Born out of the winds of imagination, a new innovative project to deliver a swarm of small spacecraft to investigate the dense atmosphere of Venus has just received an economic slowdown in NASA funding of $ 500,000.
According to a NASA press release, scientists at the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) designed these tiny rise sensors that they have aptly named Lofted Environmental and Atmospheric Venus Sensors (LEAVES), which will scatter toward Venus as cosmic stars. , to then transmit the data to Earth.
While the idea may seem a bit far-fetched, the space agency believes that this concept could benefit from the low-cost, expendable nature of the mission when considering the hostile components of the upper and middle Venusian atmosphere and the absurdly high surface of the neighboring world. air pressure.
Researchers who have presented LEAVES as a viable project explained that high-tech machines would fall from an orbital spacecraft and drift gently into dangerous clouds of sulfuric acid.
During its descent, each miniature sensor platform would detect the chemicals and compounds found and relay this information to the orbiting probe. As a result of the dangerous fall of nine hours, this flight will end in its disappearance, caused by the fall too low for significant data to be obtained or, finally, by its disintegration through the toxic levels of carbonyl sulfide, sulfide of hydrogen and sulfur dioxide from the planet.
As described in the press release, “With a mass per unit of only 130 g, this concept is ideal as a secondary payload or upgrade for a mission oriented to the orbit of Venus and is capable of obtaining key data on the dynamic state and composition of The Venus Atmosphere which is difficult to access with remote techniques.This phase II effort will mature Phase I discoveries by participating in high fidelity aerothermal simulations of deployment, capture and orbital flights, and will allow practical demonstrations of better approaches to communications, monitoring and structural configurations. “
Funds from NASA will help Jeffrey Balcerski and his Cleveland-based OAI team refine their “swarm” proposal and allow for further development of the technology in anticipation of being chosen for a real mission to Venus in the future. close to the search for microbial life amidst its poisonous clouds.
All of this is part of NASA’s $ 5 million support for early-stage unorthodox presentations to help foster new approaches to space exploration and is one of seven studies selected by NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program.
“Creativity is key to future space exploration and fostering revolutionary ideas today that may sound extravagant will prepare us for new missions and new approaches to exploration in the coming decades,” said Jim Reuter, associate director of Management of NASA’s Space Technology Mission (STMD).