NASA, the European Space Agency, and New Zealand's Rocket Lab are all planning to send missions to Venus in the coming years, making it a hot spot for space exploration.
NASA is interested in exploring the planet by sailing a robotic balloon in the Venusian winds.
The Venus AeroBot Prototype is being tested over Nevada.
Two test flights of an AeroBot prototype over Nevada's Black Rock desert were successfully demonstrating controlled altitude flights.
Sending a spaceship to Venus would be difficult as it would be useless in a few hours. A few dozen miles above the inhospitable zone is an area where an AeroBot can maneuver safely.
JPL explains on its website that one idea is to pair a balloon with a Venus orbiter. An aerial robotic balloon, or aerobot, about 40 feet (12 meters) in diameter, would travel into the space station while it remained far above the atmosphere.
The prototype balloon is able to expand and contract with the help of an inner and an outer balloon. Scientists can control the altitude of the Aerobot with the help of Helium Vents, which allow the gas to pass between the inner and outer sections.
Scientists and engineers from JPL and the Near Space Corporation conducted two flights to test a prototype balloon that would go to Venus.
JPL said that the balloon flew 4,000 feet to a place in Earth's atmosphere that was similar to the density of Venus.
The Nevada tests show that the aerobot could float high above Venus for weeks or even months, with plenty of time for monitoring the atmosphere for acoustic waves generated by venusquakes and analyzing the chemical composition of the planet's clouds.
Jacob Izraelevitz said that they were happy with the performance of the prototype. After both flights it was recovered in good shape.
Izraelevitz said that they had recorded a mountain of data from the flights and would use it to improve their simulation models.
The Soviets used balloons to explore Venus in 1985 and have been seen as a viable method ever since. The balloons flew on the Venusian winds for 46 hours before their batteries ran out. JPL said that the short time in the Venusian atmosphere gave a hint of the science that could be achieved by a larger balloon platform floating within the planet's atmosphere.
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