Europlanet Science Congress 2022
Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Spain
18 – 23 September 2022
Europlanet Science Congress 2022
Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Spain
18 September – 23 September 2022
EPSC Abstracts
Vol. 16, EPSC2022-662, 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2022-662
Europlanet Science Congress 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

A novel radiometer for clouds investigations in future Venus aerobot missions

Victor Apestigue1, Daniel Toledo1, Ignacio Arruego1, Margarita Yela1, Patrick GJ Irwin2, Shubham Kulkarni2, Colin F. Wilson2,3, Amanda Brecht4, Kevin H. Baines5, and James A. Cutts5
Victor Apestigue et al.
  • 1National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA). Torrejón de Ardoz. Madrid. Spain. (apestiguepv@inta.es)
  • 2Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Rd, Oxford, OX1 3PU, UK
  • 3ESA-ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands
  • 4NASA Ames Reserch Center. Moffett Field. CA. USA.
  • 5Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA.

The history of in-situ Venus exploration has been limited to a few opportunities with different probes that were capable to operate, for short periods of time, under the extreme atmospheric conditions of the planet. Among these missions, the VeGa balloons deployed in the Venus atmosphere in the mid-eighties of previous century revealed the advantages of using this concept for investigating the atmosphere of Venus. In this regard, the recent studies for the 2023-2030 Planetary Decadal Survey [1-3] have pointed the potential of using balloon platforms for planetary science exploration, considering that the different technologies required for these missions are currently mature enough to develop long-lived and possibly even altitude-varying probes or more specifically, aerobots.
In this work, we present an early concept of a lightweight radiometer for future balloon missions to Venus. Its primary scientific objectives are: i) to measure solar and ii)thermal infrared fluxes and their deposition in the cloud layer, iii) to characterize the variability of the cloud structure and its constituents, and iv) to detect and characterize atmospheric lightning events. Those investigations will allow us to understand the role of each objective in determining the atmospheric structure and the driving circulation of the planet.
Due to the limitations on resources for this kind of platforms, the key characteristics of the proposed instrument are its high scientific performance and the scarce resources needs: low accommodation volume, size, and mass; low power and data volume consumption. The radiometer combines different spectral bandpass channels (from UVA to IR) with particular orientations and field of view (FoV) selected to meet the scientific objectives. The instrument also incorporates a visible camera to provide context images for cloud investigations.
The Spanish National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) has established a long-term strategy in the last decade with the program InMARS [4] that is devoted to developing high-performance, low-power, miniature sensors designed for in-situ planetary missions [5-10]. Within this program, we have developed an intensive selection, qualification, and screening activity in our particular technological roadmap called CERES (Compact Electronic Resources for the Exploration of Space), which allowed INTA to acquire critical technologies, components (including mixed ASICs [11-12]), materials and procedures for such instrumentation developments.


[1] K.H. Baines et al, 2020. White Pape. [2] Martha S. Gilmore et al, 2020. Venus Flagship Mission Decadal Study Final Report [3] Joseph O’Rourke, ADVENTS misión concept study. [4] I.Arruego et al. IPPW 2018. Boulder. Colorado. USA. [5] H. Guerrero et al. EGU 2010. Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 12, EGU2010-13330, 2010. [6] I. Arruego et al. DREAMS-SIS. ASR 2017. 60 (1): 103-120. [7] V. Apéstigue et al. Sensors.2022. [8] D. Rodionov et al. Sixth International Workshop on the Mars Atmosphere: Modelling and Observations. 2017. Granada. Spain. [9] D. Scaccabarozzi et al. IEEE MetroAeroSpace proccedings. 2019. Torino.Italy. [10] A. Russu et al. Proc. SPIE 11129. [11] S. Sordo-Ibáñez et al. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, vol. 63, pp. 2379-2389, 2016. [12] S. Sordo-Ibáñez et al. IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 51, pp. 1-4, 2015

How to cite: Apestigue, V., Toledo, D., Arruego, I., Yela, M., Irwin, P. G., Kulkarni, S., Wilson, C. F., Brecht, A., Baines, K. H., and Cutts, J. A.: A novel radiometer for clouds investigations in future Venus aerobot missions, Europlanet Science Congress 2022, Granada, Spain, 18–23 Sep 2022, EPSC2022-662, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2022-662, 2022.

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