Report on Venus Balloon Options from the NASA Venus Aerial Vehicle Study
Abstract
This paper summarizes the approach and results from a NASA-sponsored study on Venus aerial vehicles with a focus on the buoyant platforms that were considered. This study consisted of two multi-day workshops with intervening time for science and engineering analysis and involved a cross-disciplinary team of scientists, engineers and technologists drawn from NASA centers, industry and universities. The purpose was to identify what science could be obtained from different platforms, quantify the resource needs of mass, power and volume, assess the technological maturity of those platforms and provide guidance on required technology development investments to achieve flight readiness. The specific platforms considered were superpressure balloons, different types of variable altitude balloons, airplanes and a hybrid vehicle where lift is generated by both aerodynamic and buoyant forces. A key finding of the study was that variable altitude platforms provide a significant increase in scientific data return compared to constant-altitude superpressure balloons while requiring a potentially modest increase in mass, power and complexity. This paper provides the quantitative science and engineering data that justifies this conclusion along with the analysis methodology and underlying assumptions. It concludes by presenting the technology development roadmap matched to future mission opportunities along with a discussion of key technical challenges for each buoyant vehicle option.
- Publication:
-
42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018cosp...42E1355H