Las Vegas, Nevada, February 26, 2025 – Deimos-One, a leading aerospace and defense technology company, today announced its plans to conduct a high-altitude drop test to validate its Venus aerobot prototype tentatively named EVIE (ExoVenus Validation In-atmosphere Experiment).
This operation, part of the company’s ExoVenus mission, will evaluate the deployment, inflation, and descent dynamics of a full-scale balloon system engineered for sustained exploration of Venus—a planet renowned for its formidable atmospheric challenges.
Recent ground tests at Deimos-One’s Nevada test facility have refined an advanced parachute and deployment system. Using a dynamic extraction rig, these trials confirmed the hardware’s readiness for the high-altitude test in early April, reinforcing the company’s rigorous path toward Venus exploration.
The drop test, staged in a remote area of the Nevada desert near Las Vegas, will simulate key conditions of a Venus mission.
Ascending to over 100,000 feet within FAA-controlled airspace, the test system (EVIE) will replicate the atmospheric density and descent profile of Venus’s upper atmosphere—approximately 50 kilometers above its surface—where pressure aligns with Earth’s sea level. After release, the parachute and balloon deployment sequence will execute under conditions tailored to mirror the aerodynamic forces encountered on Venus.
“High-altitude drop tests demand complex logistics and precise weather windows, but our ground-based approach has sharpened our process—reducing risks, cutting costs, and delivering critical data faster,” said Jamin Thompson, Deimos-One’s founder and CEO. “This test drives us closer to mastering long-duration flight in Venus’s atmosphere—which is a notoriously difficult task.”
EVIE’s lifting gas volume, balloon dimensions, and descent speed will be calibrated to meet Venus mission requirements, where the aerobot must navigate a dense, corrosive environment.
Beyond proving structural resilience, the test will assess Deimos-One’s techniques for controlled deployment and inflation of the multi-cell balloon envelope, mitigating shock in a thin-atmosphere ascent similar to Venus’s upper reaches. These methods are designed to ensure stability across extreme altitude shifts, vital to the ExoVenus mission’s execution.
Following the drop, all components will be recovered for detailed analysis.
Deimos One Media Contact
Evie Sloan
Deimos-One
evie@deimosone.com
About Deimos-One
Deimos-One is a leading aerospace and defense technology company, pioneering human and robotic spaceflight and space exploration for individuals and researchers, as well as a designer and developer of the world’s most advanced autonomous space vehicles. The company is developing a stratospheric observation platform designed to support complex missions in near-space environments. To learn more, visit www.deimosone.com