Rocket Lab Mission to Venus
Name
aerospace-09-00445.pdf
Size
6.04 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
f24dbd55ed20aadcd5222f7e29e48583
Author(s)
French, Richard
Mandy, Christophe
Hunter, Richard
Mosleh, Ehson
Sinclair, Doug
Beck, Peter
Seager, Sara
Petkowski, Janusz J.
Carr, Christopher E.
Grinspoon, David H.
Date Issued
August 13, 2022
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Citation
Aerospace 9 (8): 445 (2022)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Regular, low-cost Decadal-class science missions to planetary destinations will be enabled by high-ΔV small spacecraft, such as the high-energy Photon, and small launch vehicles, such as Electron, to support expanding opportunities for scientists and to increase the rate of science return. The Rocket Lab mission to Venus is a small direct entry probe planned for baseline launch in May 2023 with accommodation for a single ~1 kg instrument. A backup launch window is available in January 2025. The probe mission will spend about 5 min in the Venus cloud layers at 48–60 km altitude above the surface and collect in situ measurements. We have chosen a low-mass, low-cost autofluorescing nephelometer to search for organic molecules in the cloud particles and constrain the particle composition.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9080445
