Interplanetary Exploration

How could you use BLIMPs to search for extraterrestrial life?

Learning Objectives

After completing this lesson, the student will be able to apply their knowledge of fluid mechanics to understand a technical article about interplanetary exploration.

Standards

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.11-12.2
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.11-12.7

Pre-Requisites

To best understand the reading linked here, we recommend you complete the following lessons prior to diving in:

  • Centers
  • Force Balance

Venus

With a very dense atmosphere, Venus is hot.  Really, hot, making it difficult for exploration by rover.  But, it is explorable by balloon!  In 1985, Russia deployed two helium balloons on the Vega 1 and Vega 2 missions in order to study Venus.  A recent paper by Hein, Lingam, Eubanks, Hibberd, Fries, and Blase in Astrophysical Journal Letters outlines a balloon mission to Venus that could be used to detect signs of life.  Read it online at: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/abc347/meta .  

  • Describe how a balloon can be used for interplanetary exploration.
  • What would change for the buoyant and gravitational forces acting on a balloon on Venus versus Earth?  

Bonus: If you have completed the lesson on Added Mass and Drag, consider how those physical phenomena would be affected in the Venusian atmosphere?

A Day in the Life
Form and Function
Balance
Movement
The Literate Engineer

Last updated: November 22, 2022.