NASA has an idea to conduct a geological study of Venus. Planned balloons

Venus is the closest planet to us, but it has a very thick atmosphere and high temperatures and pressures. Therefore, it cannot be studied geologically the way it was possible on Mars. We have to look for other solutions, and specialists have come up with a certain idea, for example. from NASA.

The US agency is studying the use of special balloons. They will be sent to Venus and will remain there Hanging seismographs. However, those are not commonly used on Earth, prof ultrasound. Why might this solution work?

Ultrasound seismometers are able to record pressure waves that pass through the atmosphere, not the typical Earth. In this way it will be possible to study the seismic activity of Venus, as it is impossible on its surface. Interestingly, similar research was carried out on Earth. For this purpose, ultrasound microphones were used, which were able to pick up earthquakes measuring 7.3 and 7.5 on the Richter scale. Although there are 3 thousand of them. km from the epicenter in the earth’s stratosphere.

Of course, for now, this is just a preliminary idea, concept, not a plan for a specific mission. So there is still a long way to go. The proposal was made by researchers Siddharth Krishnamurthy of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Daniel Bowman of Sandia National Laboratory. We will see with time whether this vision will be appreciated and then appropriate budget allocated for its implementation.

Any more detailed study of Venus is hampered by the conditions prevailing there. It is a hellish world The temperature on the surface reaches 500 degrees Celsius, and the pressure can be up to a thousand times higher than that on Earth. The atmosphere itself is dense, which is also a major hindrance to surveys. It rains sulfuric acid, which has a devastating effect on electronics. In addition, the prevailing temperatures are capable of melting lead without resistance.

Several Venus-related missions are currently being planned. NASA’s list includes Da Vinci (Investigating Venus’ Deep Atmosphere for Noble Gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) and Veritas. Among them there will be an exploration of the weather conditions or the surface of the planet. We will wait some time for these tasks to complete. Launches may happen this decade, but ships will not reach our neighbor any faster than they did in the 1930s.