Source: NASA Langley Research Center

Hello, what have we here? NASA researchers at the Langley Research Center made a proposal to create a real cloud city above Venus. Venus has one of the most inhospitable surfaces of any planet in the solar system. It has an average mean temperature of 863 degrees Fahrenheit (hot enough to melt lead), atmospheric pressure equal to diving a mile underwater, and clouds made of sulphuric acid. All the probes we've ever sent to Venus have been destroyed within two hours. Not exactly a place we can send an astronaut to live.

But NASA has come up with a way to explore Venus by staying airborne. Fifty kilometers above the surface, pressure and gravity are within range of Earth, so NASA proposed what they call HAVOC or a High Altitude Venus Operational Concept. It's a lighter-than-air rocket ship that would allow a two man crew to spend thirty days exploring and analyzing the planet’s atmosphere. Beyond that, we could even set up permanent cloud cities floating among the clouds. Looks like George Lucas' Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back wasn't that far-fetched, after all.



[Via CNN]

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