ETH students simulate Venus mission
ETH students have simulated an exploration mission to Venus by launching self-built test satellites from a plane over Dübendorf military airfield. These satellites glided to the ground with parachutes, recording acoustic signals during their descent.
Venus presents an enormous challenge for space probes given its intense temperatures, crushing air pressure and a corrosive atmosphere – all of which make landing missions virtually impossible. Satellites could provide an effective way of collecting more information about the planet. They could potentially navigate through Venus’s atmosphere to capture sounds of volcanic activity, providing valuable insights into its geological secrets and atmospheric evolution.
In a mere eight weeks, students on the Master’s programme in Space Systems developed small, can-sized satellites known as CanSats. Equipped with microphones, these satellites recorded ground explosions that simulated volcanic eruptions on Venus as they were dropped from a plane. “The goal of this educational project was to determine whether satellites could detect and locate volcanic eruptions using acoustic signals,” explains Simon Stähler, Director of the Space Master’s programme.
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