Atmospheric Flight on Venus: A Conceptual Design

Venus surface power and cooling systems

“…Microwave beamed power Station in atmosphere produces solar power; power is transmitted to surface by microwaves [18] Not demonstrated in Venus environment Many technical questions need to be answered Chosen as a backup approach-not analyzed in detail Solar power Solar power is difficult due to low light levels at surface [9] High temperature at surface makes photovoltaic conversion inefficient Approach would require new technologies to be developed [16] Chemical (battery or fuel cell) storage Requires high-temperature technology Practical approach for short missions or low powers selected due to the difficulty of keeping an airship stationary over one location. The station would transform the power into a microwave beam, which would be sent the short distance to the surface.…”

“…The mission includes both surface robots, designed with an operational lifetime of 50 days on the surface of Venus, and also solarpowered airplanes to probe the middle atmosphere. The airplane design is discussed elsewhere [8][9][10][11]. Fig.…”

Fast Mars Free-Returns via Venus Gravity Assist

“…Nevertheless, the case for Venus (a play on the book title The Case for Mars by Zubrin and Wagner 27 ) has been proposed (or at least addressed) by some. [28][29][30][31][32] For Inspiration Mars, it is clear from this study that (apart from the nominal Inspiration Mars trajectory in early 2018) the only viable IM-type mission candidates that exist in the near term are the EVME trajectories in 2021. However, as the 2018 nominal launch date nears, it may turn out that the 2021 EVME opportunity becomes the new "nominal" case, and if so, there would be no near-term backup for such a mission.…”

Low-Altitude Exploration of the Venus Atmosphere by Balloon

“…The feasibility of atmospheric exploration by aircraft has been discussed in earlier papers, 5,6 and is not discussed in detail here. In this paper, I will consider the use of balloons in the Venus atmosphere.…”

“…It is feasible to design an aircraft that can fly for extended durations at the cloud altitude and above. 5,6 One approach to lower altitude exploration would be brief excursions by such a high-altitude aircraft diving down to lower depths. This would only allow excursions to altitudes which would not thermally stress the aircraft systems, but plausibly could allow excursions to temperatures of 200 °C, and potentially even slightly lower.…”