Monday, December 10, 2007
So today's astronomy study for me was mainly on the planet Venus, so I actually get to know where to look for Venus on a night sky with a crescent moon (it's kind of on the top left and the empty part of the crescent moon) I'm looking for it tonight, although I'm not sure about whether or not we are having a crescent moon tonight. Well, better look that up. Anyway, then I moved to the colonization of Venus. I'm pretty excited about this news, maybe some day we will be moving to Venus instead some boring country that existed for so many years... Oh, and I looked up some of the information on Mars colonization too, didn't finish it though since there were so many...A little switch from Astronomy for a second, but I just found the place to download the Sailor V manga. It's the website on the right that marked as "Sailor V download", though I haven't download it yet since this computer is not opening it up for me. Oh well, I need to finish the Full Moon wo Sagashite series first, still on Volume 3 *sigh*
Now, back to Astronomy, I'm doing more cut and paste here. The source is of course, Wikipedia.
"The colonization of Venus, Earth's nearest planetary neighbour, has been a subject of much speculation and many works of science fiction since before the dawn of spaceflight, and is still much discussed. With the discovery of Venus' hostile surface environment, attention has largely shifted towards the colonization of the Moon and the colonization of Mars. Recently however, papers have surfaced on the feasibility of colonizing Venus beginning from the less hostile cloud-tops, making surface exploration in the beginning unnecessary. This two-part approach to the exploration and colonization of the planet has refocused interest on Venus."
Strike the paragraph I said about unable to download the Sailor V manga, it just opened up! *happy :D*
Advantage of Venus
"Venus has certain similarities to Earth which might make colonization easier in many respects in comparison with other possible destinations. These similarities, and its proximity, have led Venus to be called Earth's "sister planet".
At present it has not been established whether the gravity of Mars, about one-third that of the Earth, would be sufficient to avoid bone decalcification and loss of muscle tone experienced by astronauts living in an environment of microgravity (the probe Mars Gravity Biosatellite will be the first probe to investigate this). In contrast, Venus is close in size and mass to the Earth, resulting in a similar surface gravity (0.904 g). Most other space exploration and colonization plans face concerns about the damaging effect of long-term exposure to fractional g or zero gravity on the human musculoskeletal system. Humans born on Venus would probably have little difficulty adapting to Earth gravity should there be a reason to visit or return.
In Venus's upper atmosphere, at an altitude of approximately 50 kilometers, the pressure and temperature is Earth-like (1 bar and 0-50 degrees Celsius). In addition, in this region, solar energy is abundant. The solar constant at the top of Venus's atmosphere is 2610 watts per square meter, 1.9 times that of Earth, and the clouds are reflective enough that solar panels pointing downward towards them would be nearly as effective as those pointing upwards towards the sun. The atmospheric winds at this altitude would drive a floating station around the planet once every 100 hours or so. At higher altitudes this would take even less time, resulting in a 'day' much closer to the 24-hour day experienced on Earth than on the surface of Venus with the 243 days it takes to make a single rotation.
Venus's relative proximity makes transportation and communications easier than for most other locations in the solar system. With current propulsion systems, launch windows to Venus occur every 584 days, compared to the 780 days for Mars. Flight time is also somewhat shorter; the probe Venus Express which recently arrived at Venus spent slightly over five months en route, compared to nearly six months for Mars Express. At closest approach, Venus is 45 million km from Earth compared to 56 million km for Mars. This is the closest any major body comes to the Earth, other than the Moon."
At present it has not been established whether the gravity of Mars, about one-third that of the Earth, would be sufficient to avoid bone decalcification and loss of muscle tone experienced by astronauts living in an environment of microgravity (the probe Mars Gravity Biosatellite will be the first probe to investigate this). In contrast, Venus is close in size and mass to the Earth, resulting in a similar surface gravity (0.904 g). Most other space exploration and colonization plans face concerns about the damaging effect of long-term exposure to fractional g or zero gravity on the human musculoskeletal system. Humans born on Venus would probably have little difficulty adapting to Earth gravity should there be a reason to visit or return.
In Venus's upper atmosphere, at an altitude of approximately 50 kilometers, the pressure and temperature is Earth-like (1 bar and 0-50 degrees Celsius). In addition, in this region, solar energy is abundant. The solar constant at the top of Venus's atmosphere is 2610 watts per square meter, 1.9 times that of Earth, and the clouds are reflective enough that solar panels pointing downward towards them would be nearly as effective as those pointing upwards towards the sun. The atmospheric winds at this altitude would drive a floating station around the planet once every 100 hours or so. At higher altitudes this would take even less time, resulting in a 'day' much closer to the 24-hour day experienced on Earth than on the surface of Venus with the 243 days it takes to make a single rotation.
Venus's relative proximity makes transportation and communications easier than for most other locations in the solar system. With current propulsion systems, launch windows to Venus occur every 584 days, compared to the 780 days for Mars. Flight time is also somewhat shorter; the probe Venus Express which recently arrived at Venus spent slightly over five months en route, compared to nearly six months for Mars Express. At closest approach, Venus is 45 million km from Earth compared to 56 million km for Mars. This is the closest any major body comes to the Earth, other than the Moon."
and Disadvantages
"Venus also presents several significant challenges to human colonization. Surface conditions on Venus are extremely difficult. The temperature at the equator averages around 500 °C (932 °F), higher than the melting point of lead. The atmospheric pressure on the surface is also at least ninety times greater than on Earth, which is equivalent to the pressure experienced under a kilometer of water. These conditions have caused missions to the surface to be extremely brief: the probes Venera 5 and Venera 6 for example were crushed by high pressure 18 km above the surface. Following landers such as Venera 7 and Venera 8 succeeded in transmitting data after reaching the surface, but these missions were brief as well, surviving no more than a single hour on the surface. Obtaining materials from the surface for use by an upper-atmosphere colony would be a problem.
Furthermore, water, in any form, is almost entirely absent from Venus. The atmosphere is devoid of molecular oxygen and is primarily carbon dioxide in poisonously high concentrations. In addition, the visible clouds comprise, in part, sulfuric acid and sulfur dioxide vapor."
Furthermore, water, in any form, is almost entirely absent from Venus. The atmosphere is devoid of molecular oxygen and is primarily carbon dioxide in poisonously high concentrations. In addition, the visible clouds comprise, in part, sulfuric acid and sulfur dioxide vapor."
The cut and paste made this post VERY long, so guess I'll post more about the Venus Express, Mars Express, and Martian society tomorrow. They are very interesting. (What is wrong with me these days???)
Note to self: check out the anime voice of the original Japanese Fruits Basket anime.
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Looking From:Sagittarius A-star
Feeling: tired
Listening to: Full Moon wo Sagashite~Myself
