95
votes
Accepted
Would it be easier to put humans on Venus rather than Mars?
Technically, yes, it would be easier to put people on Venus. You need less of a kick for the interplanetary trip and slowing down is trivial with that dense atmosphere...one of the Pioneer Multiprobe ...
- 9,284
59
votes
Why was Venus rather than Mars targeted for the first interplanetary landings?
The reason is delta-v, which is a crucial concept in Spaceflight. It means change in velocity, and is the primary 'currency' that space mission have to expend in order to reach places in the solar ...
- 8,334
55
votes
Accepted
Could the Saturn V actually have launched astronauts around Venus?
It takes surprisingly little delta-v to reach Venus for a flyby -- about 3850 m/s from LEO instead of the 3200 m/s or so required to get to the moon -- so while the payload would have to be reduced ...
- 164k
50
votes
Would it be easier to put humans on Venus rather than Mars?
As others have already pointed out, getting humans to Venus would be marginally easier than getting them to Mars.
Let's consider survival on Venus in a little more detail though. Although there haven'...
- 641
48
votes
Accepted
What are the teeth on the edge of Venera 13 and 14?
The teeth served an aerodynamic function.
...metal teeth were added to the periphery of the impact ring in an effort to
reduce the spin and oscillation during the descent and prevent the
rough ...
- 171k
47
votes
Accepted
When will we send floating probes to Venus?
When will we send? We already did.
In 1985 and 1986 the Soviet Union sent two Vega probes to Venus. Both included a robotic balloon (usually called aerobots).
The two balloon aerobots were ...
- 920
39
votes
Could a fan be used to prevent overheating on a Venus bound space probe?
Fans work by moving cool air (or other fluid) over a warm surface. If there is no air, like in space, a fan will serve no purpose. Cooling things in space is actually a bit tricky because of this - ...
- 3,142
37
votes
Why was Venus rather than Mars targeted for the first interplanetary landings?
We didn't know how hostile Venus's surface was, until we had landed there. The atmosphere of Venus makes it easier to land there than Mars. From Wikipedia, we learn:
Before radio observations in ...
- 120k
35
votes
When will we send floating probes to Venus?
Why are people so fascinated about Mars and not about Venus at all?
The trivial answer - Mars is moderate place.
A human could easily get around with a spacesuit, and it is trivial for robots and ...
- 1,614
35
votes
Accepted
Why is there currently so little talk about a Venus gravity assist for a crewed Mars mission?
The Venus flyby does indeed make the mission shorter, but it has some pretty serious negative consequences as well.
The mission spends much more time in deep space.
Approaching the sun will increase ...
- 120k
34
votes
Accepted
What if a Space Shuttle entered the atmosphere of Venus?
Can't speak to the trajectory aspects but the Orbiter crew compartment was very intolerant of crush pressure loading.
The two negative pressure relief valves protect the crew compartment from being
...
- 171k
30
votes
Accepted
What altitude would an aphrodiosynchronous satellite need?
Is such an orbit even possible?
TL;DR:
If the Sun wasn't around, yes, such an orbit is possible. But since the Sun is around, such an orbit is impossible.
About the name of the orbit
Quoting from ...
- 71.4k
27
votes
Is it more challenging to put an airship in the Uranian than in the Venusian atmosphere?
Buoyancy is a big problem. To stay aloft, the average density of the balloon envelope, lifting gas and gondola must be <= the density of the surrounding atmosphere.
The pressure inside a balloon ...
- 9,987
25
votes
Accepted
What cooling improvements did the Venera missions make?
According to Wikipedia launch windows to Venus occur every 19 months. In some cases multiple successful probes were launched with the same design at the same time so I'll group those together (the ...
- 7,196
25
votes
Accepted
Potential high temperature power sources for a Venus lander
Thanks to @MarkAddler for his search suggestions
I've tried to balance length against completeness, and both lost here. However I have included enough material to try to be convincing that RTGs, ...
- 149k
25
votes
A balloon in the Venus atmosphere?
The Soviet Union actually deployed balloons on Venus, so I assume they studied them before that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_program#Balloon
- 171k
24
votes
Accepted
Maximum survivable atmospheric pressure
Based on saturation diving operations, it looks like the limits are as follows:
Compressed air: Nitrogen narcosis limits you to around four times Earth's atmospheric pressure.
Any gas mix: Hydreliox ...
- 12.4k
24
votes
Why is the atmospheric pressure on Venus so high?
The pressure exerted on a surface area under the ideal gas law is $P = \frac{\rho k_B T}{\mu}$ with the following notation:
$\rho$ being the volume mass density (or simply density)
$k_B$ is the ...
- 2,756
22
votes
Accepted
What happened to Mariner 2 after it flew by Venus?
After the close encounter with Venus on December 14, 1962, the last radio contact was on January 3, 1963.
No tracking can be done after that as the spacecraft is too small and too far away.
The ...
21
votes
Accepted
Why did the Venera missions land so close together?
The simple answer is that taken as a whole the Venera missions didn't land particularly close together. Starting with Venera 4:
The overall spread of Venera landing sites (when you include the ...
- 7,196
21
votes
Accepted
When did planetary scientists realize Venus' surface pressure was almost 100x that on Earth? How did they find out?
The early Venera probe hulls were designed for an atmospheric pressure of 25 bar. Barometers were designed for 10 bar. This was in line with what was then assumed to be the surface conditions.
At the ...
- 123k
20
votes
Why was Venus rather than Mars targeted for the first interplanetary landings?
One picture is worth all your base to us.
Before we sent probes to Venus we had no pictures of its surface. Whether it lands or not you have to penetrate the atmosphere of Venus to take pictures of ...
- 566
20
votes
Why is the Venus Climate Orbiter also called Planet-C?
It's the third in a series.
Planet-A, "Suiseu" studied Halley's comet.
Planet-B, "Nozomi" visited Mars.
Looks like there's a Planet-D (PDF link) planned for visiting Venus, too.
- 7,404
19
votes
When did planetary scientists realize Venus' surface pressure was almost 100x that on Earth? How did they find out?
The determination that Venus has a hellish surface is a great example of scientific detective work and its close association with technological advances that allow better and better measurements.
In ...
- 18.1k
18
votes
How does Venus' thick atmosphere survive against the solar wind?
The mass of Mars is so small, and its magnetic field so weak that it cannot hold onto carbon for a long period of time, making almost all of it to escape.
(Venus and Earth are close to identical in ...
18
votes
Could we see the surface of Venus after the explosion of a H-bomb in its atmosphere?
No, because thermonuclear weapons don't make holes in clouds, they make clouds. First you have a fireball:
And then you get a big mushroom cloud:
Neither the fireball or mushroom cloud are see-...
- 19.2k
18
votes
Why not bring life to Venus along with the next exploring mission?
Question: Why not bring cyanobacteria and fertilizer to the atmosphere of Venus to improve conditions for life there by producing oxygen ?
... Only a few scientists have speculated that ...
- 3,236
18
votes
Accepted
Was Venus once seriously believed to be lush under its cloud cover?
The same WP article on Venus in fiction referenced by the OP documents one specific scientist who believed, in a nonfiction sense, that Venus is indeed the world envisioned by mid-20th-Century writers:...
- 8,205
17
votes
What does the discovery of phosphine mean for the future of venusian exploration?
What does the discovery of phosphine mean for the future of Venusian exploration?
It certainly adds some impetus. However,
The discovery has not yet been independently confirmed. This alone is very ...
- 71.4k
17
votes
Accepted
What is the subsurface temperature profile of Venus?
Due to thermodynamics, the temperature must increase.
Heat flows from hot to cold, and can not go the other direction.
If there is a cold pocket between the (hot) core and the (hot) atmosphere of ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible