VALENTInE: A Concept for a New Frontiers–Class Long-duration In Situ Balloon-based Aerobot Mission to Venus

Abstract

Described here is a concept for a variable-altitude aerobot mission to Venus developed as part of the 2020 NASA Planetary Science Summer School in collaboration with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Venus Air and Land Expedition: a Novel Trailblazer for in situ Exploration (VALENTInE) is a long-duration New Frontiers–class mission to Venus in alignment with the goals recommended by the 2013 Planetary Science Decadal Survey. VALENTInE would have five science objectives: (1) determine the driving force of atmospheric superrotation, (2) determine the source of D/H and noble gas inventory, (3) determine the properties that govern how light is reflected within the lower cloud later, (4) determine whether the tesserae are felsic, and (5) determine whether there is evidence of a recent dynamo preserved in the rock record. The proposed mission concept has a total duration of 15 Earth days and would float at an altitude of 55 km, along with five dips to a lower altitude of 45 km to study Venus’s lower atmosphere. The instrument payload allows for measurements of the atmosphere, surface, and interior of Venus and includes six instruments: an atmospheric weather suite, a mass spectrometer, a multispectral imager, a near-infrared spectrometer, light detection and ranging, and a magnetometer. Principle challenges included a limitation caused by battery lifetime and low technology readiness levels for aerobots that can survive the harsh conditions of Venus’s atmosphere. This preliminary mission was designed to fit within an assumed New Frontiers 5 (based on inflated New Frontiers 4) cost cap.

Meteors May Masquerade as Lightning in the Atmosphere of Venus

“…Given these past experiences, lightning is not an obvious hazard to atmospheric probes or short‐lived balloons. However, future missions may include extended stays in the clouds to answer high‐priority scientific questions (e.g., Arredondo et al., 2022; Cutts et al., 2022; O'Rourke et al., 2021). For example, Phantom is an exciting, well‐developed concept that features an aerial platform that dwells in the clouds for at least ∼30 Earth‐days, and plausibly ∼100 Earth‐days or longer (e.g., Byrne et al., 2023).…”

Exploring Venus: next generation missions beyond those currently planned

“…Human enabled exploration of Venus has also been considered as a means of bringing crew-tended sensors and deployed systems to the Venus system (Izenberg and Lefland, 2022). Flying or floating aerial platforms of 1 week or longer durations have been conceptualized (Polidan et al, 2015;Agrawal et al, 2022;Arredondo et al, 2022;Buchanan et al, 2022;Bugga et al, 2022). The role of aerial platforms in sample capture and analysis has been presented 1 in the context of analysis of in-situ samples from the Venus surface transferred by an ascent craft to an aerial laboratory (Venus In-Situ Sample Capture Mission concept, 2002).…”

The Habitability of Venus and a Comparison to Early Earth

“…Far more spatially and temporally extensive investigations will require cloud-level aerial platforms (e.g. Cutts et al, 2018;Baines et al, 2018;Arredondo et al, 2021) offering sustained presence in the clouds. Instrumentation on such platforms should, in particular, seek to measure the composition, size, and lifetime of cloud and aerosol particles, as these are the most habitable environmental niches of astrobiological interest.…”