Request Robotic Exploration of Venus

[sergsh]

Very intrested add-on like this NASA concept(see video) ;-)

 

[Sky Captain]

How are they going to make those rovers work? A robotic plane could fly at high altitude where temperature is lower, but rovers? They have to work at temperature over 450 degrees, how electronics is going to survive that?

 

[Wishbone]

Vacuum tubes? Another solution is an expendable cryo-coolant. (the usual amateur disclaimer applies)

 

[Ghostrider]

Why cryo? You need something that melts or evaporates at 400° so that it can be blown out or dumped taking the heat with it as its main means of cooldown. You don't have to freeze the circuitry, it must stay at operating temperature.

 

[dumbo2007]

I think the basic metals from which electronic components are constructed have to be changed. Solders have to be thicker and redundant. Circuit design techniques have to be adapted to extreme temperature ranges. All in all its actually possible today :
Googling got me this site :

http://www.extremetemperatureelectronics.com/tutorial1.html

At the low end, operation of semiconductor-based devices and circuits has often been reported down to temperatures as low as a few degrees above absolute zero, in other words as low as about −270°C. This includes devices based on Si, Ge, GaAs and other semiconductor materials. Moreover, there is no reason to believe that operation should not extend all the way down to absolute zero.

On the high end, "laboratory" operation of discrete semiconductor devices has been reported at temperatures as high as about +700°C (for a diamond Schottky diode) and 650°C (for a SiC MOSFET). Integrated circuits based on Si and GaAs have operated to +400−500°C. Si ICs have been reported to operate at +300°C for 1000 hours or longer.

Covering both extremes, there are reports of the same transistor working from about −270°C to about +350 to +400°C, an operating temperature span of over +600°C!

Also, many passive components are useable to the lowest temperatures or up to several hundred degrees Celsius.

Bear in mind, however, that operation at extreme temperatures is not automatically true for every semiconductor device or passive component; operation at extreme temperatures depends on a number of materials and design factors.

If the outer hull can withstand the pressure and the exposed parts of the sensors can be hardened....maybe diamond , then it should be doable.

 

[sergsh]

if intresting more information about this:
http://rt.grc.nasa.gov/power-in-spa...power-technologies/news/venus-mission-design/

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090001338_2008047211.pdf