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(CNN) -- Imagine a blimp city floating 30 miles
above the scorching surface of Venus -- a home for a team of astronauts
studying one of the solar system's most inhospitable planets.
NASA is currently doing
just that; floating a concept that could one day see a 30-day manned
mission to Earth's closest planetary neighbor.
Eventually, the mission could involve a permanent human presence suspended above the planet.\
Also known as the morning
star, and named after the goddess of love and beauty because it shone
the brightest of the five planets known to ancient astronomers, Venus is
a hot, sulphurous, hellish place whose surface has more volcanoes than
any other planet in the solar system.
With a mean temperature
of 462 degrees Celsius (863 degrees Fahrenheit), an atmospheric pressure
92 times greater than Earth's and a cloud layer of sulphuric acid, even
probes to Venus have lasted little more than two hours. Its surface is
hot enough to melt lead and its atmospheric pressure is the equivalent
of diving a mile underwater.
But above this cauldron
of carbon dioxide at an altitude of 50km (30 miles) scientists say the
conditions are as close to Earth's as you'll find anywhere in the solar
system.
The gravity at this
altitude is only slightly lower than that of Earth, its atmospheric
pressure is similar and the aerospace provides enough protection from
solar radiation to make it no more dangerous than taking a trip to
Canada.
Creating HAVOC
Known at NASA as HAVOC
- High Altitude Venus Operational Concept - engineers and scientists at
the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at NASA's Langley
Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, have been working on a preliminary
feasibility study on how robots and humans could make a Venus mission a
reality.
"The atmosphere of Venus
is an exciting destination for both further scientific study and future
human exploration," said aerospace engineer Christopher A. Jones of the
Space Mission Analysis Branch.
"One concept is a
lighter-than-air vehicle that could carry either a host of instruments
and probes, or a habitat and ascent vehicle for a crew of two astronauts
to explore Venus for up to a month."
He said the study showed
the mission would require less time to complete than crewed missions to
other planets and could even be a practice run for a Mars mission.
Closer to Earth
Venus has the advantage
of being much closer to Earth. Its minimum distance to Earth is 38
million kilometers, compared with 54.6 million to Mars.
"The kind of
multi-decade mission that we believe could succeed would be an
evolutionary program for the exploration of Venus, with focus on the
mission architecture and vehicle concept for a 30-day crewed mission
into Venus's atmosphere," he said.
At the heart of the
concept is the logistically difficult task of sending a spacecraft into
the atmosphere of Venus without landing it.
The HAVOC model involves placing the astronauts inside an 'aeroshell' that would enter the atmosphere at 4,500 miles per hour.
Decelerating during its
descent to just 450 meters per second and then deploying a parachute,
the shell would fall away to reveal a folded airship. Robotic arms would
unfurl the blimp which would be inflated with helium to allow the
airship to float 30 miles above the planet's fiery surface.
Jones said the key
technical challenges for the mission include performing the
"aerocapture" maneuvers at Venus and Earth (the process of entering the
orbit of both planets), inserting and inflating the airships, and
protecting the solar panels and structure from the sulphuric acid in the
atmosphere.
"With advances in
technology and further refinement of the concept, missions to the
Venusian atmosphere can expand humanity's future in space," he said.
Permanent mission
Ultimately, NASA could seek a permanent manned presence in Venus's atmosphere.
With advances in technology and further refinement of the concept,
missions to the Venusian atmosphere can expand humanity's future in
space
Christopher A. Jones
Suspended in a gondola
beneath the airships, astronauts would not have to contend with the
physical challenges of zero gravity, where weightlessness causes muscles
to wither and bones to demineralize.
And at a mere 167
degrees Fahrenheit (75 degrees Celsius) -- just 30 degrees Fahrenheit
hotter than the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth -- even
current technology has the ability to contend with everything that Venus
could throw at the mission.
Even so, HAVOC is
envisioned as a multi-phase campaign and robotic missions would have to
be sent to test technologies and better understand the atmosphere.
While NASA has no
current plans to fund the concept, the Langley-based team continues its
work with the hope the space agency could make the plan come to fruition
within several decades.
"Eventually, a short
duration human mission would allow us to gain experience having humans
live at another world, with the hope that it would someday be possible
to live in the atmosphere permanently," Jones said.
