Water-cooled lander |
Water-cooled lander |
Aug 22 2007, 05:22 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 214 Joined: 30-December 05 Member No.: 628 |
There is a recent posting on Emily's Planetary Society blog, which must be Doug's because she's not there herself, although her name is the only name on it. The subject is using water to cool a long-lived surface probe on Venus. It sounds far more practical than any of the other proposals for landing giant atomic-powered refrigerators, or developing a whole new family of high-temperature semiconductors, etc.
But I didn't understand the whispered criticism to the effect that the Ekonomov paper assumed that the water would absorb heat only from the one watt of power driving the instrument package itself. I simply can't believe that he went to the podium and presented his model without taking into account the fact that the surface of Venus is a pretty hot place, and that the proposed probe would be absorbing the ambient heat. This is an interesting proposal and I would like to understand both the original calculation of 50 days to bring the water to a boil, and the cited flaw in the calculation. I too find it hard to believe that it would take 50 days to bring water to a boil on the Venusian surface, but where exactly is the error, and what remains after we correct it? Doug is busy of course, but I hope he will find the time to address this when he returns, if someone else hasn't done so by then. |
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Aug 23 2007, 02:45 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 401 Joined: 5-January 07 From: Manchester England Member No.: 1563 |
Thanks Doug and AndyG! This makes it seem a bit more plausable, and use of gettering answeres the objection of how to maintain a vacuum (shoulda thought of that!). Fifty days still seems like a long time to me, but a long term venus lander; what an idea! Going a bit off topic here but what science objectives could you fulfill with one?
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Aug 23 2007, 03:23 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 593 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 279 |
[Excessive quote removed, hopefully before Doug caught it!]
Other than seismological studies - and multiple landers would be needed for that - I think the dipping balloon has more going for it. With the right selection of heat-absorber, using the suggested technology, you could cool off above the altitude of your choice (Sodium freezes at 45km, Water freezes at the cloud tops around 58km) allowing for short-stay trips to the surface coupled with long duration study of Venus's meteorology and surface. Andy |
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