PARIS: Windbots could explore the atmosphere of Jupiter one day, according to NASA researchers exploring the unique craft.
These unusual vehicles would move through the dense, turbulent gases that surround the giant world. Instead of flying, the vehicles would “bob” through the atmosphere.
Nasa’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has awarded $100,000 toward research into these potentially revolutionary designs for robotic explorers to distant worlds.
Four of the planets within our solar system—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune—have never been explored by rovers. This is due to the fact that each of these giant worlds is composed of a vast, dense atmosphere that makes up the majority of their sizable radius. At the present time, it would be impossible to land a spacecraft on the solid core of a giant planet hidden deep beneath the visible surface of the atmosphere.
“One could imagine a network of windbots existing for quite a long time on Jupiter or Saturn, sending information about ever-changing weather patterns. And, of course, what we learn about the atmospheres of other planets enriches our understanding of Earth’s own weather and climate,” Adrian Stoica, principal investigator for windbots research at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said.
The Galileo spacecraft sent a probe into the atmosphere of Jupiter in 1995. That vehicle, which deployed a parachute during its descent, only lasted around an hour before succumbing to the enormous temperatures and pressures.
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