Hesperos: A geophysical mission to Venus

Abstract

The Hesperos mission proposed in this paper is a mission to Venus to investigate the interior structure and the current level of activity. The main questions to be answered with this mission are whether Venus has an internal structure and composition similar to Earth and if Venus is still tectonically active. To do so the mission will consist of two elements: an orbiter to investigate the interior and changes over longer periods of time and a balloon floating at an altitude between 40 and 60 km to investigate the composition of the atmosphere. The mission will start with the deployment of the balloon which will operate for about 25 days. During this time the orbiter acts as a