Conceptual Design and Analysis of Aerobot for Long-Endurance Mission on Venus (for appendix A)

The harsh conditions on the Venus surface and the considerable uncertainty with regard to the atmospheric composition, chemistry, and physics provide motivation for the development of flight vehicles that can carry scientific instrumentation across different altitudes and latitudes. A wide variety of flight platforms such as fixed and variable altitude balloons, solar aircraft, and hybrid airships are being considered. While each platform has its merits and advantages depending on the mission scenario, this proposal is concerned with a hybrid vehicle (i.e. aerobot) that exploits both buoyancy and aerodynamic forces for good horizontal and vertical mobility while cutting down on power requirements and allowing for a robust and fail-safe operation. The vehicle will fly above the clouds, where the sulphuric acid content is lower and the direct and reflected solar irradiance can be tapped to recharge batteries, as well as inside and below the clouds. The vertical mobility will be achieved by adjusting the vehicle’s buoyancy. This one-year effort is concerned with the conceptual design (aerodynamic, propulsion, buoyancy and thermal analysis) and the vehicle optimization for relevant notional mission scenarios. Follow-up phases of the project will expand upon this initial effort by addressing other important aspects such as detailed design and testing, localization and control, and corrosion resistance.

Above the clouds, where the wind velocities can top 100 m/s and strong wind shear and turbulence are possible, vehicles with high aerodynamic efficiency and directional control are at an advantage. In the lower denser atmosphere, the buoyancy forces are larger and floating without power consumption becomes possible. The main objective of the proposed one-year initial effort is the conceptual design of a hybrid flight vehicle that can take advantage of both operating regimes. When deflated, the vehicle is to fit into a planetary entry shell. When inflated, the vehicle will have a shape with high aerodynamic efficiency that will allow it to efficiently change its latitude while providing sufficient agility to counter wind shear and turbulence. The buoyancy of the vehicle will be adjustable to allow for vertical mobility. A two-pronged approach of theoretical and numerical analysis will be taken. The outer aerodynamic shape of the aerobot will be drafted on the computer. Computational fluid dynamics such as vortex lattice methods will be employed to investigate the vehicle aerodynamics. The differential gas pressure, which is limited by the material properties of the outer skin, and the vehicle weight and volume determine the buoyancy force. The buoyancy and propulsion requirements as well as the thermal balance for flight on the day and night side of Venus will be analyzed and optimized for relevant mission scenarios. For the analysis of the mission scenario, a parametric model of the Venus atmosphere will be integrated into an existing point-mass model simulation environment. The model will be expanded to include the vehicle power and thermal balance as well as the buoyancy force. The conceptual design will be optimized over several iterations.

The project will support two graduate students and strengthen aerospace and space exploration research in New Mexico which is an EPSCoR state. One of the graduate students will focus more on the conceptual design while the other student will mainly work on the simulation environment. The expected outcome are a conceptual design and substantiated data sets that will provide the basis for a detailed design and eventually the development of a prototype.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.