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On planet Venus at ground level temperature level is about 450°C which seems to high for electronic devices such as a camera. Could electronic devices and a camera on a airship just below the clouds endure the temperature at that height and successfully take photos of the ground for a long period ? As far as I know the lower level of the clouds is about 30 km altitude, where the temperature is about 220°C. Maybe it is variable depending on meteorological conditions ? It is also fine if it could take photos only from time to time.

(To get energy the airship could be tethered to another airship one or two km higher. The difference of wind speed at two different altitudes would be used to drive wind turbines on both airships, to provide electric power.)

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    $\begingroup$ different but related questions: Would it be possible to build a probe that could operate at about 480 °C (900F degrees) without insulation? and Is there anything like a standard for maximum temperature for mission-critical electronics in spacecraft? The imaging chip may need to be cooled even if the rest of the electronics can tolerate higher temperatures. Higher band-gap semiconductors will have shorter wavelength cut-offs. Different forms of silicon carbide have band gaps of 2.36, 3.23, 3.05 eV $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Jul 29, 2020 at 3:32
  • $\begingroup$ whereas hot silicon imagers would suffer from very high dark currents and noise. It may be easier to have a small cooler for just the imager chip itself. Anyway your question is about gaining altitude with an airship and not about cameras. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Jul 29, 2020 at 3:38
  • $\begingroup$ Radar and Microwave have been used to Map Venus' surface from higher up. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapping_of_Venus#Venera_program I don't think 220 C and 10 ATMs would be an insurmountable problem for equiptment if you wanted visible light images, but I'm not an expert. It's also worth asking what information visible light images would give you that microwave images don't. $\endgroup$
    – userLTK
    Commented Jul 29, 2020 at 5:43
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    $\begingroup$ Hello world ! This answer says that because of Rayleigh scattering you can't see the surface above 20 km. space.stackexchange.com/questions/27193/… $\endgroup$
    – Cornelis
    Commented Jul 29, 2020 at 10:26
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    $\begingroup$ The linked article in that answer says the upper limit is 15 km for the $$1 \mu m $$ window. $\endgroup$
    – Cornelis
    Commented Jul 29, 2020 at 12:15

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