Concept For An Autonomous Venus Rover On Purely Mechanical Basis

[Thurisaz]

So folks,

 

I just dug out a German article referring to the Space magazine (sadly no direct link or I'd have posted it here) about a concept for a robot to explore the nightmarish surface of Venus... a robot on a purely mechanical basis. No electrical components, no batteries. This, so the article says, should be a workable way around conventional electronics and such failing fast in the brutal heat on Venus.

 

I can't translate this thing, but I ran it through the google translator and got a fairly decent English version. Enjoy and comment - to me this seems quite plausible and damn would it be cool if we could get this to work!

[pantheory]

So folks,

 

I just dug out a German article referring to the Space magazine (sadly no direct link or I'd have posted it here) about a concept for a robot to explore the nightmarish surface of Venus... a robot on a purely mechanical basis. No electrical components, no batteries. This, so the article says, should be a workable way around conventional electronics and such failing fast in the brutal heat on Venus.

 

I can't translate this thing, but I ran it through the google translator and got a fairly decent English version. Enjoy and comment - to me this seems quite plausible and damn would it be cool if we could get this to work!

 

Yes, an interesting idea. Maybe a mechanical model that would have to warm-up first (the expansion of its metal parts) before it would properly function. Lubricants would also have to be high-temperature formulated so that they could function without degradation. I suspect we will still have to have receiving and transmitting electronic devices that would need to be protected from the heat. I expect there will be colder far-underground caverns in or near the polar regions of Venus where hallow, extinct lava tubes might be found for habitation as well as some water too I suspect. Such lava tubes could possibly be a starting place for human habitation in the coming one or two millennia. As to the first terrestrial habitation of Venus,  I expect this will not happen until long after we have made a big footprint of the moon, Mars, the asteroid belt, and likely several outer moons first.

 

Such a device as you have proposed seemingly could also function high in the polar regions of Mercury where little sunlight is received and substantial ice water in craters is also presently believed to exist, having little atmospheric pressure, more like our moon. Also, Venus, Mars, the Moon, and Mercury, could all have extinct volcanic vents and tubes that  could serve as shelters and as a starting place for discovery and a base.  If found, such locations could later serve as shelters and provide the space for habitats for early reconnaissance, science studies, and future colonization.

 

Besides the extreme surface temperatures on Venus, we also would have to deal with its crushing atmospheric pressures.