Search results
First in a series of interviews of Science Team members of the VERITAS mission to Venus. Sue is the Principal Investigator (the head honcho) of the VERITAS ...
- 11 min
- 4
- VERITAS Team Members
Dec 11, 2019 · Sue Smrekar really wants to go back to Venus. In her office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the planetary scientist displays a 30-year-old image of Venus’ surface taken by the Magellan spacecraft, a reminder of how much time has passed since an American mission orbited the planet.
- Orbiters
- Hot Air Balloons
- Landing Probes
Venus isn’t the closest planet to the Sun, but it is the hottest in our solar system. Between the intense heat (900 degrees Fahrenheit heat, or 480 degrees Celsius), the corrosive sulfuric clouds, and a crushing atmosphere that is 90 times denser than Earth’s, landing a spacecraft there is incredibly challenging. Of the nine Soviet probes that achi...
Orbiters aren’t the only means of studying Venus from above. JPL engineers Attila Komjathy and Siddharth Krishnamoorthy imagine an armada of hot air balloons that ride the gale-force winds in the upper levels of the Venusian atmosphere, where the temperatures are close to Earth’s. “There is no commissioned mission for a balloon at Venus yet, but ba...
Among the many challenges facing a Venus lander are those Sun-blocking clouds: Without sunlight, solar power would be severely limited. But the planet is too hot for other power sources to survive. “Temperature-wise, it’s like being in your kitchen oven set to self-cleaning mode,” said JPL engineer Jeff Hall, who has worked on balloon and lander pr...
- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jul 14, 2021 · Sue, you've called Venus, "A cosmic gift of an accident." What do you mean by that? Sue Smrekar: Well, there's a great cartoon, XKCD, I don't know if you've seen that site-Mat Kaplan: Oh, God. My hero, yeah. Sue Smrekar:... but they have this cartoon, space without the space. Venus is actually 41% of the rocky material in our solar system.
Nov 11, 2023 · Sue Smrekar, VERITAS principal investigator at JPL, argued that many of the problems at the lab that prompted the delay had been resolved. A launch in late 2029, she said, was still feasible “if ...
Sue Smrekar really wants to go back to Venus. In her office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the planetary scientist displays a 30-year-old image of Venus’ surface taken by the Magellan spacecraft, a reminder of how much time has passed since an American mission orbited the planet.
People also ask
Does Sue Smrekar want to go back to Venus?
Can orbiters study Venus from above?
Can a Venus lander survive without sunlight?
Is Venus a control case for Earth?
Are balloons a good way to explore Venus?
Dec 12, 2019 · Sue Smrekar really wants to go back to Venus. In her office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the planetary scientist displays a 30-year-old image of Venus' surface ...
