KYTHERA Mission Concept Targets 200-Day Mission to Venus Surface
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The planet Venus is often called “Earth’s twin” due to the similar sizes, but the reality couldn’t be farther from the truth. Unlike Earth, which is hospitable to an estimated billions of lifeforms, Venus is not hospitable to life as we know it, at least on its surface. This is because the surface of Venus not only experiences an average temperature of 464 degrees Celsius (867 degrees Fahrenheit), but it also has crushing pressures approximately 92 times of Earth, or equivalent to approximately
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KYTHERA Mission Concept Targets 200-Day Mission to Venus Surface By Laurence Tognetti, MSc - April 01, 2026 02:46 AM UTC | Missions The planet Venus is often called “Earth’s twin” due to the similar sizes, but the reality couldn’t be farther from the truth. Unlike Earth, which is hospitable to an estimated billions of lifeforms, Venus is not hospitable to life as we know it, at least on its surface. This is because the surface of Venus not only experiences an average temperature of 464 degrees Celsius (867 degrees Fahrenheit), but it also has crushing pressures approximately 92 times of Earth, or equivalent to approximately 1 kilometer (3,000 feet) below the ocean. These extreme surface conditions are why the longest spacecraft to survive on the Venusian surface is just over two hours. Now, a team of researchers from the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands might be one step closer to landing a long-term spacecraft on Venus’ surface. In a study recently presented at the 57th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, they introduced the KYTHERA mission concept, which is a proposed lander they hypothesize could survive on the Venusian surface while performing science for up to 200 Earth days, which is more than 80 percent the length of one Venus day at 225 Earth days. For the study, the researchers discussed candidate landing sites, lander design, mission timelines, and science goals. For landing sites, the team chose Lakshmi Planum and Lada Terra, with the former possessing reduced pressure and temperature conditions and the latter being more scientifically interesting since it potentially has active volcanism and seismic activity. For lander design, the team proposed using cooling generators due to the extreme heat and whose design partially mimics the Soviet Venera lander designs of the 1970s and 1980s. For power needs, KYTHERA will use radioisotope systems, which have been used on Voyager 1 & 2 , Cassini-Huygens (orbiter/lander), New Horizons , Curiosit...
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