TY - GEN
T1 - Exploring the Clouds of Venus
T2 - 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference, AERO 2022
AU - Cutts, James
AU - Baines, Kevin
AU - Dorsky, Leonard
AU - Frazier, William
AU - Izraelevitz, Jacob
AU - Krishnamoorthy, Siddharth
AU - Pauken, Michael
AU - Wallace, Mark S.
AU - Byrne, Paul
AU - Seager, Sara
AU - Wilson, Colin
AU - O'Rourke, Joseph
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 IEEE.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Venus is essential to our understanding of the evolution and habitability of Earth-size planets throughout the galaxy. The selection of the VERITAS, EnVision, and DAVINCI missions by NASA and ESA in June 2021 is an important step in advancing the science. However, addressing many of the most challenging questions will require in situ platforms that can operate in the Venus environment for extended periods in order to capture the full complexity of our sister planet. Aerobots are aerial vehicles that exploit buoyancy to achieve long-duration operation in the Venus cloud layer where environmental conditions are comparatively benign. Buoyancy control, explained in more detail in a companion paper at this conference, allows aerobots to change altitude with little energy expenditure enabling new scientific measurement opportunities. These include atmospheric chemistry, dynamics, geophysical measurements of the crust and interior and geological investigations enabled by high resolution surface imaging. One aspect to our approach to defining missions that fit within the resource constraints of competitive missions is keeping the scale small. Today's science-driven appetite for sophisticated measurements and large volumes of data is driving size upwards but advances in technology can enable aerobots that can be delivered to Venus at manageable costs. The other aspect is supporting the aerobot at Venus with orbiters providing data relay, localization and synergistic science. The recently selected orbiters, equipped with low-cost proximity relay systems routinely used at Mars may obviate the need for dedicated orbiters thereby enabling Discovery mission candidates. Four aerobot mission concepts have been defined which fit comfortably within the current New Frontiers (NF) cost cap (900M in FY22). One of these concepts would also be a candidate for a Discovery mission if that cost cap (500M in FY19) were raised. Raising the NF cost cap would enable more capable aerobot missions combining both altitude control with synergistic orbital observations. Investigations of surface geology at high resolution with subcloud NIR nightside imaging and dropsondes on the dayside of Venus could also benefit from collaborations with foreign contributions.
AB - Venus is essential to our understanding of the evolution and habitability of Earth-size planets throughout the galaxy. The selection of the VERITAS, EnVision, and DAVINCI missions by NASA and ESA in June 2021 is an important step in advancing the science. However, addressing many of the most challenging questions will require in situ platforms that can operate in the Venus environment for extended periods in order to capture the full complexity of our sister planet. Aerobots are aerial vehicles that exploit buoyancy to achieve long-duration operation in the Venus cloud layer where environmental conditions are comparatively benign. Buoyancy control, explained in more detail in a companion paper at this conference, allows aerobots to change altitude with little energy expenditure enabling new scientific measurement opportunities. These include atmospheric chemistry, dynamics, geophysical measurements of the crust and interior and geological investigations enabled by high resolution surface imaging. One aspect to our approach to defining missions that fit within the resource constraints of competitive missions is keeping the scale small. Today's science-driven appetite for sophisticated measurements and large volumes of data is driving size upwards but advances in technology can enable aerobots that can be delivered to Venus at manageable costs. The other aspect is supporting the aerobot at Venus with orbiters providing data relay, localization and synergistic science. The recently selected orbiters, equipped with low-cost proximity relay systems routinely used at Mars may obviate the need for dedicated orbiters thereby enabling Discovery mission candidates. Four aerobot mission concepts have been defined which fit comfortably within the current New Frontiers (NF) cost cap (900M in FY22). One of these concepts would also be a candidate for a Discovery mission if that cost cap (500M in FY19) were raised. Raising the NF cost cap would enable more capable aerobot missions combining both altitude control with synergistic orbital observations. Investigations of surface geology at high resolution with subcloud NIR nightside imaging and dropsondes on the dayside of Venus could also benefit from collaborations with foreign contributions.
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U2 - 10.1109/AERO53065.2022.9843740
DO - 10.1109/AERO53065.2022.9843740
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85130365242
T3 - IEEE Aerospace Conference Proceedings
BT - 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference, AERO 2022
PB - IEEE Computer Society
Y2 - 5 March 2022 through 12 March 2022
ER -