Cloud Particle Capture Modeling and Validation Testing for A Venus Descent Probe

Clouds, hazes, and dusts (collectively, aerosols) are key drivers of phenomena from short-term weather and climate to long-term planetary evolution. Venus diverged dramatically from Earth in its planetary history in part through the formation of its dense, persistent cloud layers, which – though primarily sulfuric acid – hold much of Venus’s remaining available water. The many unknowns of Venus’s clouds, including their detailed composition and potential role in habitability, have led to a raft of planned missions for the next decade[1], including DAVINCI, VERITAS, EnVision, Rocket Lab’s Morningstar, and Venera-D. However, aerosols are highly dynamic in space and time, and difficult to study remotely. Large flagship missions with sondes or other platforms capable of aerosol sampling, such as the past Pioneer Venus, Venera, and VeGa missions, are not frequent enough to capture such rapid dynamics; upcoming descent probe concepts such as DAVINCI target overall atmospheric measurements but do not separate out particles directly. The ability to fit aerosol sampling and analysis in a small spacecraft mission envelope would complement these upcoming missions by enabling the data coverage needed to characterize these planetary dynamics for the first time.