Balloons Will Become NASA Vehicles For Missions To Explore Venus

Balloons into space (JPL YouTube Screenshot/Image)

JAKARTA - Lately, Mars has become the center of attention because it is claimed to have life like Earth, but now it's Venus's turn to be the home of the next mission.

NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and New Zealand-based space flight company Rocket Lab are planning to send missions to Planet Venus in the coming years.

Although the planet is inhospitable to life, NASA has considered exploring the planet by flying a robotic balloon dubbed the Aerobot on Venus.

As part of research for a potential mission, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) recently completed two test flights of the Aerobot prototype over Nevada's Black Rock desert.

The test was successful in demonstrating controlled altitude flight. Sending a spacecraft to Venus is a complicated mission because its extremely high pressure, intense heat, and corrosive gases would render it useless in just a few hours.

However, the few dozen miles above that inhospitable zone is actually an area where the Aerobot can safely maneuver.

"One concept envisages pairing a balloon with a Venus orbiter, the two working together to study Earth's twin planets," explains JPL on its official website.

"While the orbiter will remain well above the atmosphere, taking science measurements and serving as a communications relay, the robotic air balloon, or aerobot, about 40 feet in diameter, will travel into it."

The Aerobot balloon has an inner reservoir of rigid helium and an outer helium balloon that expands and contracts. Helium vents allow gas to pass between the inside and outside, changing the degree of buoyancy and thus giving scientists a way to control the altitude.

To test the design, scientists and engineers from JPL and Near Space Corporation, undertook two flights to test the Aerobot balloon, about a third the size of the balloon that will explore Venus.

Launching Digital Trends, Wednesday, October 12, the balloon flew 4,000 feet into Earth's atmosphere, a location similar to the density that Aerobots would experience about 180,000 feet above Venus.

The successful test in the Nevada desert showed the Aerobot could hover high above Venus for weeks or even months, enough time to monitor the atmosphere on acoustic waves generated by Venusquakes and analyze the chemical composition of the planet's clouds. Later, all the data collected will be beamed back to Earth via the accompanying orbiter.

"We are very pleased with the performance of the prototype. It was launched, demonstrated controlled altitude maneuvers, and was found in good condition after both flights," said JPL robotics technologist Jacob Izraelevitz.

"We have recorded a mountain of data from this flight and hope to use it to improve our simulation models before exploring our sister planet."

Apparently, this balloon was worthy of Venus exploration since the Soviets successfully used such a design as part of the twin Soviet missions Vega 1 and 2 in 1985. Both helium-filled balloons sailed on Venusian winds for more than 46 hours, before their battery runs out.