We Finally Have a Computer That Can Survive the Surface of Venus (arstechnica.com)

Planet Venus is one of the most inhospitable places in the solar system. The surface temperature there is 470C (878F). This has been one of the key challenges that has prevented us from deeply exploring Venus. Normal chips can only function until around 250C, but it appears, we will soon have a computer that can withstand Venus' weather. From a report on ArsTechnica: Now, researchers out of NASA's Glenn Research Centre appear to have cracked the other big problem with high-temperature integrated circuits: they've crafted interconnects -- the tiny wires that connect transistors and other integrated components together -- that can also survive the extreme conditions on Venus. The NASA Glenn researchers combined the new interconnects with some SiC transistors to create a ceramic-packaged chip. The chip was then placed into the GEER -- the Glenn Extreme Environments Rig, a machine that can maintain Venus-like temperature and pressure for hundreds of hours at a time. The chip, a simple 3-stage oscillator, kept functioning at a steady 1.26MHz for 521 hours (21.7) days before the GEER had to be shut down.

Comments

Not just this

[s.petry]

First, a computer is a whole lot more than just a chip. How about boards, wire runs, resisters, transistors? But the atmosphere of Venus contains massive amounts of toxic gasses. If we have a computer chip that operates at high temperatures, what is it made of and how quickly does it break down inside the atmosphere of Venus?

So not only don't we have a computer that works on Venus, we don't have chips that work on Venus. TFA says that they may have a chip that operates at high temperatures but since it has not quite been invented yet we can't test the viability of said chip in Venus' atmosphere. Not only am I cynical, but I'm really tired of the chronic hyperbole in seemingly everything.

Re:Not just this

[s.petry]

Well, you are technically correct in the first part, but a computer is much more than a chip and a power supply. Cool in my opinion that they can get them to run on the Moon and Mars, but Venus adds quite a few new challenges other than heat and pressure. Namely, the corrosive gasses under the same heat and pressure.

Your second part is correct for computers that are space worthy, but not true for computers on earth. Most chips in Earth's atmosphere are exposed to the atmosphere. Legs of a chip are not coming out of an environment proof seal, and they are not air proof. You are half right, and my generalization for a space worthy computer was wrong.

Your last part is answered with: "The chip, a simple 3-stage oscillator, kept functioning at a steady 1.26MHz for 521 hours (21.7) days before the GEER had to be shut down." So they don't have a functional computer, but they have interconnects that could handle heat from a very slow oscillator. A computer is a whole lot more components, with a whole lot more IO, generating a whole heat.

Don't misunderstand, I think the goal is noble. I'd love to have some atmospheric data coming from Venus, information on surface, weather, etc.. like we do on Mars. I just disagree with using Hyperbole to sell the concept.

Pressure is about 90 times that of Earth

[Geoffrey.landis]

The statement was "the hard bit is not being cremated by the surface temperature of 470C (878F) or crushed by the atmospheric pressure, which is about 90 times that of Earth, the same as swimming 900 metres under water".

It's the atmospheric pressure, not the temperature, that is about 90 times that of Earth

Re:Confused?

[gweihir]

... and what they have is not a computer, but a simple, slow oscillator. Alternate facts or fake news? Who knows...

Re:Confused?

[Rei]

Your post is largely correct, with the caveat that with proper insulation, the rate of heat flow to the exterior can be kept surprisingly small. But RTGs are indeed hindered by the external heat that they have to reject waste heat to. Solar power surprisingly actually works on the surface, but at terrible efficiency (if I recall correctly, something like 2.7W/m). And wind indeed has been proposed as a power source. Windspeeds are low, rarely more than a meter per second or so, but due to the high density it's not actually a bad power source. There's even been one wind-propelled rover proposal under investigation (Zephyr).

Indeed, the whole point of long-term Venus landers is indeed not large amounts of power, but basically surface "weather stations" or "seismic stations" that just sit there using a few watts here and there and transmitting results up to a higher power relay.

On the other hand, getting things to the surface of Venus is surprisingly easy. Landis once worked out that you could launch a hollow titanium sphere to Venus, have it aerocapture, and land safety on the surface, without any sort of aeroshell, ablation system or parachute whatsoever. Venus has a big "fluffy" atmosphere for slowing things down, and by the bottom the density is so great that terminal velocity can be survivable for well-built probes.