Feasibility of high speed atmospheric flight on Venus

Studying Venus’ atmosphere isn’t an easy task since its extreme conditions have meant that the longest probes have managed to survive few hours. However this atmosphere, composed of 96.5% CO2 might provide an unique opportunity for a airbreathing vehicle. In this context, this paper intends to study the feasibility of a scramjet/ramjet engine for a Venus’s atmospheric flight at an altitude of 70 km. The first part of the work focused on the choice of fuels. The most promising candidates to burn CO2 are metals and their hydrides. In this context, the performance analysis of a wider range of these candidates including lithium (Li), beryllium (Be), magnesium (Mg), aluminum (Al), silicon (Si), beryllium hydride (BeH2), magnesium hydride (MgH2) and silane (SiH4) has been done. Once the fuel with better performance was chosen, it was estimated weight and volume of a complete aircraft capable of carrying 200 kg of payload and operating range of 1000 km. The results showed that with a total weight of 995 kg it is possible to keep the size of the aircraft within the limits imposed by modern launchers, maintaining a large measure of weight for an orbital module to be attached to the flyer. © 2015, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc. All rights reserved.