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India-Sweden space cooperation has reached a new level as Swedes are giving ISRO advanced instruments for ISRO's prestigious Venus Orbiter Mission (VOM), also called Shukrayaan, which is scheduled for March 2028.

The Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) will provide the Venusian Neutrals Analyzer (VNA) as a payload on the Venus Ionospheric and Solar Wind Particle Analyzer (VISWAS). This receiver will investigate the interaction of solar wind with Venus's upper atmosphere and upper exosphere and deliver valuable information on the planet's processes.

ISRO's Venus Orbiter Mission is planned to orbit the planet and explore the surface to a depth of 10 km, the thick atmosphere, and the ionosphere with 19 instruments on board. The mission will test technology, such as aerobraking, in the tough conditions of Venus. Launch is scheduled with LVM3, and the spacecraft will arrive at Venus at the end of the 112 days.

The cooperation with Sweden has a decades-long history and has included contributions to Chandrayaan-1. As part of this partnership, interest in Venusian exploration is gaining traction worldwide, and Russia and Germany are India's partners in planetary science.

The mission will provide the community with a quantum leap in knowing the reasons for the difference in how Venus lived up to the early conditions of Earth and Mars and in what ways it didn't. That way, they'll gain insight into how worlds that could become habitable would evolve or not," experts say. The launch of 2028 is an interesting milestone in Indo-Swedish scientific diplomacy.