Venus Atmosphere and Cloud Particle Sample Return for Astrobiology

The search for signs of life beyond Earth is a motivator in modern-day planetary exploration. While our “sister” planet Venus has a surface too hot for life, scientists have speculated for decades that the much cooler atmosphere at 48-60 km above the surface might host life in Venus’ clouds. A sample return of the atmosphere and cloud particles enables use of state-of-the-art instruments and facilities on Earth, greatly increasing the chances of unambiguous detection of life. We design a mission concept to return samples of the atmospheric gases, and liquid and solid particles of the cloud layers of Venus. In this study we focus on determining the feasibility of and advance the concepts of four crucial flight systems: solid sample capture; liquid sample capture, the aerial platform, and the Venus ascent vehicle (VAV). These flight systems have low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) for planetary exploration in general and pose several challenges for Venus’s environment in particular. We find a feasible end-to-end mission architecture using single launch vehicle from Earth and a two-year total round-trip mission duration.