7 ms·

Does anyone have plans to land on Venus? Is that way more difficult or something?

baggy_trough 5y ago
Yes because the lander will melt quickly.
ardit33 5y ago
The USSR did back in the day. It is much more harder, not to necessary land, but for your lander to survive more than a couple of hours. It is hot like an oven, with 400F temperatures, and multiple ATM pressures. It is much a more challenging environment.
smitty1110 5y ago
Not that I know of, Venus is kinda crazy. 90 ATM pressure, -1 pH acid rain, about 700 K temperatures at night, it's pretty absurd. Unless you want to make a probe out of solid Tungsten, you're probably out of luck. And good luck getting that out of low earth orbit, that would be stupidly heavy.
- chmod600 5y ago
  Would it help to have a burrowing probe? What are the subterranean conditions like?
  - bserge 5y ago
    I believe an airship would have higher chances of survival. If the surface has been that hot for thousands/millions of years, why would the underground be different? Unless you go really deep (hundreds of KM?), which is impossible.
    - m4rtink 5y ago
      IIRC some designs have an airship with probe on a long cable. The airship stays in the relatively cool upper layers of the atmosphere and periodically lowers the probe to study the surface for a short while. That way you can cool the probe down every time you reel it in instead of making it withstand the hellish temperatures for extended amounts of time.
- yosito 5y ago
  What if you designed a probe like a medicine capsule, with an outer shell that's designed to melt, but a smaller rover inside that can survive the heat/acid/pressure?
  - TaylorAlexander 5y ago
    Designing the rover that can survive the environment is the difficult part.
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    If the shell melts, then how does it help the rover
- siliconunit 5y ago
  They are going for a fully mechanical automaton probe apparently, no electronics, very interesting approach. https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/space-robots/jpl-design-for-a-clockwork-rover-to-explore-venus https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/space-robots/jp...
FredFS456 5y ago
NASA has been soliciting lander designs[1], as well as coming up with their own[2]. [1] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-venus-rover-challenge-winners-announced https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-venus-rover-challenge... [2] https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20190034042 https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20190034042
jbay808 5y ago
See the Venera missions: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera
xvilka 5y ago
Apart from Venus which is quite interesting, indeed, but very challenging goal, I hope there will be better exploration of Mercury, since it's rich in iron and closest to the Sun. It is a perfect fit for systematic monitoring of Sun's activity. Moreover, such proximity would make the energy density a big advantage in terms of the mission lifetime.
- mike_d 5y ago
  BepiColombo is on the way! We will start getting data back in 2026.
  - Doopercuber 5y ago
    There's a Mercury Flyby in October of this year! https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/bepicolombo/in-depth/ https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/bepicolombo/in-depth/
markdown 5y ago
planetary.org/articles/every-picture-from-venus-surface-ever
nabla9 5y ago
Russians landed 10 probes successfully and took pictures and did the science. Venera 13 lander survived for 127 minutes. You can shield the probes from sulfuric acid and pressure, but it's hard to keep electronics cool for longer than few hours. Mean surface temperature is 464 °C. (867 °F). Doing science experiments is even harder.
- m4rtink 5y ago
  You could use active cooling but the energy requirements would be immense, as you would need to make the heat sink even hotter than the 464+ C atmosphere. You would basically have to use a crazy high temperature reactor like those envisioned for project Pluto, but setup to somehow produce useful work instead of propulsion, to get the necessary power needed to reach sane cold side temperatures on your heat pump.

Yes because the lander will melt quickly.

The USSR did back in the day. It is much more harder, not to necessary land, but for your lander to survive more than a couple of hours. It is hot like an oven, with 400F temperatures, and multiple ATM pressures. It is much a more challenging environment.

smitty1110 5y ago

Not that I know of, Venus is kinda crazy. 90 ATM pressure, -1 pH acid rain, about 700 K temperatures at night, it's pretty absurd. Unless you want to make a probe out of solid Tungsten, you're probably out of luck. And good luck getting that out of low earth orbit, that would be stupidly heavy.

chmod600 5y ago
Would it help to have a burrowing probe? What are the subterranean conditions like?
- bserge 5y ago
  I believe an airship would have higher chances of survival. If the surface has been that hot for thousands/millions of years, why would the underground be different? Unless you go really deep (hundreds of KM?), which is impossible.
  - m4rtink 5y ago
    IIRC some designs have an airship with probe on a long cable. The airship stays in the relatively cool upper layers of the atmosphere and periodically lowers the probe to study the surface for a short while. That way you can cool the probe down every time you reel it in instead of making it withstand the hellish temperatures for extended amounts of time.
yosito 5y ago
What if you designed a probe like a medicine capsule, with an outer shell that's designed to melt, but a smaller rover inside that can survive the heat/acid/pressure?
- TaylorAlexander 5y ago
  Designing the rover that can survive the environment is the difficult part.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  If the shell melts, then how does it help the rover
siliconunit 5y ago
They are going for a fully mechanical automaton probe apparently, no electronics, very interesting approach. https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/space-robots/jpl-design-for-a-clockwork-rover-to-explore-venus https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/space-robots/jp...

FredFS456 5y ago

NASA has been soliciting lander designs[1], as well as coming up with their own[2]. [1] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-venus-rover-challenge-winners-announced https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-venus-rover-challenge... [2] https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20190034042 https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20190034042

jbay808 5y ago

See the Venera missions: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera

xvilka 5y ago

Apart from Venus which is quite interesting, indeed, but very challenging goal, I hope there will be better exploration of Mercury, since it's rich in iron and closest to the Sun. It is a perfect fit for systematic monitoring of Sun's activity. Moreover, such proximity would make the energy density a big advantage in terms of the mission lifetime.

mike_d 5y ago
BepiColombo is on the way! We will start getting data back in 2026.
- Doopercuber 5y ago
  There's a Mercury Flyby in October of this year! https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/bepicolombo/in-depth/ https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/bepicolombo/in-depth/

markdown 5y ago

planetary.org/articles/every-picture-from-venus-surface-ever

nabla9 5y ago

Russians landed 10 probes successfully and took pictures and did the science. Venera 13 lander survived for 127 minutes. You can shield the probes from sulfuric acid and pressure, but it's hard to keep electronics cool for longer than few hours. Mean surface temperature is 464 °C. (867 °F). Doing science experiments is even harder.

m4rtink 5y ago
You could use active cooling but the energy requirements would be immense, as you would need to make the heat sink even hotter than the 464+ C atmosphere. You would basically have to use a crazy high temperature reactor like those envisioned for project Pluto, but setup to somehow produce useful work instead of propulsion, to get the necessary power needed to reach sane cold side temperatures on your heat pump.