NASA՚s new Frontiers planetary science competition, Northrop Grumman Corporation is developing the inflatable, propeller-powered aircraft for a years-long cruise in the skies of Venus.
The plane, that will have almost twice the wingspan of a Boeing 737, is part of the Venus mission concept called Venus Atmospheric Maneuverable Platform (VAMP) .
It will sample the acidic alien atmosphere on Venus.
The firm aims for $ 1 billion of NASA funding to get its inflatable propeller aircraft off the ground.
Vamp would have a wingspan of 46 meters - almost twice the size of a Boeing 737 - with an estimated top speed of 220 kms an hour.
It would have almost twice the wingspan of a Boeing 737.
On board would be up to 200 kg worth of instruments such as cameras and atmospheric samplers.
It would be flown 50 - 70 km above the surface of Venus, in a region of the atmosphere where the pressure is roughly equal to that on the Earth.
Challenges
The plane would be carried to Venus by a spacecraft. The ground temperature on Venus - Earth՚s superheated sister planet - hovers around 460 degrees Celsius.
Surviving on the surface for any longer than four hours and getting high-resolution data is a challenge, Constantine Tsang from Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado was quoted as saying.
A series of Russian probes sent to the planet in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, known as the Venera spacecraft, were able to survive no more than a few hours on the surface.