Peter Beck @RocketLab has Venus in his sights planning a NZ mission there in 2023. #Venus #space
Hypercurie is our latest spacecraft engine... and It’s perfect to get payloads to the moon and..........Venus!
That’s pretty sweet. Is it just an orbiter, or does it include an aerial or surface element?
PeterJBeckStill early days. The point of the probe is to look for possible life in Venus' atmosphere. Current probe candidates are about 25 kg and have about 6 mins of time in the sweet spot. Photon will act as the relay back to Earth.
Peter Beck talked about Venus on a recent Reddit AMA.---------SandsOfMars9:How big is the Rocket Lab probe that will go into the atmosphere of Venus be?Will it float in the Venus atmosphere?Is it a balloon probe?Is there an orbiter as well to relay the probe data back to earth?PeterJBeckStill early days. The point of the probe is to look for possible life in Venus' atmosphere. Current probe candidates are about 25 kg and have about 6 mins of time in the sweet spot. Photon will act as the relay back to Earth.
Quote from: NZ1 on 07/29/2020 07:46 pmPeterJBeckStill early days. The point of the probe is to look for possible life in Venus' atmosphere. Current probe candidates are about 25 kg and have about 6 mins of time in the sweet spot. Photon will act as the relay back to Earth.Given how early the planning for this mission is, I wonder how likely it is to actually launch. As we all know, a lot of plans are announced for space projects that don't end up happening.There's been speculation about who will pay for this, but no announcement so far. I think that's telling. I think if financing was already secure it would have been announced. There's nothing small space companies like to publicize more than funding.
Quote from: ChrisWilson68 on 07/29/2020 11:40 pmQuote from: NZ1 on 07/29/2020 07:46 pmPeterJBeckStill early days. The point of the probe is to look for possible life in Venus' atmosphere. Current probe candidates are about 25 kg and have about 6 mins of time in the sweet spot. Photon will act as the relay back to Earth.Given how early the planning for this mission is, I wonder how likely it is to actually launch. As we all know, a lot of plans are announced for space projects that don't end up happening.There's been speculation about who will pay for this, but no announcement so far. I think that's telling. I think if financing was already secure it would have been announced. There's nothing small space companies like to publicize more than funding.If it is only about $20M.There is James Cameron (part time NZ resident) who could financed such a project. His involvement should result in some cool footage during the descend of the dropsonde. Cameron have to find something more challenging to do than visiting the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Quote from: Zed_Noir on 07/30/2020 03:28 amQuote from: ChrisWilson68 on 07/29/2020 11:40 pmQuote from: NZ1 on 07/29/2020 07:46 pmPeterJBeckStill early days. The point of the probe is to look for possible life in Venus' atmosphere. Current probe candidates are about 25 kg and have about 6 mins of time in the sweet spot. Photon will act as the relay back to Earth.Given how early the planning for this mission is, I wonder how likely it is to actually launch. As we all know, a lot of plans are announced for space projects that don't end up happening.There's been speculation about who will pay for this, but no announcement so far. I think that's telling. I think if financing was already secure it would have been announced. There's nothing small space companies like to publicize more than funding.If it is only about $20M.There is James Cameron (part time NZ resident) who could financed such a project. His involvement should result in some cool footage during the descend of the dropsonde. Cameron have to find something more challenging to do than visiting the bottom of the Mariana Trench.I'm not saying it won't happen. Just that we can't count on it happening.Maybe Cameron will step up and pay for it. Maybe he won't.A lot of ambitious space projects have been stopped for want of less than $20 million. Just look at the original X Prize or the Google Lunar X prize. Both of those generated lots of interest, lots of novel ideas, and lots of hard work. Some of them got significant amounts of money. But only Space Ship One was able to get to the finish line for the original X Prize. Nobody was able to get to the finish line for the Google Lunar X Prize.If you assume Cameron is likely to pay $20 million for this without any actual evidence he's shown any interest, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.
May actuall be NZ Space Agency paying for it.https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42327.msg2113043.msg#2113043
Peter Beck @RocketLab has Venus in his sights planning a NZ mission there in 2023.
"Generally, if you want to do a science mission to the moon, you start writing a check at $50-$100 million," he said. But with Photon coming online, "for $10-20 million, you can actually do some really good science, interplanetary and lunar. That's what excites me."He says it, so it must be true.
This has been hinted at for a while, with Beck mentioning the planet as a favourite of his and such subtle hints as Quote Hypercurie is our latest spacecraft engine... and It’s perfect to get payloads to the moon and..........Venus! https://twitter.com/Peter_J_Beck/status/1283635288133103616?s=20