Since the beginning of the space age, very few space crafts have landed on Venus, and none on Europa-an icy moon of Jupiter.
At the virtual American Geophysical Union meeting, planetary scientists and engineers discussed new tricks that hypothetical future spacecraft may need to land on unfamiliar terrain on Venus and Europa.
Navigating Venus
Venus is a very difficult world to visit. It’s high temperatures and crushing atmospheric pressures have led to the destruction of space crafts that managed to reach its surface two hours after their arrival.
In one of the proposed plans discussed at the AGU meeting, scientists plan on landing on a mountainous terrain on Venus called tessera.
“Safely landing in tessera terrain is absolutely necessary to satisfy our science objectives,” said planetary scientist Joshua Knicely of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in a talk recorded for the meeting. “We have to do it.”
Unfortunately, the best maps of the planet—from NASA’...
More...