Not everyone would be comfortable flying in an inflatable plane, yet thankfully the general public won't have to risk anything when it comes to one of Northrop Grumman's latest designs: the Venus Atmospheric Maneuverability Platform (or VAMP). It's an inflatable plane for planet exploration -- Venus, to be specific. Deployed from space, it will allow NASA to travel along the planet's upper atmosphere as part of the New Frontiers program.
Granted, NASA will have to approve of the inflatable plane design before it can fly in space -- which would be about 10 years away. Although the surface of Venus is uninhabitable, a settlement floating in its clouds would find temperatures, pressures, and radiation levels remarkably similar to Earth. This makes exploring it a tempting endeavor.
What's Driving This Trend
- Inflatable Planes for Planet Exploration
- Inflatable planes can be designed for exploring other planets with conditions that would be hazardous to human exploration.
- Innovative Deployment for Space Travel
- Deploying planes from space is another means of space travel that could be explored and developed.
- Alternative Habitable Settlements
- The ability to explore planets with Earth-like conditions will aid in the development of potential alternative settlements.
Who This Affects Most
- Aerospace and Defense
- The aerospace and defense industry could benefit from the development of inflatable planes for space exploration.
- Space Exploration and Travel
- The space exploration and travel industry could develop innovative means of deployment for space vehicles.
- Sustainable Settlements
- The development of inflatable planes for planet exploration could aid in the development of sustainable, alternative settlements.
