REDONDO BEACH, Calif.,
May 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/
-- Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) formed a scientific
advisory board to guide its efforts to develop a lighter-than-air
vehicle to explore Venus's environment. The company's Venus
Atmospheric Maneuverable Platform (VAMP) concept is a long-lived,
maneuverable, semi-buoyant platform that would coast through
Venus's clouds gathering atmospheric data.
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VAMP is the first application for the Lifting Entry/Atmospheric
Flight (LEAF) family of vehicles that could serve as atmospheric
"rovers," going to any solar system body with an atmosphere,
including Venus, Earth, Mars and the moon Titan.
The VAMP Science Advisory Board is composed of prominent
American and European planetary scientists, who have been drawn
from various research and academic institutions. The board will
help define specific science goals, measurement requirements, and
identify possible instruments for future VAMP missions. It will
also serve as a science analysis group to mine existing data about
Venus that may be useful to the VAMP mission.
"The board is a community-based, interdisciplinary science forum
that the VAMP development team may interact with, ask questions of
and request analyses to help resolve design and performance issues
during these early stages of the mission's development," said
Ronald Polidan, Northrop Grumman
Aerospace Systems VAMP Project Scientist. "They will be incredibly
helpful in designing the vehicle for maximum science data
collection."
Venus, the second planet from the sun, is often referred to as
Earth's twin because of its similarity in size and mass. Although
the surface of Venus is hot and hostile, its atmosphere at 50
kilometers is Earth-like and its clouds hold the key to the
difference. Understanding Venus' evolutionary path may shed light
on Earth's evolution and the origin of life.
VAMP is a large and light, inflatable/deployable vehicle that
would cruise through Venus's clouds at altitudes ranging from 52
kilometers to 68 kilometers, using solar-powered propellers to
maneuver on Venus and while gathering science data. It is being
designed to be inflated and deployed on orbit and "float" like a
leaf into Venus's atmosphere, where it could operate for more than
year.
The concept brings together Northrop Grumman's air and
autonomous air vehicles, space, large deployable and re-entry
systems expertise into a delta wing design. It draws on the
company's lengthy heritage in developing flying wing vehicles,
starting with the 1940s era Flying Wing aircraft through the B-2
Spirit bomber to the X-47B unmanned aerial vehicle.
Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing
innovative systems, products and solutions in unmanned systems,
cyber, C4ISR, and logistics and modernization to government and
commercial customers worldwide. Please visit
www.northropgrumman.com for more information.
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SOURCE Northrop Grumman Corporation