What does Russia mean by suggesting sending an unmanned helicopter to Venus?

Aircraft detection has unique advantages. At present, there are three main ways to detect planets, namely, surrounding detection, in-situ detection and patrol detection. Orbit detection is mainly accomplished by spacecraft orbiting Mars, Venus and other planets through remote sensing detection. Generally speaking, remote sensing uses various scientific instruments to "photograph" the planets in space, but these "photographs" not only contain the image information of the planet's surface, but also have rich information such as spectrum and elevation, which can reflect the atmospheric characteristics, mineral composition, topography and geomorphology of the planet's surface. On the other hand, the in-situ detector uses the detector to land on the surface of the planet and detect the rock, atmosphere or biological information of the detector. Patrol detection is also carried out on the surface of the planet, but because it is carried out by a mobile patrol car such as a rover, the detection range can be greatly expanded compared with the in-situ detection.

For Mars, orbital exploration can give us more comprehensive information about Mars, while in-situ and patrol exploration can give us more detailed information. With the cooperation of these detection methods, scientists have a certain understanding of Mars. However, because the distance between the probe and the surface of Mars is generally more than several hundred kilometers, it is difficult to clearly observe the details of the surface of Mars. At the same time, due to the limitation of orbit, the satellite will observe a place again after a long time interval, and it is difficult to continuously observe some rapidly changing phenomena. However, the accuracy of in-situ detection and patrol detection is high, and in-situ detection can only be carried out at the landing site, and the walking range of rover and other rover vehicles is quite limited. For example, the rover Opportunity, which just finished its work recently, only moved 45 kilometers in the work of 14, which is insignificant compared with the circumference of more than 20 thousand kilometers of Mars.

It is estimated that the titanium equipment will be 70 cm in diameter and covered with vacuum insulation and thermal insulation. At the same time, in order to protect the scientific instrument cabin inside the helicopter from the high temperature of Venus (467 degrees Celsius), scientists hope to lay an aerogel with a thickness of 10 cm under the titanium shell and add titanium oxide. The scientific instrument module is placed in a titanium ball with a diameter of 60 cm, which is filled with liquid ammonia. In addition, two coaxial propellers with a diameter of 1 m and a parachute system for braking are installed outside the helicopter. The four legs are 20-40 cm long, and there is a drill for collecting soil at the lower part.

Russia plans to launch Venus "Venus -D" automatic station composed of orbit and landing device to Venus in June 2029, which will be used to comprehensively study Venus' atmosphere, surface, internal structure and surrounding plasma. In addition, Russia's Venus exploration plan also includes two tasks, including continuing to study the planet's atmosphere in June 20031year, and sending atmospheric, aerosol and possible soil samples from Venus to the earth in June 2034. At present, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is testing an original helicopter on Mars, which has completed about 65,438+00 flights.