While much attention has been paid to Martian exploration in recent years, there remains a dedicated cadre of scientists focused on Earth's twin, Venus. And in a recent press release from Northrup Grumman, plans for a new vehicle were unveiled that just might provide a bird's eye view of this hot and hostile planet.
The Venus Atmospheric Maneuverable Platform (VAMP) is an inflatable, lighter-than-air vehicle that will be deployed by an orbiting spacecraft, where it will "float like a leaf into Venus' atmosphere, where it could operate for more than a year," according to the press release. It will sport a wingspan of about 150 feet, be able to carry up to 100 pounds of payload, and will utilize a combination of powered flight and passive floating to soar about 40 miles above the planet.
To kick-start the process, Northrop Grumman has formed a science advisory board, composed on prominent planetary scientists from Europe and America. They will determine the scientific goals of the mission, the measurement requirements of the vehicle, and identify appropriate instruments to be included in future VAMP missions.
"The board is a community-based, interdisciplinary science forum that the VAMP development team may interact with, ask questions of and request analyses to help resolve design and performance issues during these early stages of the mission's development," said Ronald Polidan, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems VAMP Project Scientist. "They will be incredibly helpful in designing the vehicle for maximum science data collection."
The board will also utilize existing data from Venus, some of which was collected by the Venus Express, which blasted off atop a Soyuz-Fregat rocket on November 8, 2005. The Venus Express was tasked with studying the chemistry between the planet's atmosphere and its surface, along with its solar winds, in hopes of better understanding the evolution of the planet's infernal atmosphere. The Express travelled the nearly 94 million miles from Earth, and arrived at Venus on April 11, 2006
Venus maintains one of the most hostile conditions imaginable, with surface pressures around 90 times that of Earth and a temperature of around 870 degrees Fahrenheit (465 C). VAMP will have to maneuver through an atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide, with clouds of sulfuric acid that blanket a planet that has been volcanically active for the last three million years.
VAMP would be the first of a new line of Lifting Entry/Atmospheric Flight (LEAF) aircraft, in development at Northrup Grumman. And the researchers have their sights set beyond Earth's twin. They envision similar expeditions to Mars and Saturn's moon, Titan, as well.
The scientists at Northrup Grumman believe that LEAF aircrafts will be suitable to explore any planetary body that houses an atmosphere, and that VAMP's exploration of Venus just might shed light on Earth's evolution and the origin of life.
