Floating Base of Venus

I had previously stated the feasibility of a floating Venus base. As seen from the research data, there are regions on Venus’s atmosphere where the temperature is low enough to maintain the sensitive equipment operational without active cooling. Such thermal differences would condense the water and sulfuric acid vapors. This would allow the floating base to extract hydrogen and water from the atmosphere. Additionally, hydrogen gas can be combined with the abundant carbon dioxide to yield methane and oxygen, rocket propellent.

Flying over the strong sand storms of the Venus atmosphere would be like flying inside a sand blaster. Therefore, usage of balloons would be limited due strong abrasion. I propose a multiplane design which would have strong wings and large lift to drag ratio. The tips of the flying multi-wing would have wind turbines to generate electric from the wind. The multiplane should have high lifting power for the given atmospheric winds. Therefore, even with the reduced flying speed due to drag induced by multiple wings and the wind turbine, it should stay aloft. The plane will act like a glider and will have no active propulsion. When the plane wants to change its elevation, the middle wings will collapse or expand to change the air lift.

There will be multiple versions of these bases. They will operate independently. One type will be optimized to generate rocket propellent only. Another will have test equipment to analyze the samples. The cold region of Venus is a limited area. The flying base will only circle on that region and the ground research will only be conducted below that region. The ground samples will be gathered by high temperature operable pneumatic robot spiders. These samples will be transported between the ground and the flying base via transporter rocket.

Venus Airship Explorer 2

Venusian cold polar vortex surrounding the warmer polar vortex opens a possibility of a permanent floating research base on Venus. In order to explore the area further, an airship can be send. The airship will be a floating balloon. Dense atmosphere of Venus has higher lifting power even at higher altitudes.

The airship will have high temperature resistant balloon envelope made of carbon nanotube fibers to create the lift. The balloon will be filled with hydrogen gas. The top of the airship will have four vertical wind turbines that drive four compressors. The compressors will be air cooled by the ambient air. The idea is to utilize a special coolant that would work at Venus temperatures, above 400 degrees Celsius, to cool down the electronics bay of the balloon. Four independent wind driven compressors will allow redundancy as well as induce controlled drag for maneuvering the airship. This is a complex design that should be light and strong. Use of silicon carbide electronics will allow higher temperatures than the silicon counterparts. Advanced Peltier modules will be used to generate electric from the temperature difference between the electronics bay and the ambient air.

The airship will have a high-pressure hydrogen reserve to keep the internal pressure within the balloon level with the outside. This will also allow the airship to change its elevation. The hydrogen reserve will determine the operation duration of the airship. Once the reserves deplete, the airship will lose elevation. Air is denser at lower altitudes and the lifting power is higher. Therefore, the airship will still stay aloft for quite some time until it crashes on the ground.

The airship's balloon envelope will be coated with a special material and then covered by lead, during transportation from earth. The lead layer will protect the envelop from micro meteoroids. Once the explorer reaches Venus and start descending, the lead will start to melt and the special coating will repel the molten lead away.

The main objective of the airship is to monitor the temperature, air composition and wind speed at different altitudes to find a better location for the floating Venus base.

Base On Venus

I am in favor of advancing the research on Venus. It’s harsh environment scares many to conduct ground research on the planet. The following article made me think of a possible Venus research base. Mystery of Puzzling Temperature Distribution in the Venusian Polar Regions (A unique characteristic of the atmospheric structure observed in the Venusian is the cold polar vortex surrounding the warmer polar vortex.)

Unlike traditional ground research bases, this will be a floating one. It will be moving around the Venus atmosphere. The findings show cool regions on Venus’s atmosphere which would be suitable for most electronic equipment and mechanical parts.

The floating base would be made of multiple sections like the International Space Station. It would be robots only base to reduce weight and complexity. The harsh winds of Venus would allow renewable energy source. Additionally, elevated location of the base reduces the propellent requirement for the deployment rocket. Venus’s atmosphere contains sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide. Sulfuric acid can be electrolyzed to extract hydrogen which then be combined with carbon dioxide to yield methane and oxygen, the rocket propellent.

In order to locate possible regions for such a base, a flying explorer should be send in advance. I had previously proposed such a balloon Venus explorer. I have new ideas on that and will share it next.

Experimenting with Thorium

I believe that physics when gone to extremes still have new laws to be discovered. I keep on searching ways to increasing the rate of a radioactive decay. People keep saying that the radioactive decays are constants. I agree to a point that they stay constant on a stable world. All my propositions are creating instability for the atoms to accelerate the decay.

I found two articles on the topic. Unfortunately, the first one requires a subscription.

Radioactivity gets fast-forward

Maybe Radioactive Decay Rates Aren't Physical Constants

My new proposition is a modified version of a Vacuum tube diode. The filament of the tube heats up the cathode material which emits electrons that are accelerated by the plate voltage. I propose tungsten filament as a heater that heats the cathode material above thousand degrees. The cathode material will be a thin thorium sheet. The cathode will be connected to the ground potential. A very high voltage will be applied to the plate which will be coated with an insulator. The tube will be filled with hydrogen gas. The idea is not to create an electric circuit, but to bombard the thorium sheet with hydrogen ions which are just protons. It’s just an idea to convert Thorium 232 to Thorium 233 which decays into Protactinium 233. Protactinium 233 would then be used on a Thorium salt reactor.

New project re-ignites European interest in thorium

Robotic Highway

Countries have complex transportation infrastructures. I would like to propose a new infrastructure to this network. It would mostly negate the need for railroads. It is mainly joined suspension bridges end to end. They will be placed on the highway medians. The idea is to simplify the design and cost of a robot only highway. Unlike railroads, the robotic highway will only provide a flat surface for two lanes, there will be no rails. The lanes will be above one another to reduce the width of the bridge. Autonomous trucks and buses will operate on this highway.

The towers of these suspension bridges will have vertical wind turbines on their top to power the control and monitoring electronics. Robotic highway will also carry the fiber optic cables used to connect cities. Fiber boosters and monitoring systems will also be powered by the wind turbines. The robots traveling on the highway will have onboard batteries and there will be no power lines on the highway like the ones used for electric trains. The idea is to have a very simple highway that has very low maintenance cost and minimum infrastructure. Long power lines and complex signaling schemes create weak points against natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

The panels forming the bridge will be made of light weight material so that drones can be used during the construction. This will also allow fast recovery of damaged sections in case of a natural disaster or a terrorist attack. Some sections of the upper lane will have a lowering mechanism to connect them to the lower lane to allow access in case of a blockage due to an accident.

Finally, building a low-cost robotic highway will improve the logistics within the country by improving the speed by 7/24 operation, electrifying the transportation and reduce reliance on human drivers.

Pneumatic Robotics

I had previously proposed autonomous construction robotics. The problem with such robots was the energy source. The chemical batteries have limited energy storage and they require lithium which is scarce. The second best choice of energy source is combustion.

It would be wise to pressure a gas and use pneumatic systems to do the work instead of electric motors. Most parts required to build a pneumatic system are not scarce like the rare earth magnets for motors. Additionally, motors require high power semiconductors which are exported as well. With a pneumatic system, the semiconductor requirement would be less demanding.

My proposition is to heat up carbon dioxide to generate pressure for the pneumatic system. Carbon dioxide has higher vapor pressure than air and water, therefore more efficient to use. Most important part is the higher efficiency of converting chemical energy to usable kinetic energy. Additionally, as an energy source anything that burns can be used. This allows such robots to operate in rural regions or 3rd world countries. If some of the carbon dioxide is lost in the closed loop, it can be replenished by a carbon dioxide filter on the exhaust. The pneumatic system would also generate the necessary electric power for its electronics using an alternator. As a result, only a starter battery would be required to build such a robot.

Wildfire Extinguisher

Developed nations are known to be environmentally conscious. They spend billions to monitor the environment and lower the pollution. However, they all lack on the wildfire fighting department. What is the meaning of monitoring the forests if you cannot extinguish a wildfire properly. I had previously proposed several ways to extinguish wildfires. Here is a new idea.

I propose an X-Wing with combustion engines and propellers to be used as a firefighter plane. X-Wing design will allow the plane to lift off and land vertically to almost any location. This allows logistic bases to be established close to the forest regions. Vertical takeoff requires much more engine power than a horizontal flight. Once the plane takes off and start flying horizontally, the excess engine power will be used to liquify the exhaust gases of the combustion engine. The engine will operate with liquified natural gas. As a result, the exhaust gas will contain carbon dioxide and water vapor. Both gases will be cooled and pressurized to a temperature and pressure where both carbon dioxide and water exist in the liquid form. Then, this liquified exhaust gas will be stored in fire extinguisher canisters. Which will be dropped over the fire like a bomb. As the canister approach the heat zone, the liquefied gasses will expend and the shell will explode, releasing the liquid inside.

Classical firefighting planes drop water over the fire which has minimal effect due to water being vaporized way above the ground. With my approach the canister will delay the release of the liquid. More importantly, carbon dioxide gas is heavy and would sink down to the ground. It would both cool the fire and push away the oxygen on the ground. More effective than a simple water-based extinguishing.

All developed nations have the necessary technology to build such planes. Hope they take action.