After studying Mars, NASA plans to send flying drones to Venus

We already know about NASA’s endless effort to explore Mars. Looks like now, it is also shifting its attention to the other neighboring planet, Venus.

Space agency NASA has partnered with Black Swift Technologies – a company that specializes in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) – in order to study planet Venus via flying drones that can also survive Venus’ atmosphere.

The company is supposed to play its part by manufacturing a drone for surviving in the upper atmosphere of Venus. Until now, NASA has awarded a six-month contract to the company for designing a drone as per NASA’s specifications. The contract included a $125,000 grant provided by federal governments’ research program, ‘Small Business Innovation’.

NASA funds project to turn asteroids into autonomous spaceships

With this money, the firm will get more staff and build the drone fit for Venus. If the drone design proves to be up for the task, NASA will award them a contract for a Venus aerial drone.

As per Universe Today, because of the climate models, it has been believed that Venus might have had liquid water on its surface around two billion years ago along with a shallow ocean that dried up after Greenhouse Effect and left Venus with a hot and hellish atmosphere.

NASA’s Ames Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory studied Venus and believed that there might be microbial life present in the top of Venus’ clouds. By sending these aerial drones, more about this organic life or water presence can be discovered, wrote Phys.org.

The co-founder of Black Swift Technologies, Jack Elston explained, “They’re [NASA] looking for vehicles to explore just above the cloud layer. The pressure and temperatures are similar to what you’d find on Earth, so it could be a good environment for looking for evidence of life. The winds in the upper atmosphere of Venus are incredibly strong, which creates design challenge.”

The company thus, needs to manufacture a drone that can use the winds to keep it flying and lessen the amount of electricity required for flying. Elston said that if NASA likes ‘what we’ve come up with, they’ll fund another two-year project to build prototypes. That second-phase contract is expected to be worth $750,000’.