Rocket Lab wants to search for life in the clouds of Venus

The surface of Venus is a swamp of carbon dioxide, crushing pressures and extreme temperatures. However, flower clouds seem to provide more favorable conditions for some life forms. But are they really there? Peter Beck, the founder of Rocket Lab who has never hidden his love for the world closest to Earth, wants to use his tiny electronic rocket to find out.

We’ve known for some time that NASA, the European Space Agency, and China are planning to visit the long-forgotten Venus in favor of Mars. We also learned that New Zealand’s Rocket Lab has its sights set on the planet, too. But details are not available yet. A few days ago, the company finally confirmed its intention to self-finance the development and launch Small probe in 2023. This small ship will be responsible for flying through the clouds of Venus at an altitude of forty-eight to sixty kilometers.

Peter Beck, the company’s president, joined forces with several famous scientists, including Sarah Seeger, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to imagine the project.

For launch, Rocket Lab plans to use its small size electronic missile Eighteen meters. The launcher will be responsible for delivering the probe into orbit 165 km above Earth. From there, the rocket’s upper stage, called the Photon, will perform a number of burns to raise the ship’s orbit and reach escape velocity. Assuming ever In May 2023 (With a spare chance in January 2025), this probe could reach Venus Five months later.

Housing Possibility Assessment

This probe will be small (only about twenty kilograms) and will contain a science payload of one kilogram made up of a self-luminescent nephlometer. It is a tool capable of detecting suspended particles in clouds. The goal will be to search for organic compounds that might tell us more about the habitability of Venus’ clouds. The probe will pass Just over five minutes to cross the upper atmosphere. Ideally, it can continue to transmit data as it descends to the surface.

” The mission is the first opportunity to directly probe Venus’ cloud particles in nearly four decadesA . says Article – Commodity Describing the geometry of the mission. ” Even with the limitations of mass, data rate, and limited time in the atmosphere of Venus, a scientific breakthrough can be achieved“.

Remember, no private company has ever sent a ship to rub shoulders with another world outside the Earth-Moon system. If you succeed, it will be the first. Earlier this year, Rocket Lab already marked the launch of the CAPSTONE mission toward the Moon on behalf of NASA. This small probe will be responsible for testing the orbital stability of a future station built around the moon as part of the Artemis program.