While rovers are the machinery of choice for exploring other worlds like Mars, they aren’t viable options for Venus, our neighboring planet. Well, an US aerospace company has a solution and it comes in the form of a plane which will fly through the atmosphere to collect data.
The project will have company Northrop Grumman create an inflatable propeller plane which will cruise the skies of Venus. The vehicle is being called the Venus Atmospheric Maneuverable Platform or VAMP in short and its main purpose will be to sample the acidic atmosphere of the planet’s sulfurous skies.
A report from the Economic Times which cites PTI as its source states that the VAMP will need to have a wingspan of 55 meters and also manage to achieve a top speed of 220km. As you know, Venus is closer to the sun and it also has a very high ground temperature of 460 degrees Celsius, not to mention surface pressure 100 times greater than that of the Earth.
Also read: NASA Curiosity Rover research claims Mars may have liquid water
Rovers aren’t the ideal choice just yet and it’ll take a breakthrough in technology to create machinery which can survive years on Venus’ surface. Till then, the VAMP looks very feasible and capable of surviving the harsh conditions mainly since it will be flying at over 50km above the surface where the atmosphere is a lot more forgiving.
It’s estimated that the temperature at this altitude is about 15 degrees Celsius and the pressure is around the same as Earth’s as well. The plane would be delivered to Venus via spacecraft and be detached when in orbit. Promising as the project looks, it still need to convince NASA to grant $1 billion in funding.
Just don’t expect to see the VAMP launch happen anytime soon as the Northrop Grumman aerospace company is planning to put the project in motion by 2021.