Flight analysis of a Venus atmospheric mobile platform

We present an overview analysis of an airplane concept for a Venus in situ exploration mission. Venus possesses a hostile environment with strong zonal winds and large scale vertical drafts. Further exploration of this mysterious, yet comparable terrestrial planet is of immense scientific interest and potential benefit for the improved understanding of Earth's future climate. Previous probes have not been able to sample the cloud top region of Venus and thus the desire for exploring the feasibility of an unmanned flying platform in the altitude range of 60-70 km is crucial. The airplane is powered by advanced solar panels installed on its top and bottom surfaces, which fully exploits the abundant sunlight available above the clouds as well as the reflected sunlight from the cloud below the flight altitude. The primary focus of this effort is the computational fluid dynamics analysis of the airplane in the atmosphere of Venus, at desired altitudes and various angles of attack. Design optimization is carried out using various wing planform such as straight and elliptic, as compared to a curved wing planform design selected for less induced drag and larger volume for inflation. The airplane sustains its weight by utilizing the ambient winds to gain lift along with the buoyancy generated lift by the helium-filled structure of the airplane. This hybrid airplane concept ensures it's round the clock operation due to the fact that even in the event of airplane mishaps or wing failure, it would lose altitude and rest on the lower, much denser clouds as a fully buoyant configuration. Constraints as well as results for this conceptual design are also presented.