Episode 584: Surviving On Venus. Is It Time To Go Back To That Awful Place?
If you’ve watched this channel enough, you might have the impression that I hate Venus. It’s possible, just possible I’ve even suggested that the planet is so terrible it should be pushed into the Sun.
The reality, of course, is that it’s an absolutely fascinating world - the closest twin to the Earth that we have in the Solar System. It’s nearly the same mass and has the same surface gravity.
While Earth is the beautiful life-filled world we all enjoy, Venus is a tortured hellscape, with temperatures hot enough to melt zinc. With atmospheric pressures more than 93 times what we experience here on the surface of Earth. And I always forget about the sulphuric acid rain.
The Soviets sent a series of landers to a horrible demise for a glimpse of the surface of Venus in the 70s and 80s. But nobody’s been back since.
There have been new techniques and technologies in development that might make a serious exploration of the surface of Venus possible again. Exploration that could help us understand why the planet went so horribly horribly wrong.
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References:
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag/vexag_goals_2007.pdf
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-studying-shared-venus-science-objectives-with-russian-space-research-institute
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/16/world/soviet-spacecraft-heads-for-comet.html
https://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2015/0305-venus-from-33-years-ago.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268472597_Analysis_of_Solar_Cell_Efficiency_for_Venus_Atmosphere_and_Surface_Missions
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2017EA000355
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2018/pdf/1243.pdf
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/venera_d.html
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag/meetings/archive/vexag_14/presentations/27-Kremic-Long-Lived%20Venus%20Station.pdf
https://science.nasa.gov/technology/technology-stories/electronics-demonstrate-operability-in-simulated-venus-conditions
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/a-clockwork-rover-for-venus
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag/meetings/archive/vexag_15/presentations/9-Saunder-AREE.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9fki7dligU
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2012_phase_I_fellows_landis.html
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12905-antique-fridge-could-keep-venus-rover-cool/