Questions tagged [venus]
Questions regarding the second planet from the Sun.
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What performance can be expected from chemical rockets under Venusian atmospheric conditions?
Is it feasible to use either solid or bipropellant liquid rocket engines to lift off from the surface of Venus?
"Reference datum" air pressure on Venus is around 9.3 MPa; even on the top of, say, ...
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Does turbulence make sky cities infeasible on Venus?
It has been proposed that Venus' atmosphere at the altitude of around 50 km could be colonized with large aerostats. Since Venus' atmosphere is largely CO2 regular air acts like a lifting gas. So it ...
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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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Is there likely to be life in Venus's upper atmosphere?
From what I understand, Venus's upper atmosphere is much more habitable than its surface, with a temperature and pressure that humans could tolerate. However, lack of oxygen and the presence of ...
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Surface of Venus - what would it look like to see a spacecraft crushed by the atmospheric pressure?
Assuming you send two landers to Venus that have an expected "surface life" of, say, 8 hours.
The second lander arrives four hours after the first, parks up 100 yards away and trains a video camera ...
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How long would a blimp last in Venusian atmosphere at an altitude of 65 km?
It would be the same blimp on Earth, except with some modifications like anti-corrosion coating. The blimp will use helium as the gas to keep it aloft. Would it last long enough to be useful?
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Piece of debris in Venera 13 surface photos
(Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum)
In the Venera 13 Surface photo there is a piece of debris visible (the big thing slightly left of center). It looks like a sort cover, but maybe ...
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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 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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The practicalities of a rock sampling mission to Venus
The planet Venus has hostile conditions: a surface temperature of 462 °C, a corrosive atmosphere and a surface atmospheric pressure 92 times that of the Earth.
During the Soviet era, the Russians ...
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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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Could a solar sail composed of smart glass stay near the L1 point of Venus?
From answers to this question i've learned that the Lagrangian L$_1$ point of Venus is not stable, despite the almost circular orbit of the planet and the fact that it has no moon.
Nevertheless would ...
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Could metal sulfates stay in the sulfuric acid layer of Venus?
For cyanobacteria metal ions like K+, Mg+ and other essential nutrients like phosphorus are vital for growing and to expand.
So they could only thrive in the clouds of Venus if at least metal ions ...
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Is the net electric charge of Venus about 0.01 Coulombs?
A few years ago Venus was measured to be at a surprisingly large electric potential of $\Phi_{Venus}=+10.6$ volts, which may be one of the reasons Venus lost its water. Does this mean that Venus has a ...
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Heat shield on Venus
On Venus, the conditions are really extreme in terms of heat and pressure.
Say we take many layers of rockets' lab heat shield for Electron (which I am not sure what is made of). Could it provide heat ...
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What are the difference in energy costs for entering Venus vs Mars vs the Earth?
From what I understand you can't use aerobraking on Mars for landing as the atmosphere is too thin. From what I understand Mars is quite problematic because the atmosphere is too thin to benefit from ...
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Would it be practical to fly a probe to Mars using gravitational assistance from Venus?
I decided to fly to Mars in KSP using a slingshot of Venus to see if I could save fuel. Since Venus is closer to Earth, you need less fuel to get there. When I tested it I used less fuel, but the ...
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Venus without the greenhouse
What would have been the approximate surface temperatures and pressure on Venus if its atmospheric composition was like the Earth's that is ,being composed primarily of nitrogen and oxygen,rather ...
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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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Is really almost all the water in the atmosphere of Venus above the clouds?
In this question about the amount of sulfuric acid in the atmosphere of Venus it is calculated that the amount of water in it's atmosphere is $9.6 \times 10^{15} \text{ kg }$ H$_2$O.
But the ...
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How much of Akatsuki's original mission will be possible?
In December of 2010, Akatsuki was meant to enter orbit around Venus, but the insertion failed. They now have a new plan to put Akatsuki into orbit in December 2015, but the orbit will be different. ...
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Is utilizing the high temperature for chemical reactions on Venus a feasible way of generating electricity?
I assume utilizing habitats floating high in the Venus atmosphere as described by Geoffrey Landis. So weight, size etc is a constraint, and we will not be operating at the surface with the crushing ...
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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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Are there any benefits on Venus compared to Earth with respect to reusing launch vehicles?
My assumptions around building up infrastructure for dealing with space launches from Venus assumes colonization based on the principles outlined by Geoffrey A. Landis of NASA in paper Colonization of ...
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Could H₂S₂O₈ (peroxydisulfuric acid), made in the clouds of Venus, be used for making a propellant?
The salts of the peroxydisulfate ion, S$_2$O$_8$$^2$$^-$, are strong oxidants like the perchlorates that are used in propellants for rockets.
In this answer on Chemistry stackexchange is a link to a ...
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Are the mountains of Venus of any help for us to explore the surface?
The circular orbit and small axial tilt results in no seasons, coupled with the well-known strong greenhouse that makes nights just as hot as days.
As pressure gets lower by height, so does ...
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What is the atmospheric composition of Venus at the 34 mile (50 km) altitude of the proposed HAVOC program?
Various people over the past 60ish years have suggested floating habitats in the high-altitude Venusian atmosphere, as the pressure, gravity, and temperature are comparable to Earth. The premise is ...
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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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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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Could the sulfuric acid in the atmosphere of Venus be heated enough by concentrated sunlight to create water and oxygen?
The atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50 to 60 km above the surface of Venus is nearly the same as that of the Earth, making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar ...
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How were the Vega balloons deployed?
The Vega mission included balloon deployment into Venus' atmosphere. Deploying weather balloons on Earth is easy, but i imagine it is quite complicated in other planets' atmosphere from a spaceship.
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How to produce oxygen out of Venusian atmosphere's carbon dioxide?
What are the possible methods of in-situ extraction of oxygen from the atmosphere of Venus, which is mostly carbon dioxide?
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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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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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How would you navigate an airship on Venus?
Since there is no magnetic field compass is out. No GPS satellites either. I guess some old school methods could be used but I see some potential problems.
Assume we are over the cloud tops, can we ...
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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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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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Surface Rock Temperature of Venus
The average surface temperature of Venus is said to be 460 degrees Celsius.
What I'd like to know, is that the temperature of the air in contact with and near the surface, or is that the temperature ...
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What is the typical size of the sulfuric acid droplets in the atmosphere of Venus?
According to Wikipedia:
Venusian clouds are thick and are composed mainly (75-96%) of sulfuric acid droplets. These clouds obscure the surface of Venus from optical imaging, and reflect about 75% ...
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How would people measure time on Venus?
On earth we can divide our day into 24 hours, and 365 days in the year. I am trying to imagine how people living on airships above the cloud-tops would think about time on Venus given that a single ...
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What would a Venus sky look like above the cloud tops night and day?
I know it will likely be a yellow haze at the surface level, but I've seen little info about what a Venus sky looks like above the cloud tops or in the midsts of them.
Will the sky be blue like on ...
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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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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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Should there not be a sulfuric acid free zone in the atmosphere above the equator of Venus?
The circulation in the troposphere of Venus follows an almost purely zonal flow, with windspeeds of about 100 m/sec at 60-70 km altitude, which corresponds to the upper cloud deck. These winds quickly ...
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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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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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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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How will the DAVINCI probe manage its temperature during the descent to Venus' surface?
The DAVINCI mission, arriving at Venus in 2031, includes a probe that will collect data as it descends through the planet's atmosphere.
The descent will take about an hour and Stephanie Getty, deputy ...
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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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Venera mission image data format
I often work with the programmatic manipulation of images and 3d environments in my work at an engineering firm. Out of pure curiosity I was wondering about the Venera mission data format. I read that ...
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