NASA wants to establish human colony above clouds of earth-like Venus

You might also like

Tesla driverless system to use updated radar technology

12/09/2016

Apple to develop its own self-driving technology

10/09/2016

NEW YORK: NASA has planned to live on Venus seriously. In fact, up in the clouds above its scorching surface, Venus is “probably the most Earth-like environment that’s out there,” Chris Jones of NASA told Evan Ackerman at IEEE Spectrum. Forget Mars and its frigid temperatures and thin atmosphere when we can live like angles, afloat in the clouds of Venus. The surface of Venus is violent, tumultuous and full of volcanoes, earthquakes and lightening. We could never understand the magnitude of what a planet like Venus experiences.
The High Altitude Venus Operational Concept is a conceptual spacecraft designed by a team at the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at NASA Langley Research Center for the purposes of Venusian exploration. This lighter-than-air rocket would be designed to sit above the acidic clouds for a period of around 30 days, allowing a team of astronauts to collect data about the planet’s atmosphere.
While the surface of Venus would destroy a human, hovering above its clouds at an altitude of around 50 kilometres (30 miles) is a set of conditions similar to Earth. Its atmospheric pressure is comparable, and gravity is only slightly lower — which would allow longer-term stays, effectively eliminating the ailments that occur during long-term stays in zero G. Temperature is about 75 degrees Celsius, which is hotter than is strictly comfortable, but would still be manageable. Finally, the atmosphere at that altitude offers protection from solar radiation comparable to living in Canada.
The mission would, NASA outlined to IEEE Spectrum, begin with a robotic probe deployed to Venus to perform initial checks and investigations. With the return of this data, a crewed mission would spend 30 days floating above the planet; followed by missions that would see teams of two astronauts spending a year each. The end goal would be a permanent human presence in a floating cloud city.
While this city would be fixed, exploration would be made possible with a mobile unit — a crewed, 130-metre-long Zeppelin filled with helium, accompanied by a smaller, 31-metre robotic Zeppelin. This Zeppelin would take advantage of Venus’ closer proximity to the sun: its top would be adorned with over 1,000 square metres of solar panels for power.
And it’s all designed to be built using existing or near-to-existing technology — although of course it’s at least a decade or two from actual implementation. But, should it come to fruition, it may provide another way to see humanity inhabit the universe beyond Earth.
NASA has plans to live on Venus seriously. In fact, up in the clouds above its scorching surface, Venus is “probably the most Earth-like environment that’s out there,” Chris Jones of NASA told Evan Ackerman at IEEE Spectrum.Forget Mars and its frigid temperatures and thin atmosphere when we can live like gods, afloat in the clouds of Venus.The surface of Venus is violent, tumultuous and full of volcanoes, earthquakes and lightening. We could never understand the magnitude of what a planet like Venus experiences.