Venus Life Finder Habitability Mission: Motivation, Science Objectives, and Instrumentation
Name
aerospace-09-00733.pdf
Size
2 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c74224da6ce7ddce4c3e5fc20bec82b6
Author(s)
Seager, Sara
Petkowski, Janusz J.
Carr, Christopher E.
Saikia, Sarag J.
Agrawal, Rachana
Buchanan, Weston P.
Grinspoon, David H.
Weber, Monika U.
Klupar, Pete
Worden, Simon P.
Date Issued
November 21, 2022
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Citation
Aerospace 9 (11): 733 (2022)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
For over half a century, scientists have contemplated the potential existence of life within the clouds of Venus. Unknown chemistry leaves open the possibility that certain regions of the Venusian atmosphere are habitable. In situ atmospheric measurements with a suite of modern instruments can determine whether the cloud decks possess the characteristics needed to support life as we know it. The key habitability factors are cloud particle droplet acidity and cloud-layer water content. We envision an instrument suite to measure not only the acidity and water content of the droplets (and their variability) but additionally to confirm the presence of metals and other non-volatile elements required for life’s metabolism, verify the existence of organic material, and search for biosignature gases as signs of life. We present an astrobiology-focused mission, science goals, and instruments that can be used on both a large atmospheric probe with a parachute lasting about one hour in the cloud layers (40 to 60 km) or a fixed-altitude balloon operating at about 52 km above the surface. The latter relies on four deployable mini probes to measure habitability conditions in the lower cloud region. The mission doubles as a preparation for sample return by determining whether a subset of cloud particles is non-liquid as well as characterizing the heterogeneity of the cloud particles, thereby informing sample collection and storage methods for a return journey to Earth.
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/aerospace9110733
