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Space NASA

How NASA's DAVINCI Mission Will Plunge Through Venus's Hellish Atmosphere (gizmodo.com) 69

Posted by EditorDavid from the countdown-to-2029 dept.
"NASA's DAVINCI mission to Venus is scheduled for launch in 2029," reports Gizmodo, adding that a new paper "details this upcoming journey, a daring mission that could shed new light on the scorching hot planet's mysterious, and potentially habitable, past." Upon its arrival at the second planet from the Sun, the probe will plunge through Venus' atmosphere, ingesting its gases for approximately one hour before landing on the planet's surface, according to the paper published in The Planetary Science Journal. DAVINCI is designed to act as a flying chemistry lab, and it will use its built-in instruments to analyze Venus's atmosphere, temperatures, pressure and wind speed, while taking a few photos of its trip through planetary hell...

If it survives the atmospheric entry, the probe will — hopefully — land in the Alpha Regio mountains, which are roughly the size of Texas, according to the researchers behind the new paper. Under ideal conditions, the probe will operate for 17 to 18 minutes once it sticks the landing, but it isn't really required to operate on Venus since all the precious data will have already been collected during its atmospheric plunge.
Digital Trends calls Venus "a frontier in planetary science about which very little is known" — then explains why that is. The biggest issue for any potential mission to Venus is the heat, as the surface temperatures can be as high as 900 degrees Fahrenheit (475 degrees Celsius). That's hot enough to melt lead, and it wreaks havoc with electronics... The pressure at the surface is around 95 bars, or nearly 100 times the atmospheric pressure on Earth's surface, so engineering a probe for this kind of environment is kind of like building a submarine... To keep the probe active for as long as possible, it is spherical and covered in a thick titanium shell to withstand the pressure and insulate against the heat. Then there's more insulation inside this shell, made of special materials including astroquartz, a type of fiber made from fused quartz... It's then filled with carbon dioxide gas to protect the high-voltage electronics from sparking and to stop any Earth gases from leaking in during launch....

The descent sphere will also have a camera that will be snapping high-contrast images of the surface, which can then be built up into 3D maps. For a camera to operate from inside a metal sphere, though, you need a window. And glass isn't a great material for dealing with intensely high-pressure environments. That's why DAVINCI's window will be made not of glass but sapphire... "Our final images will have 10-centimeter resolution," said the team's principal investigator, Jim Garvin. "That's the scale you'd see looking out across your living room...."

Researchers know that the clouds of Venus have drops of sulfuric acid in them — and sulfuric acid eats through materials. It's a particular concern for the Kevlar lanyard that will attach the descent sphere to the parachute. So to test whether the lanyard can withstand the acidic environment, the engineers don't just suspend it in a few drops of acid — they coat the entire surface in acid, then test the lanyard's pull strength to make sure it can survive long enough to take the probe through the atmosphere even in the worst possible case.
SciTechDaily notes DAVINCI "is the first mission to study Venus using both spacecraft flybys and a descent probe....

"It will also provide the first descent imaging of the mountainous highlands of Venus while mapping their rock composition and surface relief at scales not possible from orbit."
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How NASA's DAVINCI Mission Will Plunge Through Venus's Hellish Atmosphere More

How NASA's DAVINCI Mission Will Plunge Through Venus's Hellish Atmosphere

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  • Yawn (Score:4, Funny)

    by divide overflow ( 599608 ) on Monday June 06, 2022 @05:12AM (#62596516)
    I'm waiting for the manned visit.

    • Re:Yawn (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Monday June 06, 2022 @06:33AM (#62596612)

      Humans could not survive on the surface, but the upper reaches of Venus's atmosphere are quite pleasant. It is the only place in the solar system besides Earth where a human can survive without a space suit. Just a respirator and goggles would be enough.

      We could construct a "Cloud City" like in Empire Strikes Back and a normal human-compatible mixture of 80% N2 and 20% O2 would provide plenty of buoyancy in Venus's dense atmosphere (mostly CO2).

      The biggest problem for a Venus colony may be a lack of water.

      • It is the only place in the solar system besides Earth where a human can survive without a space suit. Just a respirator and goggles would be enough.

        All the while people keep fawning over the cold dead rock that is Mars.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Incorrect. Sulfuric acid would be the biggest problem.

        • Incorrect. Sulfuric acid would be the biggest problem.

          Venus's atmosphere doesn't contain sulfuric acid. It contains sulfur dioxide at 150 ppm. That is not a big problem for dry skin.

          Wine and dried apricots contain SO2 at over 200 ppm.

      • The biggest problem for a Venus colony may be a lack of water.

        Or falling

        • Just add a safety bar at the bottom of the garbage chute. You can grab it even with one hand sliced off. Then hang on and wait to be rescued.

      • It is the only place in the solar system besides Earth where a human can survive without a space suit. Just a respirator and goggles would be enough.

        The surface of Titan has similar pressure to Earth. A human would not need a space suit, just a heavily insulated suit to deal with the cold as well as a respirator and such.

      • Humans could not survive on the surface

        That's quitter talk! Seemingly impossible, stupid, pointless, and amazing feats are what humans do best. We don't have the technology today but that doesn't mean we never will. Never say die!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )

      I'm waiting for the manned visit.

      Same. We need SpaceX to get a Starship version ready for interplanetary missions. How many flat earthers you think we could cram in one for a manned Venus mission?

    • I'm waiting for the womanned visit. Men to to Mars, Women go to Venus.

      • You joke, but the first sentence of NASA's Artemis mission statement is "With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon..."

  • The Illuminati will prevent it (Score:5, Funny)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Monday June 06, 2022 @05:27AM (#62596528)

    Like all DAVINCI operations.
    They need Tom Hanks.

  • The Soviets did this years ago (Score:5, Informative)

    by troon ( 724114 ) on Monday June 06, 2022 @05:37AM (#62596538)

    Whenever a mission like this is mentioned, it always seems to get forgotten that humankind has already had several functioning landers on the surface of Venus, and even returned colour photographs from the surface.

    See more here: http://mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm [mentallandscape.com].

    • Yep, I'm as pro-USA as they come but it's lying by omission to not even mention the large amount of science the Soviets have done on Venus for decades.

      I'm not sure if it's ignorance, homerism, or a currently anti-Russia 'thing' but jesus people it's basic facts. I guess they really aren't important to reporting anymore....

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      The US also had a lander or two on the surface, although they were not designed to take photos, being primarily atmospheric probes which happened to make it to the surface. More [wikipedia.org]

  • Difficult, but not the most difficult re-entry. (Score:4, Informative)

    by nicolaiplum ( 169077 ) on Monday June 06, 2022 @06:37AM (#62596620)

    Venus is hard, but it is not the hardest re-entry. That was Jupiter: https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/... [nasa.gov]

    Venus is a terrible place to land on. Doing science on the way down is the smart move (the Soviets did that too), because landing in a working state is not guaranteed.

    We must remember the Soviet efforts Venera 9-12 in particular. They worked well, amazingly well for 1970s technology, but suffered several instrument failures.

    NASA has better quality control than the Soviets did, but the engineering problems are not easier than they were in the 1970s and the fundamental materials are not much different. I hope their mechanisms work better than the Soviet ones did.

  • There is protomolecule in there. Remember the Venus event
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]

  • Researchers know that the clouds of Venus have drops of sulfuric acid in them — and sulfuric acid eats through materials.

    I wonder how many times the folks at NASA watched how you deal with sulfuric acid [dailymotion.com]. Their computers were probably running overtime doing the calculations.

  • Based on the JWST and SLS it will probably launch in 2040 and be massively overbudget.

    • Cost of NASA is miniscule. Getting a design correct for something that will function tens of millions of kilometers away in 95 earth atmospheres and 480 degrees C after plunging through atmosphere with sulphuric acid rain is important, extra time is fine.

      JWST wait and cost is worth it, amazing achievement that will have benefits for decades.

  • I know nine ladies can't make a baby in a month, but there's no way that's the problem here. It does NOT take seven years to design and launch a probe, and launch windows are, if I'm not mistaken, available on an annual basis. NASA's biggest enemy is political serendipity and that gets worse the longer it takes to design, build, and launch. It's time to get less conservative in space. NASA should focus on fewer programs at a time and get them done faster.

    • Do tell us of your experience building spacecraft and planetary probes that can function in 480 degree C heat and 95 earth atmospheres of pressure, and moreover send that data to Earth tens of millions of kilometers away.

      Oh, you have none? You're talking out of your ass about something you know nothing about? How about letting NASA engineers and scientists do what they have ability to do, while you shut the fuck up.

  • "Our final images will have 10-centimeter resolution," said the team's principal investigator, Jim Garvin. "That's the scale you'd see looking out across your living room...."

    That's some rather poor eyesight.
    I can read 1-centimeter high letters across my living room.

  • Only Hydrated Sulphuric Acid corrosive (Score:4, Informative)

    by redelm ( 54142 ) on Monday June 06, 2022 @10:41AM (#62597090) Homepage

    Contrary to popular impression, sulphuric acid is not very corrosive by itself. Car batteries are full of it. The acid is routinely handled in industrial plants in carbon steel pipes and tanks. But add more than 5%w water and the corrosion rate sky-rockets. The pure acid is also a powerful dessicant, pulling water from carbohydrates and leaving just carbon foam. I don't know how much water is in the Venusian atmosphere and clouds.

    Of course it may fail -- it is designed to! Aerospace design practice is to make it lighter (thinner) until it has a target probability of failure.

  • If I can survive my mother-in-law, I can survive the surface of Venus. Bring it.
  • then NASA can get the same results by sending a spacecraft through Earth's atmosphere.

  • The pressure at the surface is around 95 bars, or nearly 100 times the atmospheric pressure on Earth's surface

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