RII Track-4:@NASA: Wind-induced noise in the prospective seismic data measured in the Venusian surface environment

During the past 60-years of the nation’s space exploration, landers successfully touched down on the Moon, Mars, asteroid 433 Eros, and the Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet to collect data about their environment, structure, and history. In the future, more landers will be sent to other planetary bodies including Venus and will find themselves in a more hostile environment.

While scientists and engineers have vigorously developed technologies for the Venus landers that can survive at a temperature of 450°C, a pressure of 90 bar, and an atmosphere filled with reactive gases, we still face technical challenges such as noise contamination in sensor signals. In particular, wind-induced noise (wind blows on Mars and Venus) in seismic data from seismometers has been a major concern from early Martian missions, and a similar issue is expected to occur in future Venus lander missions.

We need reliable noise-cancelling techniques to hear clear seismic signal of Venus, which is a goal of this research.

The research is designed to investigate nonlinear dynamic features in media that have natural discontinuities (such as cracks and gaps) under combined wind and seismic vibrations. In the case of nonlinearity in the natural ground of Venus, it is anticipated that the two vibrations can be coupled. The coupling of wind and seismic vibrations can generate significant interaction, which will be observed as wind-induced noises.

The primary objective of the research is to acquire high-quality experiment data that can be used as hard evidence of nonlinear dynamic features. In the study of nonlinear dynamics where prediction based on theories usually fails, experimental data that reveal such complex behavior are critically important. Research activities are organized to collect seismic signals from a heat-shielded broadband seismometer on the simulated environment of the Venusian surface in the Venusian atmosphere.

The NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), the host institution, is equipped with the Glenn Extreme Environments Rig, where the Venusian atmospheric conditions can be accurately simulated. GRC is the best place to conduct this research, as it requires high precision simulation and measurement.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.