Questions tagged [venus]
Questions regarding the second planet from the Sun.
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With and without refilling at LEO, how much more than the landers weight of the Venera 9 mission could a Starship deliver near a pole of Venus?
Venera 9 was a Soviet space mission to Venus that consisted of an orbiter and lander with a launch mass of 4936 kg and with an entry mass of 1560 kg. It was the first spacecraft to return an image ...
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How brightly does Venus's hot surface glow at night? Could you see it? Could you see well enough to walk around?
NASA's Parker Solar Probe Captures its First Images of Venus' Surface in Visible Light, Confirmed links to the new Geophysical Research Letter Parker Solar Probe Imaging of the Night Side of Venus.
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Fjeldbo, Kliore, & Eshleman 1971 Fig. 22 planetary atmosphere index of refraction increasing with altitude; physics insight or convenient abstraction?
this answer to Is it possible for a spacecraft to communicate with Earth when a planet is in the way? suggesting that atmospheric refraction could be used to get at least some kind of signal around a ...
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What are the moving particles that can be seen by the Parker Solar Probe?
There ate two images below from the Parker Probe, one of Venus and the second from the Sun. The second one is a screenshot from a recent video (Youtube of Parker imagery while in solar corona).
In ...
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How did Venus Express' periapsis decay so quickly?
ESA's Venus Express ran out of propellant in late 2014 and has probably decayed out of orbit since then.
A timeline of events from my research for my answer to Are there currently any spacecraft in ...
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Are there currently any spacecraft in orbit around Venus that might (or might not) be at risk of meteoric dust from comet Leonard C/2021 A?
Astronomer Shreyas Vissapragada @astroshrey tweeted
Check out the latest from @aciqra, @Yeqzids, et al (including myself!) on C/2021 A1 (Leonard) and its close approach to Venus:
Preview of Comet C/...
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feasibility of a Venusian floating habitat
I think these are some strong reasons which would support a Venusian floating habitat
Venusian clouds have sulphuric acid and more than 96 % Carbon dioxide.
Does this ensures a constant supply of ...
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Impact Venus with Comet Leonard?
do we have the means to slightly alter Comet Leonard's trajectory so it impacts Venus instead of 'grazing' it in December 2021??
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Which are the current Near-Earth comets that have the closest approach to Venus?
A comment from @planetmaker to this question gives this link to the Minor Planet Centre (MPC) to find a list with Near-Earth comets.
Here's the list with orbits for current comets on that site, but I ...
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How much ice from the most suitable icy moon(let) could a spacecraft, launched with an SLS Block 2, transport to the upper atmosphere of Venus?
When starting to terraform Venus, working people there would have to live first in the upper atmosphere for a long, long time because there are the most Earth like conditions.
But the water there is ...
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Premature detonation of explosive bolts when landing on hot Venus?
@Uwe's comment below Parachute material used for the Venera probes to survive 500 °C raises an interesting issue. Venus is really hot, and pyrotechnic actuators (e.g. explosive bolts, frangible ...
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How did the Venera Probes manage to safely descend to the surface of Venus?
I have a two part question in reference to the answers provided for the linked question below:
Why did the Venera missions land so close together?
The answer stated:
”Not only did they land near local ...
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Parachute material used for the Venera probes to survive 500 °C
The Venera landers of the former Soviet Union were quite successful on the very hot surface of Venus.
Which material was used for the parachutes to survive 500 °C?
What about cotton wool? Yes this ...
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Can I observe a Venus transit before 2117 from a spacecraft in the Earth-Moon neighbourhood?
The Astronomy SE side of things is clear: The next Venus transit is in 2117. Good things they come in pairs, the 2004 had too many clouds for me, but 2012 was excellent.
That means I will not see a ...
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Is Geothermal Cooling on Venus Possible?
Would geothermal type cooling be possible for a stationary base on the surface of Venus?
Would the subsoil temperature of Venus hotter or cooler than the atmospheric temperature? (464C / 867F average ...
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What is the subsurface temperature profile of Venus?
Venus's surface is hot. If we dig and cover ourselves with regolith, will the temperature increase or decrease as we dig? If decrease, how far would we have to dig in order to have reasonable (say ...
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Could the phosphorus in phosphine in the Venus atmosphere probably produced by cosmic ray spallation of sulfur? [closed]
Reading the following questions and their answers:
Why wasn't the phosphine in Venus' atmosphere detected by space probes?
Phosphine, yes -- but where are the organic compounds on Venus?
the ...
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Why is there currently so little talk about a Venus gravity assist for a crewed Mars mission?
I just came across this video about manned Mars and Venus missions that were planned in the 1960s. They considered a Venus flyby the best way to get humans to Mars. Indeed, there are also modern ...
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Has Akatsuki searched for phosphine in Venus?
The Akatsuki orbiter is never mentioned in articles about the phosphine discovery, does it have the capability to detect it and has it tried?
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Why is the Venus Climate Orbiter also called Planet-C?
The Venus Climate Orbiter is also known as Akatsuki and Planet-C. Why is a Venus spacecraft called Planet-C? Venus is the second planet from the Sun, but C is the third letter of the alphabet.
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Venus probe with refrigerated electronics powered by an RTG (more like the Mars rovers)
Because of the very high surface temperatures on Venus (~450 oC) conventional semiconductor electronics will not work. Discussion of surface probes to Venus talk about using vacuum electronics, ...
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What if a Space Shuttle entered the atmosphere of Venus?
How would a U.S. Space Shuttle's atmospheric entry on Venus differ from reentry on Earth? Say there's a Space Shuttle in a low Venus orbit performing a (re-)entry burn. How would the following ...
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Why is there no plan for a Venus orbiter by ESA or NASA?
A rather complete-looking Wikipedia List of solar system probes enumerates only a few proposed future missions to Venus:
Reading popular science magazines suggests that it would make sense to go ...
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How do space agencies choose arrival dates to planets (i.e. Mercury) from a gravity assist (i.e. Venus)?
Assuming I was looking for arrival opportunities from 2020 to 2030, how can I calculate the possible arrival dates to Mercury given a departure date from a gravity assist from Venus?
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What are ALL the characteristics for for human habitability of worlds?
We've got a good head start at our original table here, but is there anything else we need or have missed that impact on human habitability of worlds? It's helpful to compare and contrast places in ...
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What's the current state of Venus orbital infrastructure?
As per this Wikipedia article there have been a total of 5 orbiters successfully deployed to Venus:
Venera-15
Venera-16
Magellan
Venus Express
Akatsuki
Of which only the Akatsuki seems to be ...
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Vacuum tube microchips for Venus probe; feasibility and challenges?
Venus surface temperature is around 460 °C which makes conventional semiconductors useless. So nasa proposed a clockwork rover, drawing power from wind and using springs and gears to navigate the ...
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What is the closest distance a human being has come to Venus ever since the beginning of the space age?
In line with this question, ever since we started space exploration, what is the closest a living human being has come to Venus?
All I can find on this matter is that the closest distance Venus and ...
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Arrhenius' calculation of the temperature of Venus
In this answer, we learn that in the early 1900s, Nobel Prize winner Svante Arrhenius believed that Venus was covered in lush swamps. His book on this matter, "the destinies of the stars", ...
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How to determine heat transfer for survival on Venus?
I'm trying to determine how long a probe could survive on Venus' surface. Assuming its just a sphere of titanium with room temperature air inside, what would be the best method for determining the ...
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What does the discovery of phosphine mean for the future of venusian exploration? [closed]
There have been proposals (1, 2, 3, 4,...) to send probes into the atmosphere of Venus, but these proposals haven't been selected by space agencies to fly. Some balloons were sent in the 80's, but ...
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Is the surface environment of Venus corrosive?
Venus famously has clouds of concentrated sulfuric acid in its upper atmosphere. Frequently I will see posts here citing the acidity of the atmosphere as a challenge to probes on the surface (such as &...
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How certain are we that we have not accidentally sent life to other planets/moons?
Recently phosphine was discovered on Venus, and that led to some speculation that life exists on Venus because phosphine is a known biosignature on Earth.
Considering that we've sent probes to Venus ...
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Why did the Soviet Union stop exploring Venus in 1985?
Wikipedia has a list of missions to Venus. The Soviet Union has the first and highest number of both attempts and successful missions to Venus. Starting in 1961, they often attempted more than one ...
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What altitude would an aphrodiosynchronous satellite need?
A geosynchronous orbit has a period of 24 hours, and mostly stays over the same location on the surface of the Earth. According to this blogger, the equivalent term for Venus should be "...
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What is the Opaque Component of Venus' Atmosphere
My understanding is that carbon dioxide makes up the majority of the Venusian atmosphere, and carbon dioxide is transparent. Even liquid CO2 is transparent!
Yet despite this Venus is enveloped in a ...
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What would the Venus landers look like today?
Between 1966 and 1985, several probes, mostly of Soviet design, successfully landed on Venus. Many of them continued operating long enough to send back audio, images, and various measurements, though ...
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How did 20 radio observatories track balloons of the 1985 Venus-Halley (VeGa) mission in Venus' superrotating winds at an altitude of about 54 km?
Links in Phys.org's recent The detection of phosphine in Venus' clouds is a big deal, and here's how we can find out if it really is life lead to:
Aerial Platforms for the Scientific Exploration of ...
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A balloon in the Venus atmosphere?
Was there any proposal or study for a balloon in the Venus atmosphere?
A spacecraft can enter in the atmosphere and inflate a balloon to fly for a few days or weeks.
That can help collecting a lot of ...
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Was Venus once seriously believed to be lush under its cloud cover?
Mars was once believed to have canals, and some astronomers seriously argued that they were artificial.
The atmosphere of Venus was first observed in 1761. Wikipedia kind of skips over the period ...
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Significance of Venus surface photos
Out of curiosity, I started looking for photos of Venus surface taken by various Russian probes. There is a nice collection here: http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm
Not being a geologist, I ...
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Phosphine, yes -- but where are the organic compounds on Venus?
There has been much speculation in recent news about the finding of phosphine on Venus, and what may be producing it.
At the same time, when we look for clues of life elsewhere in the Solar System, we ...
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Why wasn't the phosphine in Venus' atmosphere detected by space probes?
Today, it was announced that phosphine has been found in Venus' atmosphere, rekindling the discussion about the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Venus has been visited by space probes for about ...
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How often have signs of life been dismissed as abiotic?
Today, there are rumors about an upcoming announcement of the discovery of (non-conclusive) evidence for life on Venus, apparently they detected some phosphorus compound that is not produced by any ...
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How much payload capacity is available for a Rocketlab Photon interplanetary mission to Venus?
I've been quite interested in Rocketlab's Photon satellite bus, which they claim to be able to send to Venus. I'm trying to get some kind of an idea of what kind of payload might possible be able to ...
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Harvesting Venus' atmosphere to Terraform Mars
Since Mars has such a thin atmosphere, to terraform we would need massive amounts of Nitrogen. Would it make sense to import it from Venus?
Also since Venus' atmosphere is mostly CO2, and we can make ...
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Would it be easier to put humans on Venus rather than Mars?
With all the speculation of manned missions to Mars, there is very little talk of a manned mission to Venus (whose orbit is closer to the orbit of Earth than mars is). That being said, would it be ...
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Mining Venus' surface using lasers?
One of the issues with colonizing Venus is the harsh conditions at the surface. People have proposed using floating habitats in the upper atmosphere, where conditions are milder, and gathering ...
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Taking photos from Venus surface from an airship. Possible?
On planet Venus at ground level temperature level is about 450°C which seems to high for electronic devices such as a camera.
Could electronic devices and a camera on a airship just below the clouds ...
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Using Venus' Atmosphere to Cool the Earth [closed]
The Starfish Prime nuclear test on July 9, 1962 caused massive fluctuations and degradation of the Earth's magnetic field. This field is largely responsible for redirecting the Sun's solar radiation. ...