While Mars is the original destination for humanity’s first crewed journey to another planet, several scientists now favour Venus as the recipient of that honour.
But the planet is virtually on fire. It has an oppressive air pressure, is hot enough to melt lead, and is home to sulphuric acid clouds, a substance that can cause serious skin burns.
Why then do these scientists desire to travel to Venus instead than Mars?
There are benefits to this, according to an article by the Guardian that cites research that was presented at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Paris last week.
Firstly, Venus is nearer. While a roundtrip to Mars is estimated to take around three years, to and fro Venus would only take one year.
Second, a flyby might provide the crucial experience of a protracted deep-space journey as a preliminary to reaching Mars, but walking on the planet’s surface is still a distant fantasy and an unlivable experience.
Venus ‘gets a poor rap because it’s got such a tough surface environment,’ according to Dr. Noam Izenberg of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, one of the proponents of the Venus flyby.
Although Venus was legitimately the subject of scientific study, he asserted that ‘a human flyby really wouldn’t offer anything much.’
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