NASA Designed This Low-Tech Rover to Survive Venus

Its surface, approximately 850 degrees Fahrenheit, is hot enough for paper to spontaneously combust. Its atmosphere, an oppressive mix of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and sulfur dioxide, is dense enough to crush a submarine. "I like to think of Venus as turning your oven at home onto self cleaning mode, but also filling it with Easy Off," says Jason Derleth, head of NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts Program (NIAC), a small slice of the agency that funds the exploration of forward-looking technologies. "That's still not as toxic as the chemical soup it has as its atmosphere. Earth's neighbor, while certainly inhospitable to humans, is almost just as rough for robots.