It’s hard to think of a more hostile environment than the surface of Venus. Temperatures reach 860 degrees, the air pressure is enough to crush you, the clouds are made of sulfuric acid, which deposit rain that, because of the extreme heat, evaporates back into a never ending toxic cloud, and the atmosphere is so thick, it feels like you are moving in gelatin.
Before you head to a planet as extreme as Venus, you want to make sure your spacecraft is up for the challenge. NASA Glenn’s Extreme Environments Rig (GEER) is designed to put Venus bound spacecraft through tests that include 1,000 degree Fahrenheit temperatures and pressure up to 100 times that on earth. The rig simulates altitude conditions above Venus from the upper atmosphere to the surface and includes all the most corrosive chemicals such as hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen chloride, which can destroy materials used on landers as they approach the planet.
The ultimate goals of the exploration of Venus is to determine why this planet, which was thought to have had the same temperatures and water as Earth, went hot and toxic. The Extreme Environments Rig is poised to help prepare missions that will eventually answer those mysteries.
Image Credit: NASA
Michelle M. Murphy (Wyle Information Systems, LLC)