High-Temperature Systems Capability Summary

NASA has been developing technology and systems for use on future missions, such as potential Venus landers, under projects such as LLISSE and HOTTech. A small (`15kg-50kg, depending on lifetime and science payload) Venus lander / entry shell system concept was developed as a potential ride along to a Venus orbiter. The simple deployment approach is for the carrier/orbiter spacecraft to point the lander/shell combination and release it for autonomous entry. Deceleration and touchdown of the lander is accomplished just as done by Soviet landers several times in the past.