NASA wants to bring people to Venus

Early science fiction in the 20th century described Venus as a magical land with pleasant warm weather, lush forests and even dinosaurs. In 1950, the American Museum of Natural History also invited guests to book in advance on the first trip, before the advent of private space travel companies.

Today, Venus is clearly not an attractive tourist destination. Over the past few decades, many research works have shown that the planet is not a paradise, but not even hell, with extreme temperatures, toxic atmospheres and high surface pressure. awful Despite this, NASA is planning a flight of people to Venus. This flight is called HAVOC for short.

Can such a flight be possible? The surface temperature of Venus is about 460 ^° C, hotter than Mercury, although Venus is about twice as far from the Sun as Mercury. This temperature is higher than the melting temperature of many metals such as bismuth and lead, two metals that can turn into 'snow' on high peaks in Venus.

are the vast areas of barren rocks with crater cracks, and the remaining regions of the continent. Besides, there are new geological shocks on the surface because the heat is deep in the ground causing the forms of matter on the surface to melt, the heat erupts and then solidifies again. Certainly these events will frighten any visitor.

The ships will float in the air

Venus's upper atmosphere is the most similar layer to the Earth's atmosphere in the entire solar system.

In fact, NASA's idea is not really to get people to set foot on Venus, but only to use the special atmosphere as a stop to explore the planet. So far NASA has not yet announced a specific time to make this trip, only to say it is a long-term plan and will depend on how small experimental flights see how successful.

If the tests were successful, the official flights would bring the ships closer to Venus, stopping suspended in the planet's atmosphere for a relatively long time.

Surprisingly, Venus's upper atmosphere is the most similar to the Earth's atmosphere in the entire solar system. From a height of 50km to 60km, the pressure and temperature here are comparable to the lower atmosphere of the Earth. The atmospheric pressure of Venus at 55km is about ½ of the pressure at sea level on Earth.

In fact, in this atmosphere, you can breathe normally without wearing protective clothing because the pressure here is the same as when you stand on the highest peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and the temperature fluctuates in about 20 ⁰ C - 30 ⁰ C.

The atmosphere above this altitude is also dense enough to protect astronauts from ionizing radiation from the universe. The distance closer to the Sun provides a more abundant source of solar radiation than on Earth and can be used to generate energy for ships to operate.

Under the plan, the spacecraft will float around the planet in the wind, able to get enough oxygen and nitrogen air to breathe and relax. It is possible to keep the ship afloat, because the air to breathe is thinner than the Venus atmosphere and can therefore become a gas lift. The problem lies in the atmosphere of Venus that contains sulfuric acid, so the design of the vessel should counteract this acidic corrosion effect.

Fortunately, they have the technology to protect devices from acidification. Some materials are very readily available such as teflon and plastic that have excellent corrosion resistance and can be used to make hulls. Thus, in theory, humans can completely walk in a small compartment to the outside of the spacecraft, just bring oxygen and wear a protective suit against the risk of chemical contamination.

How is life on Venus?

The American explorer ship Magellan painted the surface map of Venus and in the late 70s of the last century, the Soviet spacecraft called Venera explored some places on the planet, sending it to Left. The land of the first and far images is unique about Venus's surface. Of course, these photos all show that Venus is a very harsh place for any kind of life.

Venus is an extremely harsh place for any kind of life.

Even so, Venus's elevated atmosphere is a completely different story. Some kind of polarity creatures once existed on Earth capable of withstanding climatic conditions at the height of which these spacecraft will fly and HAVOC will test whether they can live in Venus's atmosphere. or not.

Climate conditions and the current atmospheric composition of Venus are the result of the greenhouse gas effect. Greenhouse gas enters the atmosphere of Venus and cannot escape, has long transformed the planet from an old world friendly almost twins with Earth to become harsh today. Although we do not expect the Earth to change in the same way, the truth is that the terrible changes of Earth's climate are likely to occur in certain physical conditions. .

When we run our current climate models in the most extreme conditions observed by Venus, we can more accurately determine the consequences of how terrible climate change is. So Venus is a very useful example for us to anticipate changes in the ecosystem on Earth.

What we know about Venus is still very small, even though the planet is the closest neighbor. Ultimately, understanding how these two planets are so similar is why being so different will help us understand the evolution of the solar system and possibly other star systems in the universe.