Perspectives on the Future of Venus Exploration*

James Cutts1, Robert Grimm2, Noam Izenberg and Paul Steffes and members of the VEXAG Executive Committee Third International Conference on Instruments for Planetary Missions, 2016

Oct 24, 2016

1. Jet Propulsion Lab, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California *The ideas and perspective in this presentation represent the vision of the individuals named on the cover sheet, and are not 2. Southwest Reseach Institute, Boulder Colorado necessarily official positions of the AG. 3. Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Maryland 4. Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia

Venus and Earth – Planetary Siblings

Magellan Galileo Apollo 17

J. Cutts et. al. Third International Planetary Instruments Conference -1 Venus – Recent and on going Missions

Venus Express (ESA) Akatsuki (JAXA)

• Orbit insertion April 2006. • Orbit insertion Dec 2015 • Mission ended December 2014 • Five year mission is now planned

• Both missions primarily focus on investigations of the Venus atmosphere

J. Cutts et. al. Third International Planetary Instruments Conference Proposed NASA and ESA Venus Missions

Veritas

DAVINCIDAVINCI IPPW-13 Short Course-14 J. Cutts et. al. Landed Missions – Past and Proposed

~40 Years

VEGA (USSR, 1985) Venera D (Russia, 202X)

?

NASA New Frontiers 3 (2010) NASA New Frontiers 4, 2016) SAGE (JPL) J. Cutts et. al. Third International Planetary Instruments Conference VEXAG Venus Exploration Documents

All available on the VEXAG website; http://www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag/

J. Cutts et. al. Third International Planetary Instruments Conference -5 Goals and Objectives

Goal 1: Atmospheric Evolution, Formation and Climate History A. Atmospheric formation and evolution B. Energy balance, super-rotation and greenhouse effect C. Cloud and haze chemistry and dynamics. Nature of habitable zone.

Goal 2: Evolution of the Surface and Interior A. Heat release and resurfacing and their relationship B. Internal differentiation – basalt vs. silica rich crust

Goal 3: Interior-Surface-Atmosphere Interaction A. Did liquid water ever exist on Venus? B. How have interior, surface and atmosphere interacted over time?

J. Cutts et. al. Third International Planetary Instruments Conference -6 Strategies for Future Venus Exploration

• Apply instrument technologies developed for other planetary destinations on traditional Venus platforms (orbiters, probes, short duration landers)

• Exploit miniaturization of instrumentation and spacecraft such as cubesats including experiments requiring multiple spacecraft

• Deploy experiments on long lived aerial platforms (balloons or airplanes) operating in cooler parts of the atmosphere

• Develop Venus-specific techniques exploiting unique Venus characteristics such as dense atmosphere and near isothermal surface regions

• Develop high temperature technologies to enable long duration surface and near-surface exploration – NASA HotTech program initiated in FY16

J. Cutts et. al. Third International Planetary Instruments Conference -7 Strategies for future Venus Exploration

Aeronomy Atmosphere Surface and Shallow Deep Interior Interior

Extensions of • Particles • Mass Spec • SAR • UV & IR Current and fields • UV/IR • IR (surf. texture, (airglow) Techniques • Mass spec • Radioscience hotspots) • UV • Nephelometer New • Network • Microwave • GPR • Infrasound Techniques of • Lidar (both for • Raman-Libs • EM Sounding tailored to Cubesats winds) • XRD Venus • Pulsed N-G Environment • Mössbauer • Heat Flow High n/a • Chemical and • EM sounding • Seismology Temperature wind sensors • UV imaging? Technologies

Items Bolded in Blue: Papers on Venus applications presented at this conference.

J. Cutts et. al. Third International Planetary Instruments Conference -8 Observing infrasound signatures of Venus quakes

Balloon(s) @ 55 km

Nightside Airglow imaging

J. Cutts et. al. Third International Planetary Instruments Conference Thank you

For more information visit http://www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag/

or attend 14th Meeting of VEXAG November 29–December 1, 2016 NASA Headquarters, Washington

J. Cutts et. al. Backup Charts

J. Cutts et. al. Third International Planetary Instruments Conference EM Sounding of the Lithosphere

• Lightning-caused Schumann resonances can be sensed anywhere on the planet due to propagation in ground- ionosphere waveguide. • Properties of lithosphere and ionosphere can be recovered by EM-field measurements at any altitude, particularly balloon ~55 km. • Recover subsurface temperature structure to ~100 km depth → lithospheric thickness → geodynamic style. • Stratospheric test flights selected under PICASSO Near Space Corp

J. Cutts et. al. Extreme Environments on Venus

J. Cutts et. al. Third International Planetary Instruments Conference High temperature technologies- HOTTech

CNT vacuum triode prior Brushless High-temperature DC to vacuum packaging motor (Honeybee) • NASA recently announced the Hot Operating Temperature Technology (HOTTech) Program supports the advanced development of technologies for the robotic exploration of high- temperature environments

• HOTtech will develop and mature technologies that will enable, significantly enhance, or reduce Si-C polymorphs technical risk for in situ missions to high- temperature environments with temperatures approaching 500 degrees Celsius or higher

J. Cutts et. al. Importance of Test Facilities for Venus Environment e.g.Glenn Extreme Environments Rig (GEER)

Supporting science and technology testing in high temperature, high pressure, cryogenic, and vacuum environments with time accurate, parts per billion atmospheric mixing

• Unique chamber developed for up to 1500 PSI and 500°C full atmospheric testing

• Any atmosphere • Vacuum & Cryo • Dynamic PPB accuracy • Science • Technology Development

J. Cutts et. al.