NASA’s DAVINCI Probe Can Stand the Heat

The engineering development unit for NASA’s DAVINCI (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) probe is photographed prior to a major thermal evaluation.

The DAVINCI team put the yoga ball-sized vessel into a ceramic-lined chamber with heat-scorched walls and ratcheted up the temperature to 869 F, or 465 C, over the course of about an hour — the same pace the probe will heat up during its descent to the surface of Venus.

DAVINCI will study the origin, evolution, and present state of Venus in unprecedented detail to help determine whether it was once wet and habitable, like Earth.