WITHDRAWN A Microseismometer for Venus
Description:
WITHDRAWN The Mars Insight mission has confirmed that seismology is the most powerful way of investigating the interior of any planet, critical for understanding its structure and evolution. However, Venus, with its high surface temperature and pressure present considerable challenges to developing equivalent instrumentation for a similar surface investigation. While this has motivated the development of airborne approaches to detect seismic activity on Venus using infrasound, ground truth from the deployment of a seismic package on the surface still provides the most direct path to study the interior.
We have adapted the silicon sensor of InSight’s microseismometer design by adopting open-loop sensing and using thermocompressive bonding between the die frame and the glass. We demonstrated that open-loop operation does not compromise the noise floor of the device, with a floor below 5x10-9 m/s2/rtHz, and are modifying the capacitance topology to allow operation over an enhanced tilt range.
To investigate the viability of this approach, prototype sensors were exposed to a Venus environment in the Glenn Extreme Environments Rig, GEER. Samples used the same wafer fabrication processes as used for InSight. These results suggest the viability of a sensor fabrication flow based on sputtered gold under a protective oxide and thermocompressive bonding. In parallel, we are undertaking the coupled development of electronics to drive the sensor’s capacitance transducer, with all operations based in the analog domain, and the packaging approach to allow integration of the sensor and its proximity electronics in a robust package.
Session: Planetary and Gravitational Wave Seismology [Poster]
Type: Poster
Date: 4/15/2026
Presentation Time: 08:00 AM (local time)
Presenting Author: William T. Pike
Student Presenter: No
Invited Presentation:
Poster Number: 139
Authors
William Pike Presenting Author Corresponding Author w.t.pike@imperial.ac.uk Imperial College London |
Nathan Funk nathan.w.funk@nasa.gov National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
Gary Hunter gary.w.hunter@nasa.gov National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
Liangyu Chen liangyu.chen-1@nasa.gov Ohio Aerospace Institute |
Christina Adams christina.m.adams@nasa.gov National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
Michael Krasowski michael.j.krasowski@nasa.gov National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
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WITHDRAWN A Microseismometer for Venus
Category
Planetary and Gravitational Wave Seismology