A Colorado company builds a drone for NASA's atmosphere study of Venus

The BST proposal for a planetary UAS is based on a dynamic gliding technology. Basically, the dynamic surge is to take advantage of wind shear to generate lift and velocity.

This technology is actually used by birds here on Earth, as well as radiocontrolled glider operators, but glider pilots have sometimes been able to dynamically scale up in high-altitude weather shears.

Albatrosses and other seabirds that have a dynamic structure also have a skeletal structure that allows them to block their wings when they fly, so that the bird can continue to fly almost indefinitely and for many thousands of kilometers without having to do a lot of effort.

Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans) in flight, to the east of the Peninsula Tasman, Tasmania, Australia. Albatrosses extend over vast expanses of ocean and regularly rotate around the globe.

J. Harrison

The solution of BST

"Black Swift Technologies has provided aerial solutions for forest fires, volcanic observations, tornadoes and hurricanes, some of the most extreme phenomena on Earth," said BST CEO Jack Elston. "This mission is a natural extension of our goal, only now we focus on the extreme conditions of Venus."

So, what kind of global conditions will the BST have to take into account in the development of an EMS? Venus has the hottest surface temperature of any planet in the solar system, at 873 degrees Fahrenheit (467 degrees Celsius).

However, the atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50km to 65km (30 to 45 miles) above the surface of the planet are almost the same as on Earth. This makes the upper atmosphere of Venus more similar to the Earth than with Mars. dry and icy surface.

Facing the "super-rotation"

According to Daily Camera, NASA has simply provided the company with the basic specifications for the type of unmanned aerial vehicle needed, such as the size, weight and minimum payload of the drone.

"They are looking for vehicles to explore just above the cloud layer," said Ellston, adding that NASA was particularly eager "to look for organic materials or evidence of this material in the upper atmosphere".

This six-month, $ 125,000 contract is funded by the federal government's Small Business Innovation Research Program to support scientific excellence and innovation. technological innovation. The funding will cover the design of the physical drone and the required software. he.

Computer-generated three-dimensional perspective view of the "crater farm" on Venus.

NASA – Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Atmosphere of Venus is mainly composed of carbon dioxide and nitrogen and is much denser and warmer than that of the Earth. However, the upper atmosphere of the planet presents a phenomenon called "super-rotation", turning much faster (every 4 Earth days) than the planet itself (every 243 Earth days), according to Space.com.

The winds in the upper atmosphere are blowing at a rate of up to 360 km / h. "The winds in the upper atmosphere of Venus are incredibly strong, which creates design challenges," added Elston.

"Our solution will be designed not only to survive in a harsh wind environment, but also to conduct targeted sampling of the atmosphere while continually extracting energy, even on the dark side of the planet.