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Illustration showing the Rocket Lab Venus entry probe and orbiter

Rocket Lab Mission to Venus

Science Objectives

Objective #1: Search for the presence of organic material within cloud-layer particles as a function of altitude.
Autofluorescence is a way to detect (but not identify) organics inside cloud droplets on Venus. Many organic compounds are known to fluoresce when subject to UV, owing to delocalized ring electrons. Toward this goal, the probe will identify UV autofluorescence in cloud particles, if present.

Objective #2: Seek anomalous cloud components, including  aspherical particles, and their relative abundance as a function of altitude.
Aspherical particles are not pure liquid and therefore cannot be pure sulfuric acid. Constraining particle composition can support evidence of habitable conditions inside cloud particles. Toward this goal, the probe will determine cloud particle size distribution, identify asphericity, and estimate the complex index of refraction of cloud particles as a function of altitude. 

Instrument: AutoFluorescence Nephelometer (AFN)

Droplet Measurement Technologies is developing the AFN, leveraging their decades of experience with cloud measurement solutions. 
 

Mass: < 1 kg

Power: < 50 W
 

Measurement: Measure scattered light of 440 nm wavelength and fluorescence of in 470 to 520 nm wavelength range from single aerosol particles.

Scientific output: Detect and derive particle size and number density, derive complex reflective index, quantify asphericity of particles, and detect fluorescence from particles. 

Photo of Instrument: AutoFluorescence Nephelometer (AFN)
More Information

Rocket Lab’s mission webpage
 

French, R.; Mandy, C.; Hunter, R.; Mosleh, E.; Sinclair, D.; Beck, P.; Seager, S.; Petkowski, J.J.; Carr, C.E.; Grinspoon, D.H.; Baumgardner, D.; on behalf of the Rocket Lab Venus Team. Rocket Lab Mission to Venus. Aerospace 2022, 9, 445. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9080445
 

Baumgardner, D.; Fisher, T.; Newton, R.; Roden, C.; Zmarzly, P.; Seager, S.; Petkowski, J.J.; Carr, C.E.; Špaček, J.; Benner, S.A.; Tolbert, M.A.; Jansen, K.; Grinspoon, D.H.; Mandy, C. Deducing the Composition of Venus Cloud Particles with the Autofluorescence Nephelometer (AFN). Aerospace 2022, 9, 492. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9090492
 

AFN Poster

Rocket Lab Mission to Venus poster presented at the 2023 Venus Surface and Atmosphere Conference
 

Spacek, Jan. “Organic Carbon Cycle in the Atmosphere of Venus.” https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsearthspacechem.3c00261

Rocket Lab will launch a small probe to Venus aboard its Electron rocket to advance the search for life signs beyond Earth. The probe will be dropped off into the Venus atmosphere with a mission lifetime of about 5 minutes.

 

This is the first-ever largely privately funded mission to Venus, pioneering low-cost space exploration.

illustration of the Rocket Lab Neutron Rocket system
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