← NEPHELIS INDUSTRIES
STATUS · 2026-08-11
Program status
Early-stage concept, documentation, and open collaboration — pre-hardware
PRE-HARDWARE · EARLY — CONCEPT + DOCS
Next engineering milestone
Acid-resistant balloon material coupon tests + small helium ground float with basic telemetry
Launch
No committed launch date. Earliest realistic class if gates pass: ~2030–2031+
A long-duration Venus aerostat is multi-year after first hardware.
Budget
$500,000 — Ground demonstrator / prototype campaign — not full flight mission cost
A Venus entry + float system is expected to cost far more than $500k; treat $500k as early R&D and community runway.
Ground demonstrator / early R&D campaign (not full flight cost)
Built / published
- Public website + interactive trajectory plannerwww.nephelisindustries.com
- Mission docs (CONOPS draft, requirements draft, materials protocol)docs/ in GitHub ehreng/Nephelis
- Mass budget / risks / tasks as structured datasite/content/data/*.json
- AETHER OS contribution framework + daily mission loopdocs/AETHER_OS_Architecture_v1.md, aether-os/
Not yet
- —Balloon envelope hardware or acid-chamber coupon results
- —Entry system, heatshield, or inflation hardware
- —Flight solar, rad-tolerant avionics selection, or CubeSat hardware
- —FAA/FCC filings submitted (path documented as drafts only)
- —Named technical advisors listed with permission
- —Live crowdfund payment flow (Stripe configuration pending)
Team
Founder: Ehren Goossens (Founder Emeritus / Strategic Oversight). Open L1–L3 contributors via GitHub.
Repositories
ehreng/Nephelis
Single source of truth — site, docs, AETHER OS, research