Going to Venus before Mars?

[beecee]

https://phys.org/news/2018-10-nasa-humans-venus-brilliant-idea.html

NASA wants to send humans to Venus – here's why that's a brilliant idea

October 16, 2018 by Gareth Dorrian And Ian Whittaker, The Conversation

Credit: NASA

extracts:

Hovering in the atmosphere

Quote

"Luckily, the idea behind NASA's new mission is not to land people on the inhospitable surface, but to use the dense atmosphere as a base for exploration. No actual date for a HAVOC type mission has been publicly announced yet. This mission is a long term plan and will rely on small test missions to be successful first. Such a mission is actually possible, right now, with current technology. The plan is to use airships which can stay aloft in the upper atmosphere for extended periods of time."

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As surprising as it may seem, the upper atmosphere of Venus is the most Earth-like location in the solar system. Between altitudes of 50km and 60km, the pressure and temperature can be compared to regions of the Earth's lower atmosphere. The atmospheric pressure in the Venusian atmosphere at 55km is about half that of the pressure at sea level on Earth. In fact you would be fine without a pressure suit, as this is roughly equivalent to the air pressure you would encounter at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Nor would you need to insulate yourself as the temperature here ranges between 20°C and 30°C.

Quote

The atmosphere above this altitude is also dense enough to protect astronauts from ionising radiation from space. The closer proximity of the sun provides an even greater abundance of available solar radiation than on Earth, which can be used to generate power (approximately 1.4 times greater)

.I'm all for it! One of the apparent dangers was that Venus's atmosphere is acidic with H2SO4 [Sulphuric acid] falling as rain. This is readily overcome and to quote the article again,

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"Luckily we already have the technology required to overcome the problem of acidity. Several commercially available materials, including teflon and a number of plastics",

They had in excess of 200,000 applicants for Bas Landorp's one way Mars trip, I'm pretty sure they'll get at least that number here.  What do others think?

My greatest wish again is that if we were all smart enough to make this as big an International effort as possible, we could be returining to the Moon, conducting a manned mission to Mars, and balloon air cities on Venus. Having this all done before I kick the bucket would be great! 

Edited October 16, 2018 by beecee

[mistermack]

I had the same notion years ago, when I first read the statistic that the upper atmosphere of Venus is so like Earth, in temp and pressure. I'm sure it could be done, because with such a dense atmosphere, it would be easier to float than here on Earth.

I would worry about the Venus weather though. I thought it was pretty rough, and there is a huge amount of lightning going off constantly. 

The other thing against it is what is the payoff? The atmosphere is the only thing that you could interact with, and I don't think there's much useful stuff there.

[Airbrush]

Very interesting idea of living in blimps flying around in the atmosphere of Venus!  This is the first I ever heard of it.  You better not fall out of that blimp or get roasted on the way down!