There have been suggestions that it can be possible with active cooling.
The main problem is that the rover will generate heat. So it's not enough just to insulate it. You also have to dissipate heat from it which is hard to do when the outside temperature is so high.
However, there's an idea to use a Stirling Cooler - which works by expanding and compressing gas. First the gas expands, and it takes up heat from the interior. Then the gas is compressed, and this raises the heat to a high temperature of 500°C. well above the Venus surface temperature. It can then dissipate the heat to the atmosphere. Then the cycle repeats, pumping heat out of the rover into the Venus atmosphere.
This could keep the interior at a temperature of 200 °C. Which though far too hot for humans, is a temperature that apparently commercially available electronics can handle.
It would be powered by an RTG supplying 140 watts and the rover they hope could last for 50 days on the surface of Venus.
For details, see: Antique fridge could keep Venus rover cool
The main problem is that the rover will generate heat. So it's not enough just to insulate it. You also have to dissipate heat from it which is hard to do when the outside temperature is so high.
However, there's an idea to use a Stirling Cooler - which works by expanding and compressing gas. First the gas expands, and it takes up heat from the interior. Then the gas is compressed, and this raises the heat to a high temperature of 500°C. well above the Venus surface temperature. It can then dissipate the heat to the atmosphere. Then the cycle repeats, pumping heat out of the rover into the Venus atmosphere.
Artist's impression of Landis's rover for the hot surface of Venus (credit NASA)
This could keep the interior at a temperature of 200 °C. Which though far too hot for humans, is a temperature that apparently commercially available electronics can handle.
It would be powered by an RTG supplying 140 watts and the rover they hope could last for 50 days on the surface of Venus.
For details, see: Antique fridge could keep Venus rover cool
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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