Robotic exploration of the surface and atmosphere of Venus

Venus, the “greenhouse planet,” is a scientifically fascinating place. The US National Academies of Sciences listed a Venus surface in situ explorer as one of the highest priority planetary science missions. A mission concept for a robotic mission to study the surface and atmosphere of Venus has been designed. The mission includes both surface robots, designed with an operational lifetime of 50 days on the surface of Venus, and also solar-powered airplanes to probe the middle atmosphere. At 450∘C, and with 90 atmospheres of pressure of carbon-dioxide atmosphere, the surface of Venus is a hostile place for operation of a probe. The mission design trade-off looked at three options for surface operation: developing technology to operate at Venus surface temperatures, using an active refrigeration system to lower the temperature inside a “cool electronics enclosure,” or developing a hybrid system, where the computer system and the most temperature-sensitive electronics are on an aerial platform at lower temperature, and less sophisticated surface electronics operate at the ambient surface temperature. This paper presents the mission objectives, discusses the technology options for materials, power systems, electronics, and instruments, and presents a short summary of the mission.