Infrasound and missions to Venus
The "Space Systems for Planetary Applications" (SSPA) research team is primarily focussed on the development of space missions and the associated technologies for the geophysical exploration of the Solar System.
The SSPA team is involved in mission studies (collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Caltech) aiming to study the internal structure of the planet Venus. Due to the coupling of the "solid" planet with the “atmosphere”, we believe we can detect earthquakes either with the help of balloons measuring infrasound in the upper atmosphere (60 km) of Venus, or by measuring luminescence in the infrared (airglow) from orbit. This collaboration resulted in several flights of instrumented balloons in collaboration with JPL / Caltech and Sandia Labs in the United States.