NASA Gets Closer to Venus Mission With Successful Robo-Balloon Test
upstart writes:
NASA wants to send a giant silver balloon to the hellish world of Venus, where the floating robot would explore the toxic Venusian atmosphere. Functional tests of a smaller prototype recently took place in a Nevada desert in preparation for this upcoming mission to the solar system's inferno.
The prototype of the aerial robotic balloon, or aerobot, just completed two successful test flights above the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. A team of scientists and engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory watched from below as the shimmery balloon flew at an altitude of about 4,000 feet (1,000 meters). Conditions in this part of Earth's atmosphere are somewhat similar to conditions found on Venus, but at heights reaching 180,000 feet (55 kilometers) above its scorched surface.
[...] The team behind the aerobot balloon designed it with multilayered material that includes an acid-proof coating, a metallization layer to reduce solar heating, and a rigid inner layer that makes it capable of carrying science instruments, according to NASA. [...]
It's also not just one balloon-it's more of a "balloon within a balloon" design. A rigid inner reservoir is filled with helium under high pressure, which gets tucked inside a larger outer helium balloon that can expand and contract. [...]
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