Snigdha Nellutla
Advisor: Dr. Christopher E. Carr

will propose a master’s thesis entitled,

Optimizing Aerosol Collection for Venus Atmosphere Sample Return

On

Monday, May 20 at 2:00 p.m.
Montgomery Knight Building 317

Abstract

Researchers are driven by the quest to uncover extraterrestrial life, prompting investigations into the environmental conditions of other planets and the potential for alternative solvents. Despite Venus's seemingly inhospitable conditions with its water scarcity and highly acidic clouds, studying them provides insights into the limits of chemical complexity and the potential for life as we don’t know it. Venusian cloud particles are thought to consist predominantly of liquid droplets consisting of concentrated sulfuric acid, H2SO4, but further insights are needed to fully understand the chemical composition of these clouds as well as the potential for organic chemistry. While it has often been assumed that organic carbon compounds are unstable in sulfuric acid, recent work suggests this is not the case. Due to the limitations of in-situ analyses, a sample return mission is being contemplated to increase the chances of accurate chemical analysis of Venusian cloud samples. The long-term goal is to develop the best design for aerosol collection systems that could be deployed in the atmosphere of Venus under realistic resource constraints. This project focuses on a collector derived from Earth-based fog collectors, intended for passive collection during random wind variations experienced by a balloon platform in the Venus clouds. As a precursor to studies utilizing sulfuric acid aerosols, various materials and mesh designs were implemented to collect and condense water vapor emitted from various atomizers to determine their corresponding aerodynamic collection efficiencies. Subsequent experiments focused on replicating Venusian particle size distributions, wind velocities, and humidity levels. In the next iteration, a new aerosol chamber will be constructed to perform experiments in a closed and more controlled environment. Future work includes experimenting with similar mesh designs in the enclosed chamber but different materials and dimensions, feature sizes, etc. as well as using aerosols other than water vapor that could more closely represent concentrated sulfuric acid, thereby allowing the current methods to be applied to aerosol sampling in the Venus atmosphere.

Committee

• Dr. Christopher E. Carr – School of Aerospace Engineering (advisor)
• Dr. Alvaro Romero Calvo – School of Aerospace Engineering
• Dr. Pengfei Liu – School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences