Mary-Louise Hoffman
Northrop Grumman has designed a Venus mission aircraft technology as the company aims to compete for an upcoming $1 billion NASA planetary science program, Space News reported Tuesday.
Dan Leone writes that Northrop wants to propose its Venus Atmospheric Maneuverable Platform to the space agency’s next New Frontiers competition in fiscal 2016.
“I think we can be ready,” Ron Polidan, chief architect of civil systems at Northrop, told the publication.
The VAMP science advisory board is scheduled to meet this month to explore methods for the company to apply scientific priorities identified in a planetary decadal survey report to the platform, according to Space News.
Northrop envisions VAMP as an inflatable, propeller-powered aircraft capable of hovering 50 to 70 kilometers above Venus’ surface for years to study its atmospheric condition.
