Introduction
In all the diversity of the modern world, it is difficult to find something more unknown and fascinating than outer space. The solar system has naturally evolved over billions of years, resulting in a remarkably harmonious and seamless space system. Indeed, with the development of technology, interplanetary research, ground samples, and object atmospheres had become available to humankind, but even though astronomical science had advanced enormously over the past century, people still knew little about other planets. Naturally, the study of celestial bodies has practical value: it is conducted to explain the evolution of both the individual solar system and the galaxy. The increased interest in research could be justified not only by the scientific value of discoveries but also by the real possibility for humanity to have a backup in case of human-made or natural disasters on Earth. Already in 2020, there were several initiatives focusing on the problem of colonization.
From this point of view, Venus, the second celestial body of the solar system, which has several advantages for overpopulation, may be of great interest for observation. In the first place, Venus is quite close to Earth. Second, the planet’s size and mass are not very different from what is characteristic of our planet. However, perhaps only the size and mass of the planet unite Earth with Venus — because of its proximity to the Sun, an astronomical object has a burned-out atmosphere, almost entirely made up of carbon dioxide. This fact predetermines the human interest in special preparation for colonization of Venus: to explore and settle the first people, and it is necessary to create conditions for astronauts’ comfortable lives. In order to solve these goals, already today, there are promising national and private projects, in which many funds are invested for industry development. In other words, under certain conditions, Venus can be a good option for theoretical study and colonization. This essay is aimed at discussing Venus from the point of view of the object for research and space missions.
About Venus
The brightest object in the sky, after the Sun and the Moon, is Venus. It is almost a twin planet to Earth, with similar size and gravitational characteristics. In particular, the planet has 95% of the Earth’s radius and 82% of its mass (Choi, 2020). At the same time, it must be recognized that Venus is very different from Earth in several other attributes such as chemical composition, temperature, and density. While the deep structure of our planet is being studied with the help of seismic wave fixers, Venus’ surface is extremely hot to have a functioning apparatus for analysis.
In general, Venus’s internal structure is similar to other planets of the Solar system: it consists of crust, mantle, and nucleus. The diameter of the nucleus, containing much iron and its compounds, exceeds 3800 kilometers. Similarly, the mantle’s solid structure has a thickness of about 2800 km, and the thickness of the crust is up to 20 km. It is surprising that for such core, the magnetic field of a planet is almost entirely absent (Beatty, 2017). Most likely, it is a result of the slow rotation of a celestial body around its axis. At the same time, in comparison with the Moon, Mars, or Mercury, on the surface of Venus, practically there are no craters formed by falling of small meteorites. Such an effect can be explained if to take into account the rather high density of Venus’s gas atmosphere: celestial bodies do not reach the planet’s surface, burning in layers of the atmosphere. Besides, the conducted researches allow us to assert that the surface of Venus is characterized by two parallel geological processes — tectonic deformations and volcanic activity (Ivanov & Head, 2018). Tectonic plates move along the molten mantle, which causes the formation of many volcanoes, mountains, and faults.
Venus had a chance of becoming a habitable planet. Mathewson (2016) estimates that the original Venus had a more favorable atmosphere and temperature than it does now. The modern chemistry of the layers of the atmosphere is almost entirely composed of carbon dioxide with sulfuric acid clouds. It is essential to understand that such gas structures prevent the free penetration of light rays, so the physical observation of Venus from Earth is very limited. On the other hand, being close to the Sun creates a unique situation on Venus — a thick atmosphere prevents gases from escaping outside, creating a severe greenhouse effect. Taking into account the historical geochemical evolution of the Earth, the study of Venus plays a decisive role. Thus, for the development of science and understanding of natural mechanisms of planetary formation, the study of Venus is significant because it will expand knowledge about the Earth’s past. Finally, as was the case with all space research, there was always hope for specialists to discover extraterrestrial life forms.
Mission to Study Venus
Contrary to all existing obstacles, modern technologies allow us to achieve outstanding results in the study of Venus. According to the list given by Williams (2020), since the beginning of space flights, more than 47 missions to study the second planet have been conducted. The accumulated empirical data were enough to develop a more optimal model for studying the planet’s surface. In particular, it is proposed to launch an uncrewed robotic vehicle from the Earth’s spaceport to collect and send data to the data processing center.
As shown in Figure 1, the flight from the Earth to Venus reaches 153 days on the average, that is why if the launch is calculated for January 2026, the spacecraft entering the atmosphere should be expected not earlier than summer 2026. It is assumed that the spacecraft will smoothly transmit video data to Earth as it enters thick layers. Given that the average minimum distance between the two objects is about 40,000,000 kilometers, at a radio signal speed of 300,000 kilometers per second, the video data will be transmitted after 2 minutes:
The device smoothly reduces speed so as not to reach a critical point in Venus’ hot atmosphere. On landing on the surface, it has a few hours before the hot climate destroys electronics: during this time, the machine collects as much data as possible to send it to the planet. Admittedly, this is a more advanced mission than the last Venus Express — the satellite was in near-planetary orbit and had been broadcasting radio signals for almost ten years. The current offer is unique in that it is planned to launch modules on the surface of Venus and keep them active for a long time.
Based on collected material space, engineers make a decision about designing and constructing mini space probes, monitoring atmospheric and temperature changes on Venus surface: for future missions on colonization, it is necessary to know about natural regularities of the planet. Such probes should be assembled from materials resistant to high temperatures and acid rain of Venus. Their departure can be scheduled for autumn 2026, so the arrival of a group of devices should be expected in early 2027.
Mission Specifications
The general technical scheme for the proposed apparatus includes electronics isolated in a container, connected to an incredibly powerful air conditioning system, and probably powered by a radioactive engine with plutonium as fuel. Such technologies are seen as a working model for the promising Russian project, Venera-D. It is an interplanetary descent probe, whose scientific tasks are complex research of the atmosphere and soil composition, search for volcanic activity and study of atmospheric dissipation under the influence of solar wind. Venera-D, weighing 12 tons, should consist of a launching vehicle, an orbital module, a landing station, and an atmospheric probe, and the possibility of including additional sub-satellites is being considered. The modules have an estimated active lifetime of several hours, but small satellites may remain operational for months or even years due to the absence of some electronic elements or chemical composition — that is to say silicon carbide. For the proposed mission, Venera-D could be an excellent solution for delivering materials to the planet’s surface. However, the module itself does not have enough functionality, so in order to expand its capabilities, it is advisable to consider adding different devices and tools aboard Venera-D.
The instrumental part of the modules should include functional units that will allow for precise exploration of the unique landscape systems of Venus. Above all, these are cameras that provide a clear color image of the areas being observed. They can be MASTCAM cameras modified with MAHLI lenses. In addition, crewless vehicles can be used to transport rocks across the planet’s surface to observe their movement over time. Temperature tests of the planet can be carried out using VISAGE or VICI models — for this purpose, it will be necessary to equip space probes with laser guns and particle analyzers (Esposito et al., 2017). It is fair to admit that these technologies have not yet been finalized and require improvement. Chemical soil analysis is performed on-site, so unmanned space probes must be equipped with spectroscopic functionality such as APXS. Thus, according to Limaye et al. (2018), observations should be made in the near-infrared zone (1.7-2.4 µm), but it should be borne in mind that due to the geothermal characteristics of the planet, surface materials emit background radiation, which prevents the recording of the pure spectrum of data.
The drone is launched by delivering the module using a launch vehicle to outer space. The engines of the detachable modules are then switched on and delivered to Venus. It should be noted that the engine used in the proposed spacecraft is no different from that used in space flight practice, which is chemical fuel. In order to reduce the consumption of consumable fuel on the planet’s surface, the probes and modules are proposed to be equipped with solar panels to generate electricity. However, the difficulty of sunlight penetrating Venus must be borne in mind, so each vehicle is additionally equipped with nuclear fuel such as Plutonium (Lakdawalla, 2018). This practice is quite common among Mars and Lunar rovers.
Mission Lengths
There is a retrospective approach to determining the optimal time for active drone operation. Past successful module landing missions on the surface of Venus include “Venera-3,14” and “Vega-1,2,” where the spacecraft spent on the planet did not exceed several hours. From this point of view, the proposed mechanism must be temperature-resistant enough to last longer. At the same time, expert engineers should achieve maximum operating time with minimum losses. It is assumed that the first flight machine will fail in a few weeks, after which new modules will be launched based on the collected data. Consequently, if the program launches in 2026, it is expected that by 2029 all necessary data will be received. If technical equipment allows, robots will continue to study Venus’ surface, while data centers will start to study the material. By 2031, the project could be completed with the publication of findings and results.
Costs
Earlier it was noted that the cost of the Venus research program is about 1 billion US dollars. It should be admitted that the program is partly identical to Venera-D, where the implementation cost is $800-1000 million (Levchenko, 2019). Certainly, this is quite large, especially compared to the cost of past missions. For illustration, according to Howell (n.d.), Venus Express was worth about $110 million. At the same time, NASA continues to develop its promising projects and organizes a space flight to Venus for less than $500 million (Brown, 2020). In this case, the question arises about the feasibility of such grandiose funding for the proposed project. The answer is that the program is long-term and has a period of implementation from 2026 to 2031. During these five years, it will be necessary to regularly monitor expensive machines, analyze the data collected, and pay salaries to employees. Finally, it is a reasonably promising project, so it must have an excellent investment to demonstrate the expected results.
However, it is appropriate to talk about reasonable reductions in mission costs if this is acceptable. For example, in six years, technological progress could develop to the point where, for example, rocket fuel would become cheaper. In fact, already today, some private companies claim that the cost of fuel for interplanetary flights does not exceed $1 million (Wall, 2019). However, it is worth considering the option that improving technology will require more investment so that the total amount may increase.
Conclusion
To sum up, it should be noted that the proposed program will be a decisive measure in the development of the planets of the Earth group. Venus is the fundamental object of the system, the study of which will make it possible to understand the mechanisms of planets formation, geochemical, and biological evolution. The mission to land unmanned modules on the surface of Venus to collect data on atmospheric and surface dynamics was discussed as part of the document. The data are sent to Centers, where they are analyzed and used for the following missions. In parallel, several machines with heat-resistant electronics are used to collect data from different areas of Venus. Ultimately, this approach will help to answer the question of whether the colonization of the planet is possible.
References
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