Concept for a Venus Wind Energy Harvesting Platform for Long-Duration Power Generation

Venus, Earth’s closest twin planet is a mystery shrouded in cloud cover, whose surface secrets are defended by high pressure, oppressive heat, and a caustic environment. To learn more about this planet, it is necessary to have landers which operate on the surface of Venus, ideally for one diurnal cycle (120 earth-days) or longer. But any Venus mission targeting such a period of operation requires a sustained source of electrical power to make it through Venus’s 60-earthday- long night. Radioisotope power sources are not currently designed to work in Venus’s extreme temperature environment. Solar panels can operate at Venus temperatures, but Venus’s heavy cloud cover and long night would limit the power generated. Models predict there are multiple regions on Venus where the wind is strong and consistent throughout the day. By adapting and combining existing technologies, the Turbine-driven Venus Generator (TurVenAtor) would harvest wind power in these regions providing a sustained source of electrical power. TurVenAtor (Figure 1), would consist of a high-temperature permanent magnet synchronous generator (designed by Honeybee Robotics (HBR)), turbine blades and tail aerodynamics (designed at the California State University Los Angeles (CSULA)), and a system design, including a tower structure, azimuth gimbal, tail structure, blade material selection, and integration of the blades to the generator, which includes the turbine shaft and bearings (designed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)). To generate power, the turbine blades will turn the shaft, which is attached to a magnetic coupling, which transfers the rotation inside a pressurized can, which protects the gear train and generator components from the caustic environment. A tail and azimuthal gimbal keeps the turbine pointed into the wind, and the tower keeps the turbine at an elevated height. The outriggers prevent the turbine from tipping over. The generator would be tested in Venus temperature and pressure, the turbine blades in water as an analog to the dense atmosphere, and a final system level test would occur integrating all the components. The key innovations are using the existing HBR high-temperature motor design, but operating in reverse as a generator and CSULA using their analytical and empirical Interplanetary Turbine Design (ITD) process to optimize the blades for the low-speed, high-density Venus wind.