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Popular science fiction of the early twentieth century depicted Venus as some kind of wonderland of pleasantly warm temperatures, forests, swamps and even dinosaurs. In 1950, the Hayden Planetarium at the American Natural History Museum was commissioned by Blue Origins, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic.
Today, Venus is unlikely to be a dream destination for aspiring space tourists. As revealed by numerous missions in the last few decades, the planet is a hellish world of infernal temperatures, a corrosive toxic atmosphere and crushing pressures at the surface. Despite this, NASA is currently working on a conceptual mission to Venus, named the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept – (HAVOC)
But how is such a mission even possible? Temperatures on the planet's surface (about 460 ° C) are in fact hotter than Mercury, even though Venus is roughly double the distance from the sun. This is higher than the melting point of many metals including bismuth and lead, which may even fall to "snow" onto the higher mountain peaks. The surface is a barren rocky landscape consisting of vast plains of basalt rock dotted with volcanic features, and several mainland-scale mountainous regions.
It is also geologically young, having undergone catastrophic resurfacing events. Such extreme events are caused by the build up of heat from the surface, the final result of the heat, the release of the heat and the re-solidify. Certainly a scary prospect for any visitors
Hovering in the atmosphere
Luckily, the idea behind NASA 's new mission is not to land people on the inhospitable surface, but to use the dense atmosphere as a basis for exploration. No actual date for a HAVOC mission type has been publicly announced yet. This mission is a long term and will rely on small test missions to be successful first. Such a mission is actually possible, right now, with current technology.
Surprisingly, the upper atmosphere of Venus is the most earth-like location in the solar system. Between altitudes of 50km and 60km, the pressure and temperature can be compared to regions of the Earth's lower atmosphere. The atmospheric pressure in the Venusian atmosphere at 55km. In fact, you would be fine with a view of Mount Kilimanjaro. Nor would you need to insulate yourself between 20 ° C and 30 ° C.
The atmosphere above this altitude is also dense enough to protect astronauts from ionizing radiation from space. The future of earthquake is more important than that of Earth, which can be used to generate power (approximately 1.4 times greater).
The conceptual airship would float around the planet, being blown by the wind . It could, usefully, be filled with a breathable gas mixture such as oxygen and nitrogen, providing buoyancy. This is possible because it is less dense than the Venusian atmosphere and, as a result, would be a facelift.
The Venusian atmosphere is 97% carbon dioxide, about 3% nitrogen and trace amounts of other gases. It famously contains a sprinkling of sulfuric acid which forms dense clouds and is a major contributor to its visible brightness when viewed from Earth. In fact the planet reflects some 75% of the light that falls onto it from the sun. This highly reflective cloud layer exists between 45km and 65km, with a drop of sulfuric acid droplets underneath down to about 30km. As such, an airship design would need to be resistant to the corrosive effect of this acid.
Luckily we already have the technology required to overcome the problem of acidity. Several commercially available materials, including teflon and a number of plastics, have a high acidic resistance and could be used for the outer envelope of airship.
Life on Venus?
The surface of Venus has been mapped from orbit by radar on the US Magellan mission. However, only a few locations on the surface have ever been visited, by the series of Venera missions of Soviet probes in the late 1970s. These probes returned the first – and so far only – images of the Venusian surface. Certainly surface conditions seem utterly inhospitable to any kind of life
The upper atmosphere is a different story. Some types of extremophile organisms already exist on Earth which could be withstand the conditions in the atmosphere at which HAVOC would fly. Species such as Acidianus infernus can be found in highly acidic volcanic lakes in Iceland and Italy. Airborne microbes have been found to exist in Earth's clouds. None of this proves that life exists in the Venusian atmosphere, but it is a possibility that could be investigated by a HAVOC.
The current climatic conditions and composition of the atmosphere greenhouse effect that can not be reversed), which transformed the planet from a hospitable Earth-like "twin" world in its early history. While we are not currently expecting the Earth to undergo a similarly extreme scenario, it is possible that we can expect a dramatic change in our climate.
to determine the effects of climate change Venus, with a view to the extremes of our current climate modeling, with all the implications for the ecological health of our planet.
We still know about Venus, despite it being our closest planetary neighbor. 
Gareth Dorrian, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Associate, Ultimately, learning how two very similar planets. in Space Science, Nottingham Trent University and Ian Whittaker, Lecturer, Nottingham Trent University
This article is republished from the Creative Commons license. Read the original article
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