Many are wondering why Mars is the focus of attention for a mission instead of Earth's sister planet Venus, which is closer. Venus apparently has the hottest surface in the solar system, and none of the Earth's existing computer could survive on it.

But it seems like the long wait is finally over as NASA has made a breakthrough by developing a silicon carbidecomputer chip that could withstand the extreme heat of Venus (up to 470 degree Celsius or 878 degrees Fahrenheit) for a couple of weeks. Moreover, it could also survive the 9MPa atmospheric pressure, which is 90 times greater than that of the Earth's, without any protection or cooling system.

As a point of reference, most silicon-made chip begins to behave like a regular conductor when exposed to high temperatures. A regular silicon computer chips can only survive in an environment with 250 degree Celsius, and computers will also stop working properly.

To ensure that the computer chip or its wires would not fry, NASA used silicon carbide that is capable of maintaining semiconducting properties. The wires were also made of exotic materials such as tantalum silicide.

Researchers found that the chip was able to continue functioning despite being exposed at 1.26MHz for 521 hours when tested inside the Glenn Extreme Environments Rig, a machine that simulates Venus' temperature and pressure.

Although the chips survived a recreated Venus environment, they are not yet ready for the real deal. Currently, the chips still have 24 transistors, which is comparable to much-older chips than those modern ones we have today. Furthermore, other than the chip, scientists also still need to complete the design of the rover that is set to travel on Venus' hellish orb.

"This represents more than 100-fold extension of demonstrated Venus environment electronics durability," researchers wrote. "With further technology maturation, such SiC [semiconductor silicon carbide] IC [interconnect] electronics could drastically improve Venus lander designs and mission concepts, fundamentally enabling long-duration enhanced missions to the surface of Venus."

The research entitled "Prolonged silicon carbide integrated circuit operation in Venus surface atmospheric conditions" is published in the AIP Advances journal.

Meanwhile, if successful, this could be used during the joint Russia-US Venus mission, dubbed he Venera-D, in 2025.