Before scientists discovered that the surface of Venus was a toxic wasteland, artists imagined that the planet’s serene clouds hid a world of lush greenery and constant rain. In truth, the planet’s appearance belies an extreme environment that contains temperatures of around 460° C and an atmosphere so dense that the planet’s surface pressure is nearly 90 times that on Earth. But in spite of Venus’ inhospitable environment, researchers such as Professor Jason Rabinovitch here at Stevens have long studied Venus for the implications that the planet holds for Earth and humanity as a whole.
“Venus and Earth share many similarities – they are close to the same size, similar distances from the sun, and have roughly the same global CO2 budget,” said Dr. Rabinovitch. “For CO2, the major difference is that on Earth much of the CO2 is captured in rocks, while on Venus the CO2 is in the atmosphere. Because of these similarities, the more we learn about Venus, the more we can understand Earth. Particularly with respect to climate change, researching Venus (which has experienced a strong runaway greenhouse effect), gives us information about whether the Earth may eventually resemble Venus.”
However, the extreme conditions of Venus itself pose a significant challenge to missions looking to send human-made objects to collect data from the planet’s surface. In the past, inadequate protection typically caused probes on the planet’s surface to break down within a few minutes to around two hours.
“There is a lot of research right now geared towards developing and testing technologies at Venus conditions (very high temperature and pressure in a supercritical CO2 atmosphere along with a few other atmospheric gasses),” said Dr. Rabinovitch. “Getting advanced electrical devices to work under Venus conditions is very challenging, though progress is being made. There is also a lot of work to be done to implement new thermal control technologies, such as a way to keep a spacecraft cool once it lands on the surface of Venus.”
Determining where to land is also a critical factor to consider when sending probes to Venus. Different geological regions of Venus yield different areas of study, and the landing sites themselves must be flat and smooth enough to ensure a safe landing. Alternatives to terrestrial exploration include the hypothetical construction of aerial platforms, and even projects to terraform the Venusian environment to make its conditions more suitable for exploration.
“There are a lot of great robotic mission concepts that involve aerial platforms (like a balloon) to study both the surface of Venus and its atmosphere,” said Dr. Rabinovitch. “I personally think that we should focus our efforts on researching and mitigating climate change here on the Earth, before we start thinking about trying to terraform other planets!”
With advances in technology allowing us to discover more and more about our extraterrestrial environment, observing how other planets have evolved can give us a better understanding of our conditions on Earth and how our environment can change. With the ubiquitous presence of the internet and social media, learning more about space has never been more accessible.
“NASA has some great resources online, and a ton of social media accounts which are always providing great updates!” said Dr. Rabinovitch. “Also keep an eye out for upcoming lectures at Stevens related to Space, as we are hoping to bring in some more speakers who can talk about space exploration and space science.”
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