Exploring Venus with a dumb rover and smart aircraft
5 May 2005
by Richard Conan-Davies
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New Scientist magazine reports on technical challenges of sending a rover to venus. Venus has some of the harshest high temperatures in the solar system and any rover would need to be protected from the damaging conditions. Geoffrey Landis of NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio suggested in the Journal Acta Astronautica that they could land a dumbed down version of a rover sending back information to a flying aircraft 50km above. Landis explained that "With no vulnerable on-board computer, we might then be able to duplicate the Spirit and Opportunity missions," Landis did note that "The down side would be the delay while the flying computer relays data to or from the dumb rover via a radio link."
Because Venus has such a thick atmosphere, about 90 times that of Earth's, the idea of having a flying probe going around Venus is not an impossibility, more atmosphere the easier it is to fly. Although much analysis of the weather would need to be done before attempting such an activity. This could be done by Venus Express, a duplicate of Mars Express probe, which is due to be sent in October to do a global infrared survey of the planet. One of the main things that planetary scientists are interested is finding out more about a mysterious wind that rushes around Venus some 60 times faster than the planet rotates. Up at about 100km the temperature is a mild 100°C instead of 450°C at the surface so a tough aircraft could be built to survive these conditions. |
 A proposed design of the flying aircraft for Venus by Geoff Laundis.
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Related Links
NewScientist.Com
Geoff Laundis: Glenn Research Center
Nature & Science News
ClearlyExplained.com