Leviathan evaluation

Some people earlier this decade assembled to propose Leviathan to NASA: Venus Aerobot for Low-altitude and Surface Explorations. Surprised they didn't call it the "valasé"; "vaflasé" might have sounded too Welsh. 22 pages, 50+ appendices.

They've figured that the tech mostly already existed 2021-5, excepting the one-way Starship for chassis. The stats on th'ship matter, so they've had to leave those parameters blank. SpaceX has had a working model of the one-way since late last July (with heat shield!), so Leviathan might want to run one more pass through the text.

The aerobot alone is 30 tonnes. They want also 17 tonnes of methane and a 20 t drop-tank. With the other material, all rounds up to 75 t. For propulsion purposes, Leviathan adds the standard Starship fuel tank, all six Raptor 3 Vacs, and all the other equipment once in orbit. Google AI estimates 120-160 tonnes here. I've told it to use the high end because Venus needs heat shields.

The Levvies expect refueling in LEO. Google thinks 400 t should do it; if so, that means four additional Starship there-and-backs. SpaceX hasn't yet offered that service. As long as we are dreaming of nice-to-have space infrastructure: someone else can compete here. The delta-V to get into a Venus Hohmann is the expensive part of the trip, because Venus can aerobrake. Starship, remember, comes with excellent heat-shield.

Over our sister planet the aerobot floats between "-2 km and 4 km". The -2, I think, means they can dip over the plains and not just over Alpha / Beta Regiones. Dunno about Maxwell, which rises, what, 10 km; nor even "continent" Aphrodite. So they're swimming through not just hot high-pressure CO₂ but supercritical.

As to how it floats, they've picked Project Loon's architecture with an internal titanium-foil "bladder". Methane is the lifting gas.

They need 6-7 kWe power, so are requesting a 10 kWe reactor. For that they're begging NASA - and not, say, SpaceNukes. Mostly because this has been a focus of NASA research over the five years the Leviathan project wrote the paper. If they won't let explorers raise a reactor into LEO, I'd hook a wind farm to the lee side of Maxwell, to charge any surface missions thence. And charge the Leviathan... to use it. Heh heh heh.

Two other essential pieces of tech: a lander, also NASA which in this case it may have to be; and Ingenium's refrigerator.

Unlike LEO or our moon, or asteroids, or even maybe Deimos: we cannot expect this planet to return treasures for investors. This project is for exploration. So they want a grant: NIAC-1. They justify it by comparison with the Martian rovers and Ingenuity-soon-Skyfall. Nerds tune in to watch this stuff, they say.