A NASA city on Venus is the agency’s next big concept, and the technology required to do so exists today.
In a lot of ways, Venus is similar to Earth. It’s about the same size and has similar chemical composition and density. With that said, there are a lot of problems with the planet, sparking the idea of NASA’s plan called Cloud City.
Probes have been sent to the surface once before, and they only lasted hours. On the surface, Venus has some pretty harsh conditions. The pressure of the atmosphere is 92 times greater than Earth’s, the temperature reaches nearly 863 degrees Fahrenheit, volcanic activity is everywhere, and the atmosphere lacks the right amount of nitrogen.
NASA still wants to explore Earth’s nearest neighbor, so Cloud City was born.
The concept is made up of spacecrafts – blimps – that would float above the acidic clouds – 30 miles above the surface – where the temperature and atmosphere density aren’t as harsh.
The crafts would float there for about a month, and it would give astronauts the opportunity to explore the planet without meeting the same fate as the probes.
The beginning of the mission would start out with a single probe checking out the area above the clouds, collecting data. Then, once the data is analyzed, astronauts would spend 30 days in a single spacecraft. Soon after, more blimps would be sent, and astronauts will spend a year there. The ultimate goal is to always have humans in Cloud City.
Also planned is a crewed zeppelin that would be more mobile in the air.
This new project may seem like science fiction, but all the designs to implement Cloud City uses technology that already exists. The plan is possible, but whether or not NASA actually goes through with it is a different question.
This isn’t NASA’s first planned project that will enhance our understanding of outer space like never before. Just a few weeks ago, they launched their first test of the Orion aircraft that will take four astronauts to an asteroid that would transport them to Mars. That data is still being analyzed.
Another agency in Europe just gained the funds and permission to begin construction on the world’s largest telescope, which will help scientists examine Earth-sized planets closely.
Chris Jones from the Langley Research Center that came up with the city on Venus, said that Cloud City would be a great practice run of going to Mars.
Think it will happen?
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: NASA Proposes City On Venus Called Cloud City, And The Technology Already Exists
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