NASA successfully tests balloon to measure tremors on Venus

NASA has announced that it is working on a balloon with which the space agency wants to detect tremors on Venus. The first tests with the balloon on Earth were successful, in 2019 tremors could be observed in the state of California.

NASA has published the results of tests with a hot-air balloon that can measure quakes. In it, the space agency writes that it was able to successfully detect tremors during aftershocks of an earthquake in California in 2019.

The balloons are equipped with sensitive barometers, which can measure changes in air pressure. In this way, NASA also hopes to observe tremors on Venus in the future. Due to the inhospitable and hot surface of the planet, the research is done with balloons.

It wouldn’t be the first time balloons have been flown on Venus. In 1985, the Soviet Union managed to collect data and send it to Earth with two balloons for 46 hours. These balloons just couldn’t detect any quakes yet.

NASA has not announced when the balloons could be deployed for the first time in a mission to Venus. The US agency plans to launch two more missions to Venus between 2028 and 2030. During these missions, NASA hopes to learn more about how Venus got so hot. Especially because the planet has a lot in common with the earth.