Download Venus Investigation

Venus Investigation:
The second planet from the sun, Venus orbits closer to the center star in
our solar system. Like Earth, Venus is a terrestrial planet and is composed
mainly of rocks. The human obsession with Venus started with the discovery of
vaporous clouds in its atmosphere. People thought that Venus could be inhabited
by alien life. Sci-Fi novelists took this idea and ran with it, producing
sensationalist stories which captivated the minds of the American people. The
thought of aliens inhabiting a planet in our solar system enamored the public.
However, the speculations of the similarities of Earth and Venus proved to be
right after further research. Venus was proved to be a barren and uninhabitable
wasteland containing several times as many volcanoes as Earth that shaped the
Venusian surface.
As Earth’s “sister planet”, Venus has a similar size, and gravity. This has
been important in making the planet of such interest to scientists. Venus’
atmosphere is the densest of all the terrestrial planets in our solar system, and
consists of mostly carbon dioxide. Due to this dense atmosphere, an opaque
layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid covers the surface. These clouds
make Venus the brightest light in the sky seen from our planet. Perhaps the
name “sister planet” is a little bit misleading. 92 times that of earth, Venus’
atmospheric pressure alone would crush anyone who entered it. Its surface is dry
and desolate, contain no liquid water or even remains. The surface temperature
is a scorching 864 degrees Fahrenheit.
Not only is the pressure of the atmosphere crushing, but also the air is
100 % unbreathable for any life form we know of on our planet Earth. It is entirely
too dense with carbon dioxide; and the clouds are composed of sulfuric acid.
This sulfuric acid, even while maintaining the status of Venus being the brightest
thing in the Earth’s night sky, is highly toxic to any life forms we know of.
With this gathered information about the hazardous aspects of Venus,
that are in absolutely no way sister-like to Earth; it is safe to say that with the
technology we currently are in possession of, a venture to Venus may not be a
mission accomplished. The results would undoubtedly be fatal. If a human tried
to step foot on Venus, even with the most up to date technology we have today
to protect them, the average temperature of 894 degrees Fahrenheit alone would
probably cause death from heat. Not to mention the organ-crushing pressure, or
the deathly atmosphere. Even with a high tech space suit that could maintain a
reasonable temperature, air pressure, and amount of oxygen, it is still probably
not a very wise idea to travel to our deathly “sister planet” because of the sheer
expense it would be to develop said space suits and materials when we could be
spending the money on discovering the many, many things we have yet to learn
about the universe we reside in, or even our galaxy we very generally call our
home.
In conclusion, a human space flight mission to Venus would probably not
only end up a bust (of their organs from the pressure!) for the passengers on the
spacecraft, but also for mankind generally at this moment in time. With out the
technologies needed, a mission to Venus in the next few years would surely
prove fatal to the passengers, and in turn prove fatal to a spacecraft probably
worth more than millions of dollars from our ever spending government.