LPSC 2009: Venus or bust
With all the fierce debate over sending a NASA flagship mission to Europa or Titan, it's easy to forget that there are other communities waiting in line. Mark Bullock, of Southwest Research Institute, gave a talk describing the results of a major science and technology definition exercise for a future flagship mission to Venus. Given $4 billion to design a mission to be launched by 2025, the team had to figure out the best way to answer the most important science questions (like, does Venus have active tectonics and volcanism?) with technology that's not too far off. The team settled on a particular architecture: an orbiter, two balloons that would last about a month swimming through sulfuric acid clouds, and two landers that would survive a few hours at the lead-melting surface. Here's an artist's impression of the lander after those few hours. Venus is not a forgiving place.
Image: Tibor Balint, JPL
