NASA wants to study Venus with flying drones

In the next few years, NASA and other space agencies will be heading to other planets in our solar system. What we do know is that NASA also plans to send a mission to Venus and learn more about its history. They will try to find out if the planet has ever had liquid water and life on its surface.

To achieve this goal, NASA is badociated with Black Swift Technologies. The company specializes in unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and they will build a drone to survive in the upper atmosphere of the planet. NASA will award them a contract for a Venus aerial drone if the designs prove to be for the future task.

Until now, climate models indicated that Venus, like Mars, may have had liquid water on the surface once. . Nearly 2 billion years ago, the planet could have had a shallow ocean covering much of its surface. The greenhouse effect could have dried up the ocean and turn the world into a real hell.

The Ames Research Center and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have studied Venus and believe that there could be a microbial life at the top of the clouds. It is thus that sending aerial drones to Venus could help discover if there are really traces of organic life or if water was on the surface

Exploring clouds of Venus

The co-founder of Black Swift Technologies Jack Elston explained what NASA wants from an aerial drone:

"They are looking for vehicles to explore just above the cloud layer. The pressure and temperatures are similar to what you would find on Earth, so it could be a good environment to look for evidence of life.The winds in the upper atmosphere of Venus are incredibly strong, which creates a design challenge. "

The company needs to create a drone capable of using winds to fly and reduce the amount of electricity needed to fly. Until now, NASA has awarded a six-month contract to Black Swift Technologies to design the drone according to their specifications. The contract was a $ 125,000 grant from the federal government's Small Business Innovation research program.

The program encourages "small national companies to participate in federal R & D that could be commercialized" With this money, the company will have more staff and build the drone that will be sent to Venus. 19659002] Elston explained that if NASA likes "what we found, it will fund another two-year project" to build prototypes, this second-phase contract is expected to be worth $ 750,000. "

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Andre Blair is the editor-in-chief for Advocator.ca .He holds a BA in Psychology of the University of Toronto, and a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) from the School of Public Health, Department of Health Administration, at the University of Carolina from North to Chapel Hill, Andre specialized himself reads in environmental health, but writes on a variety of issues.