VFOX YEAR 1: THE DAVINCI STUDENT COLLABORATION EXPERIMENT'S FIRST ACADEMIC YEAR

VƒOx: VƒOx, which stands for Venus Oxygen Fugacity, is the Student Collaboration Experiment (SCE) of the DAVINCI mission to Venus. VƒOx is both a small sensor used to measure the partial pressure of molecular oxygen in Venus’ lower atmosphere and an academic program comprising university courses, summer internships, and other projects spanning the Duration of the DAVINCI mission through 2033. Through the mission, VƒOx will be designed, fabricated, tested, operated, and results analyzed by students mentored by the DAVINCI team in partnership with Johns Hopkins University and other programs, with an emphasis on STEM careers and multidisciplinary teams – especially between scientists and engineers.

The Student Experience: While the objective of the VfOx instrument is a small contribution to the science of the DAVINCI mission, the objective of the VfOx project is teaching students how planetary missions and instrument teams work by carrying a simple instrument through the life of the mission to Venus. Students will build VfOx, analyze the data it returns, and participate in DAVINCI science activities. VƒOx poses a single question about Venus’ atmosphere, and getting to the answer requires an understanding of planetary atmosphere dynamics and equilibria and the relationships between a planet’s atmosphere and surface chemistry. This knowledge drives the sensor requirements and engineering, which in turn determines the design and teaching approaches necessary. The development and operation of a flight sensor will require students to learn instrument systems, design, and incorporation into the flight project through end-to-end mission participation, regardless of which phase of the mission intersects with their university career.

Year 1 for VfOx: The 2023-2024 academic year saw the first supported summer, with five full time and three part time VfOx interns pursuing six introductory projects, and the first academic class – “Spacecraft Instrumentation Project” (SIP) in the spring of 2024 at Johns Hopkins University with 23 students. We will present the summer and course academic projects and results, and the objectives and lessons learned for the first iteration of the SIP course. The SIP will be repeated every semester with new student cohorts and evolving objectives through delivery of VfOx to the mission for integration (likely 2027), integration, test, and launch (2030).