Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter from Scientific American and join a community of science-loving readers.<\/a><\/p>\nOut of 20 probes, landers and balloons sent by the U.S. and Soviet Union that have reached the surface of Venus in the past 60 years, the study found that at least seven were probably hardy enough to endure the hostile environment and ended up in places on the planet where they\u2019re not imminently threatened with geological burial or destruction. \u201cThis does not mean that the others cannot be preserved,\u201d says space archaeologist and independent researcher Luca Forassiepi, one of the study co-authors. \u201cBut I\u2019d say for those seven … I don\u2019t find any reason to not think that they are still there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reaching that conclusion required somehow replicating the harsh realities of Venus right here on Earth. The planet\u2019s surface is broiling at about 460 degrees Celsius (860 degrees Fahrenheit), about double the temperature required to melt pure tin. The surface also lies beneath 90 bars of pressure, almost 100 times greater than that of sea level on Earth, from a smothering sky filled with near-pure carbon dioxide and laced with corrosive sulfuric acid rain.<\/p>\n
The study authors used data from NASA\u2019s Glenn Extreme Environments Rig (GEER) lab, which recreated the Venusian environment, to do a case study on how the American Pioneer Venus Day Probe may have fared after it plunged through Venus\u2019s clouds in 1978. The probe was made of mostly titanium, with beryllium shelves and aluminum equipment boxes inside. GEER tests have shown that titanium has \u201cexcellent resistance\u201d to Venus\u2019s surface conditions, so the probe should\u2019ve mostly retained its shape, the authors wrote. The probe\u2019s aluminum parts showed similar resilience.<\/p>\n
The GEER data suggested, however, that the probe\u2019s O-rings and gaskets responsible for maintaining its internal pressurization would have likely failed from prolonged exposure to Venus\u2019s environment. Weakened by a brief-but-corrosive bath of sulfuric acid droplets during its plunge, the probe would\u2019ve inevitably deformed and ruptured upon reaching the ground. But that doesn\u2019t mean it would have been completely destroyed\u2014far from it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to have some kind of deformation, for sure, and compression in the moment of the entrance of the Venus atmosphere and very oxidized, very corroded looking metal,\u201d Forassiepi says. \u201cI\u2019m very hopeful that [if we ever] have a probe with an imaging capability to image an artifact on the surface, we will see it in the same place where we left it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pioneer Venus Day Probe is just one of 20 objects studied, most of which were not American-made. But because of the comparative lack of accessible Soviet-era records, Forassiepi and his co-authors chose the probe as a case study.<\/p>\n
Their investigation also evaluated what we currently know about Venus\u2019s surface conditions in the areas where all of the probes landed. It factored in estimates of volcanic and seismic activity, radiation levels, meteorite impact rates, and even the manner and speed with which sediments accumulate on the ground. Most of the probes, the researchers found, should still be visible, even if they\u2019re not wholly intact on the surface\u2014and the odds for long-term survival seem favorable because Venus\u2019s geological activity is much more sluggish than that of Earth\u2019s, with far lower levels of volcanism and tremors.<\/p>\n
The question of how Venus\u2019s atmosphere affects probes isn\u2019t just about the past\u2014the list of artifacts may be growing soon because more probes are set to land on Venus. NASA\u2019s Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry and Imaging (DAVINCI) mission, tentatively scheduled for 2030, aims to release a probe meant to land on the planet\u2019s surface and capture images and data. Also, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the company Rocket Lab are eyeing a 2026 launch date for their private mission\u2019s Venus-bound probe.<\/p>\n
The paper \u201cextends the range of space archaeology,” says Beth O\u2019Leary, a space archaeologist and professor emerita at New Mexico State University, who was not involved with the study but is mentioned in the paper\u2019s acknowledgments. \u201cForassiepi has broadened that to a place where we [once] said, \u2018Forget it. There\u2019s not going to be anything there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Space archaeology provides insight into technological innovation of the past and can help us chart future space missions and engineering projects. But it also preserves human history and what scientists call \u201cspace heritage<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cVenus is part of this general effort to study all our material traces in the solar system,\u201d Forassiepi says. \u201cThe fact that it\u2019s very difficult to access doesn\u2019t downsize the cultural and historical value.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When international space agencies send probes out into the solar system, many are abandoned to expire and deteriorate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[18,209775,19,17,209774,67071,95452,133,451,2664],"class_list":{"0":"post-479018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-hostile-environment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-luca-forassiepi","13":"tag-pioneer-venus","14":"tag-probes","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-space","17":"tag-venus"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116555494502586520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}