Originally published by MDPI Open Access Journals

Rocket Lab Mission to Venus

by Richard French ^1,*,Christophe Mandy ¹,Richard Hunter ¹,Ehson Mosleh ¹,Doug Sinclair ¹,Peter Beck ¹,Sara Seager ^2,3,4,Janusz J. Petkowski ²,Christopher E. Carr ⁵,David H. Grinspoon ⁶,Darrel Baumgardner ^7,8 and on behalf of the Rocket Lab Venus Team ^†1

Rocket Lab, 3881 McGowen Street, Long Beach, CA 90808, USA
² Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
³ Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
⁴ Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
⁵ School of Aerospace Engineering and School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
⁶ Planetary Science Institute, 1700 East Fort Lowell, Suite 106, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
⁷ Droplet Measurement Technologies, LLC, 2400 Trade Centre Ave, Longmont, CO 80503, USA
⁸ Cloud Measurement Solutions, LLC, 415 Kit Carson Rd., Unit 7, Taos, NM 87571, USA
^* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
^† Collaborators/Membership of the Group/Team Name is provided in the Acknowledgments.

Academic Editor: Pierre Rochus
Aerospace 2022, 9(8), 445; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9080445
Received: 21 July 2022 / Revised: 10 August 2022 / Accepted: 11 August 2022 / Published: 13 August 2022|
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Search for Signs of Life on Venus: Science Objectives and Mission Designs)

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Abstract

Regular, low-cost Decadal-class science missions to planetary destinations will be enabled by high-ΔV small spacecraft, such as the high-energy Photon, and small launch vehicles, such as Electron, to support expanding opportunities for scientists and to increase the rate of science return. The Rocket Lab mission to Venus is a small direct entry probe planned for baseline launch in May 2023 with accommodation for a single ~1 kg instrument. A backup launch window is available in January 2025. The probe mission will spend about 5 min in the Venus cloud layers at 48–60 km altitude above the surface and collect in situ measurements. We have chosen a low-mass, low-cost autofluorescing nephelometer to search for organic molecules in the cloud particles and constrain the particle composition.

Keywords: Venus; Rocket Lab; autofluorescing nephelometer; small spacecraft; small launch vehicle

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