Future Venus Missions |
Future Venus Missions |
Jul 1 2005, 01:30 AM
Post
#101
|
|
Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10193 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
Oh well, might as well start that new topic since it's already well advanced in the Juno area...
My perspective on landers is as follows. All the landers we've had so far were dropped blind onto an essentially unknown surface. Any future landers can be targeted for specific terrains. It really is not true that we have had representative landings. Even a descent image or two, a panoramic photo plus a bit of surface composition, from a simple Venera-class lander just updated a bit, would be useful if we could put several down at well chosen targets. My choices would be: Examples of the main plains units (smooth, fractured, ridged) tesserae high elevation radar-bright tesserae large fresh lava flow unit ('fluctus') crater dark parabola crater ejecta outflow unit dunes area. And I have always assumed, rightly or wrongly, that it would be relatively easy to put these down, so they ought to be fairly inexpensive as planetary landers go. Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PD: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
|
|
Oct 3 2015, 08:28 PM
Post
#102
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3516 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
I like the idea of using a phase change to drive raising and lowering through the Venusian atmosphere. Water would be another possible material for this purpose. Perhaps we are in for a new age of steam . . I think we can leave constraints like cost and mass at the door and just think about ideas, as long as they don't require fantasy science. The best ways of exploring Venus will be unique to that world. If the idea's good enough it will be paid for, and hefted. It's time for Venus!
|
|
|
Oct 5 2015, 04:52 PM
Post
#103
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 684 Joined: 24-July 15 Member No.: 7619 |
I like the idea of using a phase change to drive raising and lowering through the Venusian atmosphere. Well, it might only be necessary for raising. Just occurred to me, after considering the spinning cluster bombs, that probes shaped like maple spinners could make a controlled descent. If the probes had a camera pointed off-axis, you could naturally build up a spiral image, getting higher and higher resolution as you descend. Seems that Venus has enough atmospheric diffraction that solar panels on the top and bottom of a wing can provide almost equal power. So, perhaps a bunch of cube-sats tucked into a maple spinner enclosure, floating at 50km and using solar power to replenish a dry-ice cooling system, then fluttering down to the surface, use CO2 gas to inflate and lift back to 50 km, start all over again. The other idea, that literally floated in, is to copy orb-spiders. When spiders hatch, they spin a thread, catch a breeze and fly away. Even heavier adult spiders fly this way although they actually create a 2d "sail" rather than a 1d string. So, anybody have ballpark energy requirements for probes floating in Venus's CO2 atmosphere, making dry ice to cool a lander, or fabricating polycarbonate sails? |
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 16th June 2024 - 03:11 AM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |