Owing to the uttermost conditions on the Venusian open , it ’s pass away to be quite some time before a human ever stone’s throw fundament on that planet . That ’s why NASA is develop a program to deploy human - occupied dirigible in Venus ’s upper ambience . And yes , permanent occupation is the ultimate goal .
Asreportedby Evan Ackerman in IEEE Spectrum , Dale Arney and Chris Jones from the Space Mission Analysis Branch ofNASA ’s Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at Langley Research Centerare presently exploring this very idea . The team aver it ’ll be more practical to send humans to Venus before embark on a deputation to Mars .
Ackerman writes :
At 50 kilometer above its surface , Venus offers one atmosphere of pressure and only slimly depressed gravity than Earth . Mars , in comparison , has a “ ocean layer ” atmospherical pressure of less than a hundredth of Earth ’s , and gravity just over a third Earth normal . The temperature at 50 klick on Venus is around 75 ° C , which is a mere 17 degrees hotter than the gamey temperature memorialise on Earth . It averages -63 ° light speed on Mars , and while neither extremum would be pleasant for an unprotected human being , both are manageable .
At that elevation , spaceman would be able-bodied to tap into solar magnate and be protect from the Lord’s Day ’s radiation . What ’s more , Venus is much close to Earth than Mars ; the integral orotund - head trip would only require 440 days ( as opposed to the 650 - 900 day mission to Mars and back ) .
The proposed design , call HAVOC , would demand five distinct form :
stage 1 : Robotic geographic expedition
Phase 2 : Crewed mission to orbit for 30 Day
Phase 3 : Crewed mission to standard atmosphere for 30 days
phase angle 4 : Crewed missionary station to ambiance for one year
Phase 5 : Permanent human presence
The robotic airship would be about half the size of the Goodyear sausage , solar - powered , and filled with helium . The crewed interpretation , which would be about 426 foot ( 130 meters ) long , would be cover with solar control panel and have a car slung underneath .
uncalled-for to say , puzzle the airships to Venus wo n’t be well-off . Ackerman explains :
The crewed missionary post would need a Venus sphere rendezvous , where the airship itself ( folded up inside a spacecraft ) would be transport to Venus ahead of time . man would follow in a transit fomite ( free-base on NASA ’s Deep Space Habitat ) , linking up with the dirigible in Venus domain .
Since there ’s no surface to land on , the “ landing ” would be extreme , to say the least . “ Traditionally , say if you ’re going to Mars , you talk about ‘ entrance , blood , and landing place , ’ or EDL , ” explicate Arney . “ plainly , in our character , ‘ landing ’ would represent a important failure of the missionary station , so instead we have ‘ entry , descent , and pomposity , ’ or EDI . ” The airship would move into the Venusian atmospheric state inside an aeroshell at 7,200 meters per second . Over the next seven minutes , the aeroshell would decelerate to 450 m / s , and it would deploy a parachute to slow itself down further . At this point , thing get crazy . The aeroshell would drop away , and the dirigible would commence to unfurl and inflate itself , while still dropping through the aura at 100 m / s. As the airship receive magnanimous , its facelift and drag would both increase to the point where the parachute became redundant . The chute would be jettison , the airship would in full amplify , and ( if everything had gone as it ’s supposed to ) , it would gently blow to a stop at 50 kilometer above Venus ’s surface .
But once there , and situated near the equator , the cosmonaut could ride along the 100 m / s winds and circle the major planet in just 110 hour ( Venus itself barely rotates ) . Working in the dirigible , the spaceman could value the environment for eventual human missions . They could also bring low robotic landers with them to purge the blazingly hot and wakeless Venusian surface ( its 500 degrees 100 with 92 atmospheres of pressure down there ) .
“ It would take a substantial insurance shift at NASA to put a crewed mission to Venus ahead of one to Mars , no matter how much sensation it might make to take a serious look at HAVOC , ” concludes Ackerman , “ But that in no style invalidates the overall concept for the mission , the grandness of a crew mission to Venus , or the vision of an eventual long - full term human presence there in cities in the cloud . ”
There’smuch moreat IEEE Spectrum , including more conceptual look-alike and diagram .
airshipsFuturismNASASpace
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