OK Mars is too hard, try Venus

[Simpo Two]

http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/space-flight/na...

[Eric Mc]

I wonder how the airships would cope with hydrochloric acid rain?

[perdu]

So they send a crew, or two, to Venus

Sit up there in the clouds doing clever scientific stuff and learning more about the place than we could have hoped for

None of those achievements will result in us putting a foot on the planet


No I'd rather we went to Mars where our children would have the opportunity to work on the ground and possibly live there indefinitely

And ultimately the human race might even move out from the 'time limited' solar system to seek new worlds

To Boldly Go...


not too impressed at balloning on Venus to be honest

[Eric Mc]

Arthur C Clarke wrote a short story about an airship expedition to Jupiter.

[Caruso]

Getting there is certainly easier. There was a plan in the Apollo era to do a manned Venus flyby: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Venus_Flyby

With the program cut the nearest it got to fruition was the Skylab missions which proved the concept of living inside a Saturn V 3rd stage booster.

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

Arthur C Clarke wrote a short story about an airship expedition to Jupiter.

'A meeting with Medusa'. A very good story.

A flyby to Venus seems much easier to do than anything Martian and might reawaken interest in things space.

[Eric Mc]

Trouble is, there isn't much to see at Venus - just greyness.

[mybrainhurts]

Dammit, we'll have to examine Uranus, then...

[Terminator X]

perdu said:

No I'd rather we went to Mars where our children would have the opportunity to work on the ground and possibly live there indefinitely

Lack of O2 a potential problem?

TX.

[Captain Ahab]

Terminator X said:

Lack of O2 a potential problem?

TX.

Pah! all they have to do is start the Turbinium reactor..

[jmorgan]

Not the first time they have planned to send send a human there.