{"id":774740,"date":"2023-11-29T21:31:55","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T02:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=774740"},"modified":"2023-11-29T21:31:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T02:31:55","slug":"should-we-send-humans-to-venus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=774740","title":{"rendered":"Should We Send Humans to Venus?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>NASA is preparing to send humans back to the Moon with the Artemis missions in the next few years as part of the agency\u2019s Moon to Mars Architecture with the long-term goal of landing humans on the Red Planet sometime in the 2030s or 2040s. But what about sending humans to other worlds of the Solar System? And, why not Venus? It\u2019s closer to Earth than Mars by several tens of millions of kilometers, and despite its extremely harsh surface conditions, previous studies have suggested that life could exist in its clouds. In contrast, we have yet to find any signs of life anywhere on the Red Planet or in its thin atmosphere. So, should we send humans to Venus?<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-164552\"\/><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why NASA won&#039;t send humans to Venus\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tsBAozoyYZw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cYes, we should send humans to Venus,\u201d Dr. Paul Byrne, who is an Associate Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, tells <em>Universe Today<\/em>. \u201cBut first, let\u2019s talk about what \u2018sending humans to Venus\u2019 actually means. The surface of Venus is hellish, so nobody would last long there nor volunteer to go. Above the clouds, the temperature and pressure are almost like a nice spring day here on Earth, so aside from tiny sulphuric acid cloud droplets you\u2019d be okay (with a breathing apparatus).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These \u201chellish\u201d conditions that Dr. Byrne alludes to are the extreme conditions across the surface of Venus, including surface pressures 92 times that of Earth\u2019s surface and average surface temperatures of approximately 464 degrees Celsius (867 degrees Fahrenheit). In contrast, Earth\u2019s average surface temperatures are a calm 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit). These extreme pressures and temperatures have made landing on the surface of Venus even more difficult, as the former Soviet Union continues to be the only nation to have successfully landed on Venus\u2019 surface, having accomplished this feat with several of their Venera and Vega missions. However, the longest mission duration for the lander was only 127 minutes (Venera 13), which also conducted the first sound recording on another planet.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Color images taken by the Soviet Union\u2019s Venera 13 lander on the surface of Venus on March 1, 1982, with the lander surviving only 127 minutes due to Venus\u2019s extreme surface conditions. (Credit: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What If You Spent 5 Seconds on Venus?\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MYyXULpYubo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIf we were to send humans to Venus, they\u2019d be going in a spacecraft that would fly by the planet en route somewhere else,\u201d Dr. Byrne tells <em>Universe Today<\/em>. \u201cIf we were to\u00a0<em>one<\/em>\u00a0day send humans actually to Venus itself for science and engineering purposes, then a cloud-based habitat is the way to go. Getting humans onto the Venus surface is going to require so much technology and expense that, for the foreseeable future, I don\u2019t think anyone will think it worth doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A 2015 study presented at the AIAA Space and Astronautics Forum and Exposition outlined a NASA study for the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC) mission that would involve a 30-day crewed mission using an airship equipped with solar panels within the upper atmosphere of Venus. This is because Venus\u2019 upper atmosphere at approximately 50 kilometers (30 miles) above the surface exhibits much more hospitable conditions, including temperatures between 30 to 70 degrees Celsius (86 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit) and pressures very close to that of Earth. However, Dr. Byrne refers to HAVOC as an \u201cunbelievably expensive concept\u201d.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"497\" src=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/NASA_Cloud_City_on_Venus-750-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-164554\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/NASA_Cloud_City_on_Venus-750-1.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/NASA_Cloud_City_on_Venus-750-1-580x384.jpg 580w, https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/NASA_Cloud_City_on_Venus-750-1-250x166.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Artist rendition of\u00a0proposed habitable airships\u00a0traversing Venus\u2019 atmosphere, which has been proposed as the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC) mission. (Credit: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A way to explore Venus\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0az7DEwG68A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>As for using Venus while en route to another location in the Solar System, Venus has been used on several occasions to slingshot spacecraft to the outer Solar System as well as for exploration of the inner Solar System, such as Mercury and the Sun. For example, NASA\u2019s Galileo and Cassini spacecraft used gravity assists at Venus while en route to Jupiter and Saturn, respectively, while NASA\u2019s MESSENGER and the European Space Agency\u2019s (ESA) BepiColombo spacecraft used gravity assists at Venus while en route to Mercury. Additionally, NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe and the ESA Solar Orbiter used gravity assists at Venus for orbital adjustments to explore the Sun.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mars-Bound Astronauts Should Layover at Venus, Scientists Say\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gvrtWJ0qyp4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOnce within close proximity to Venus, astronauts could remotely operate spacecraft, landers, or even aircraft to conduct valuable science before moving out of range again,\u201d Dr. Byrne tells <em>Universe Today<\/em>. \u201cBut to be clear, the real value for such a mission would be as part of learning how to live and work in deep space en route to distant destinations, i.e., Mars. That\u2019s something I don\u2019t think we\u2019re talking enough about yet when we think about sending humans, one day, to the Red Planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Will we ever send humans to Venus? Will it be a cloud or surface mission, and what can we learn from doing it? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!<\/p>\n<p><em>As always, keep doing science &amp; keep looking up!<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded\" id=\"like-post-wrapper-24000880-164552-6567f2d8913e9\" data-src=\"https:\/\/widgets.wp.com\/likes\/#blog_id=24000880&amp;post_id=164552&amp;origin=www.universetoday.com&amp;obj_id=24000880-164552-6567f2d8913e9\" data-name=\"like-post-frame-24000880-164552-6567f2d8913e9\" data-title=\"Like or Reblog\">\n<h3 class=\"sd-title\">Like this:<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"button\"><span>Like<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"loading\">Loading&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"sd-text-color\"\/><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/164552\/should-we-send-humans-to-venus\/?rand=772204\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA is preparing to send humans back to the Moon with the Artemis missions in the next few years as part of the agency\u2019s Moon to Mars Architecture with the&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":774741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-774740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genaero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=774740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/774741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=774740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=774740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=774740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}