NASA planning to explore Venus in manned solar-powered airship Images: Airship NASA’s focus for human spaceflight seems to change every few years as we learn something new about what it will take to keep human beings alive out there. However, NASA usually picks one of a few targets. Will we go to Mars next, maybe back to the Moon, or perhaps an asteroid is a better option? NASA’s Langley Research Center has put forward an interesting proposal — instead of the traditional choices, why not make the trip to Venus? Sure, a human would be almost instantly annihilated on Venus’ hellish surface, but not if they’re floating among the clouds in a solar powered airship. This mission calls for a 129-meter airship, called the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC), which has a small habitat suspended below and solar panels for power. Mars has been seen as the next logical step for years mainly because of how Earth-like it is. The temperature is low (average of -63 Celsius), but not to the point that mission-critical gases like oxygen and nitrogen will freeze. It also has a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide that can be used to feed photosynthetic plants as a source of breathable air. Mars is quite close in the grand scheme of things, but Venus is closer by a few million miles. The round trip would be about 440 days for Venus and at least 500 for Mars. When the idea of sending a human mission to an alien world is proposed, that usually entails visiting the surface, but that would be a no-go on Venus. Atmospheric pressure at sea level on Venus is 92 times that of Earth, and the temperature is nearly 500 degrees Celsius. That’s hot enough to melt lead. Still thinking it sounds like a fine vacation spot? That thick, choking atmosphere isn’t composed of anything you’d want to breath anyway. It’s almost all carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid. Even the toughest space probes to land on Venus lasted barely an hour. However, if you could float an airship 50 kilometers (31 miles) above the surface, none of that is a problem. The Langley concept for HAVOC points out a few ways in which Venus’ upper atmosphere is surprisingly hospitable. At that level, the atmospheric pressure is one atmosphere, which means we could test the airship design on Earth fairly easily. The temperature up that high is only 75 degrees Celsius, which is perfectly manageable. Compared to Mars, Venus actually has several big advantages. Firstly, power would be no problem. With an array of solar panels on the airship, explorers would have all the power they’d need. Venus gets 40% more solar energy than Earth and 240 times more than Mars. Since there would be an atmosphere present, the airship could use electrical power to spin turbines for propulsion. Most importantly (and paradoxically), Venus is just safer for humans. Even at 50 kilometers up, Venus’ atmosphere offers ample protection from radiation — it’s about the same level you’d experience in Canada. Mars, on the other hand, would expose astronauts to 40 times more radiation than on Earth. The only feasible way to conduct a longterm Mars mission would be to bury the habitat several meters below the surface. Exploring Venus would require NASA to develop some new technologies, but no more than going to Mars. There’s also a lot to learn there. While Mars has played host to a dozen probes in the last few decades, Venus has been largely ignored. Not only can we learn about how Venus has developed, but how its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere led to a runaway greenhouse effect. That’s becoming increasingly relevant as we continue burning fossil fuels here on Earth. Now read: The first Mars One colonists will suffocate, starve, and be incinerated,
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 09:54:15 +0000
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