Nuclear Polar VALOR: An ASRG-Enabled Venus Balloon Mission Concept

In situ exploration of Venus is expected to answer high priority science questions about the planet's origin, evolution, chemistry, and dynamics as identified in the NRC Decadal Survey and in the VEXAG White Paper. Furthermore, exploration of the polar regions of Venus is key to understanding its climate and global circulation, as well as providing insight into the circulation, chemistry, and climatological processes on Earth. In this paper we discuss our proposed Nuclear Polar VALOR mission, which would target one of the polar regions of Venus, while building on design heritage from the Discovery class VALOR concept, proposed in 2004 and 2006. Riding the strong zonal winds at 55 km altitude and drifting poleward from mid-latitude this balloon-borne aerial science station (aerostat) would circumnavigate the planet multiple times over its one- month operation, extensively investigating polar dynamics, meteorology, and chemistry. Rising and descending over 1 km altitude in planetary waves - similar to the two VEGA balloons in 1985 - onboard instrumentation would accurately and constantly sample and measure other meteorological and chemical parameters, such as atmospheric temperature and pressure, cloud particle sizes and their local column abundances, the vertical wind component, and the chemical composition of cloud-forming trace gases. As well, when viewed with terrestrial radio telescopes on the Earth-facing side of Venus, both zonal and meridional winds would be measured to high accuracy (better than 10 cm/sec averaged over an hour). Due to three factors: the lack of sunlight near the poles; severe limitations on the floating mass-fraction available for a power source; and the science requirements for intensive and continuous measurements of the balloon's environment and movement, a long-duration polar balloon mission would require a long-lived internal power source in a relatively lightweight package. For our concept we assumed an Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG). In return, this mission would provide two orders of magnitude more science data than expected from the original battery-powered VALOR concept, and could reduce measurement uncertainties by a factor of five. In addition to the science return, the secondary objective of this proposed mission would be to space qualify ASRGs through all mission phases and in various operating environments. Lifetime testing would be demonstrated using a second ASRG on the carrier that would keep operating after the in-situ element is delivered. Based on the results of this and another eight ongoing NASA funded studies, NASA will make a decision about the inclusion of ASRGs in the next Discovery AO, due in the summer of 2009.