, or autonomous vehicles.
Interestingly, the human visual system ...
Circadian preference is associated with impulsivity in adolescents
2025-06-02
DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting found that adolescents who prefer to sleep and wake up later (“night owls”) reported greater impulsivity than those who prefer to sleep and wake up earlier (“morning larks”).
Results show that adolescents with self-reported evening preference, or “night owl” tendencies, reported greater negative urgency and lack of perseverance, which are two aspects of impulsivity. This means that they were more likely to act impulsively when experiencing negative emotions and quit difficult tasks. In contrast, ...
Space pebbles and rocks play pivotal role in giant planet’s formation
2025-06-02
Scientists analysing an ultra-hot giant planet believe it was formed by absorbing lightweight gases like methane evaporating from tiny space pebbles, whilst being bombarded with large rocky objects.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to explore the atmosphere of WASP-121b, researchers successfully detected water (H₂O), carbon monoxide (CO), and silicon monoxide (SiO) in the side facing its star or ‘dayside’. They also found methane (CH₄) in the planet’s ‘nightside’ atmosphere.
Publishing ...
Still on the right track? Researchers at the University of Graz enable reliable monitoring of the Paris climate goals
2025-06-02
In the Paris Agreement of 2015, the international community of countries agreed to limit global warming to well below 2 °C, and preferably to 1.5 °C, compared to pre-industrial levels. This refers to the increase in global surface air temperature, inspected at any time of interest as an average over 20 years. The latest IPCC report expected the 1.5 °C threshold to be reached between 2030 and 2035. Climate researcher Gottfried Kirchengast from the Wegener Center and Institute of Physics at the University of Graz now has to revise this estimate: “Our ...
Study finds coastal flooding more frequent than previously thought
2025-06-02
Flooding in coastal communities is happening far more often than previously thought, according to a new study from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The study also found major flaws with the widely used approach of using marine water level data to capture instances of flooding.
“Government agencies and researchers use data from tide gauges to measure water levels in coastal areas, then use that data to estimate flood frequency in the region,” says Miyuki Hino, corresponding author of a paper on the study and assistant professor of city and regional planning at UNC. “Those estimates ...
Why forests aren’t coming back after gold mining in the Amazon
2025-06-02
Forests in the Peruvian Amazon aren’t growing back after gold mining — not just because the soil is damaged from toxic metals, but because the land has been depleted of its water. A common mining method known as suction mining reshapes the terrain in ways that drain moisture and trap heat, creating harsh conditions where even replanted seedlings can’t survive.
The findings, published in Communications Earth & Environment, revealed why reforestation efforts in the region have struggled. One of the study’s co-authors is Josh West, professor of Earth sciences and environmental studies at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
“We’ve ...
Webb reveals the origin of the ultra-hot exoplanet WASP-121b
2025-06-02
Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have provided new clues about how the exoplanet WASP-121b has formed and where it might have originated in the disc of gas and dust around its star. These insights stem from the detection of multiple key molecules: water vapour, carbon monoxide, silicon monoxide, and methane. With these detections, a team led by astronomers Thomas Evans-Soma and Cyril Gapp was able to compile an inventory of the carbon, oxygen, and silicon in the atmosphere of WASP-121b. The detection of methane in particular also suggests strong vertical winds on the cooler nightside, a process often ignored in current ...
New therapy to overcome treatment-resistant skin cancers
2025-06-02
A study has revealed why some patients don’t respond to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy for solid cancer tumours and identifies a new combination treatment.
Publishing in Nature Immunology, the international group of experts led by scientists at Newcastle University, UK has identified the biological mechanisms leading to a revolution in our understanding of ICB resistance.
They identify a new combination strategy for treating ICB resistant metastatic skin cancers and suggest that this can also be of benefit in the immunotherapy treatment of other solid cancers.
Dr Shoba Amarnath, Reader in Immune Regulation at Newcastle University led the research. ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Sylvester Cancer Tip Sheet - June 2025
UC Davis and Proteus Space to launch first-ever dynamic digital twin into space
Olympians' hearts in focus: groundbreaking study reveals elite rowers' surprising AFib risk
Common medicine for autoimmune diseases works on giant cell arteritis
Your neighborhood may be tied to risk of inflammation, dementia biomarkers
AAN issues position statement on possible therapies for neurological conditions
Liver organoid breakthrough: Generating organ-specific blood vessels
LRA awards 2025 Lupus Insight Prize to Dr. Deepak Rao for uncovering key drivers of immune imbalance in lupus
Terasaki Institute’s Dr. Yangzhi Zhu recognized as 2024 Biosensors Young Investigator Award Recipient
NAU researchers launch open-source robotic exoskeleton to help people walk
Early farmers in the Andes were doing just fine, challenging popular theory
Seeing men as the “default” may be tied to attitudes to politicians, Black people
Risk of crime rises when darkness falls
Data from Poland, Indonesia and Nepal indicate that affectionate behavior is associated with higher relationship satisfaction - though cultural differences impact how affection is displayed and percei
"Boomerang" made from mammoth tusk is likely one of the oldest known in Europe at around 40,000 years old, per analysis of this artifact from a Polish Upper Paleolithic cave
"Shrinking" cod: how humans have altered the genetic make-up of fish
Nitrate in drinking water linked to preterm birth rates
Ancient canoe replica tests Paleolithic migration theory
Eight-month-old babies can adapt their learning style to change
Baby talk – a human superpower?
Molecular-level discovery about heart mechanisms could lead to new heart disease treatments
Study links air pollutant to year-round respiratory health in Jackson
Computational trick enables better understanding of exotic state of matter
Professional responsibility for COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy
Landmark study uncovers role of tumor microenvironment in nasopharyngeal carcinoma progression which supports personalized treatment
Control of spin qubits at near absolute zero a game changer for quantum computers
Immune cells promoting tumor growth? How dying cancer cells turn their enemies into allies
How diverse brain cells reach a decision together
Pervasive surveillance of people is being used to access, monetize, coerce, and control
New global index aims to help people and nature thrive together
[Press-News.org] New Venus observation mission - World's first long-term planetary cubesat study by Korea’s Institute for Basic Science and NanoAvionicsKorea’s Institute for Basic Science pioneers 15-year multi-satellite programme to monitor Venus from low Earth orbit