Extreme Temperature Sensing System for Venus Surface Missions

Previous Venus landers used high temperature pressure vessels with passive thermal protection systems and protected conventional electronics, which limited their surface operation life to 127 minutes. The operating life and science return for future Venus surface missions, however, can significantly be increased through the use of high temperature electronics capable of extending the operating range of electronic systems to Venus surface temperatures (up to 480degC). Toward that end, this paper details the development and evaluation (at 480degC) of a stand-alone, high temperature, battery powered, sensor system, including a multi-sensor interface, multiplexer, signal conditioner, and amplifier, that can directly operate at the extremely high temperatures of the Venus surface. This work employs commercial, high temperature sensors, electronic devices, and packaging materials and leverages their operating margin to realize the aforementioned high temperature sensor system. As a result, the technology could rapidly rise through technology readiness level gates for future NASA missions to Venus.