Mars has been the bell of the planetary ball in the last few decades but that’s not to say other planets in our solar system, like Venus haven't had a fair share of attention over the years.  NASA last sent a spacecraft to orbit the planet in 1990. Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, sent a whole slew of mostly successful missions to Venus, and Japan has an orbiter there now.  The tricky part is sending a robotic mission to the surface. Most have only survived for a few hours. So why send a robot to a planet that will destroy it? As we learned in the last episode of Space Curious, Venus eats spacecraft for lunch. It used to be -- in the U.S.-- NASA was the only way to fund and send a spacecraft to another world but not anymore.  Commercial space companies are taking planetary science on, funding and planning their own missions in record time. In this episode we’ll find out how NASA makes the tough choices-- selecting which missions to send to other worlds and how Rocket Lab plans to be the first private company to go to Venus. Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck, NASA Discovery Program lead scientist Thomas Wagner and Johns Hopkins planetary scientist Sarah Horst join Space Curious Host Emilee Speck to breakdown the process of sending a spacecraft to another world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices