Source: Space.com

After more than 20 years of neglect, the planet Venus is once more drawing NASA's eye for ambitious new missions.

A Venusian dream expedition for some scientists would include nothing short of an exploration flotilla – a ground robot, planetary airplane and orbiting manned spacecraft. The potential mission to Venus could investigate its surface from up-close for the first time in several decades, a NASA scientist said. [Photos: The surface of Venus.]

"Recently there has been a renaissance in looking at proposals to study Venus," researcher Geoffrey A. Landis at NASA's John Glenn Research Center in Ohio told SPACE.com. "One very good reason is that there has been a renewed interest in study of the atmospheres and climates of planets, and – being the planet that is most like the Earth in size – learning more about the atmosphere of Venus may help us learn more about the atmosphere (and climate) of the Earth."

NASA is expected to hold its first meeting to discuss potential new Venus missions in early August, Landis said.

There hasn't been a dedicated U.S. mission sent to Venus since the Magellan probe in 1989, but that doesn't mean the planet has not seen its share of visitors.

The European Space Agency currently has an orbiter called Venus Express circling Venus, and Japan launched its spacecraft Akatsuki (Japanese for "Dawn") toward the planet in May. Several NASA probes have flown by Venus in the last 20 years, but only as a pit stop on the way to other planets in the solar system.

Venus also saw visiting probe from the United States and Russia the 1960s, '70s and '80s, even some landings on the Venusian surface. But those probes were extremely short-lived because of the crushing pressure and extreme heat of Venus' atmosphere.