China Plans To Bring Back Samples of Venusian Clouds | A gauntlet of engineering challenges await a search for evidence of alien life
https://spectrum.ieee.org/china-venus-mission
China Plans To Bring Back Samples of Venusian Clouds | A gauntlet of engineering challenges await a search for evidence of alien life
https://spectrum.ieee.org/china-venus-mission
3 Comments
When China unveiled a long-term roadmap for space science and exploration last fall, its second phase (2028-2035) included an unprecedented Venus atmosphere sample return mission.
Doesn’t say the exact timing, unless I missed it.
How though isn’t gravity of the Sun and Venus working against them it would be spectacular if they pull it off though good for them
If the mission goes ahead, it would be interesting to see how they go about it. The easiest method would be to skim across the upper stratosphere prior to reentry and take extremely minor samples. Would be simple and light (probably a LM3B launch). A much more extreme mission would be to deorbit and use some sort of balloon to hover in the atmosphere cloud layer, take a much more thorough sample and then launch it on something like Pegasus rocket. This would be extremely complex and heavy, two LM5’s or maybe even a LM10; however the rewards would be much greater, though at a risk of bacterial contamination if Venus’s cloud layer are as similar to Earth as we think.