Venus Express was intended to use the know-how and the instrumentations already tested for Mars Express and Rosetta for a mission to Venus. The primary scientific goal is the study of the planet’s atmosphere.
IAPS was deeply involved in the building of the image spectrometer VIRTIS VEX for the spectral range and of the PFS (similar to the one onboard Mars Express). VIRTIS is providing unique results about the South Pole, the clouds and the mineralogical composition of the surface. PFS due to pointing problems, is temporarily not working. Moreover, IAPS also contributed to the technological realization of VEX/ASPERA-4