Russia plans to launch the Venera-D mission in 2029, building on the experience of the Soviet Venus exploration programs that go back as early as the 1960s.
"We have submitted pre-project plans. We are preparing to move on to the next stage at the end of this year or early next year and start working on a preliminary design," Anatoly Petrukovich told a press conference.
The Space Research Institute has outlined the mission's goals and will now identify the equipment needed to meet them, Petrukovich explained.
The mission will explore "planetary life" on Venus, the closest planet to the Earth with a similar size and history. The orbital station will be fitted with chemical sensors that will look for traces of gases associated with recent volcanic and tectonic activity.
The goal is to understand how greenhouse gases heat up the Venusian atmosphere to a hellish 467 degrees Celsius (872 F) and what makes its upper layers rotate 60 times faster than the planet's surface.