Why can humans never land on Venus?

Why can humans never land on Venus?

I don’t think this question is valid. Human beings have not landed on Venus so far, mainly based on two points: First, the environmental conditions of Venus are too harsh, making it difficult for unmanned detection and landing on Venus, let alone manned landing; second, what are manned landings on Venus going to do? The input-output ratio of landing on Venus is simply not proportional, so why waste time and money?

Just because humans cannot land on Venus now does not mean that it will never be possible. I think it is not impossible for humans to land on Venus in the future if necessary. In the last century, humans have conducted in-depth exploration of Venus.

The former Soviet Union has made the most outstanding achievements in this regard. Since 1961, the Soviet Union has continuously launched probes to Venus, with about 20 ships launched successively. The earliest Venus probe launched failed, and later the Venus 1 to Venus 16 probes were launched continuously, and Vega 1 and 2 were also launched. Most of these probes were successfully launched. Some flew by Venus, some orbited Venus, and some released landers and obtained a large amount of Venus environmental data.

The United States followed closely behind the Soviet Union and also continued to conduct exploration activities on Venus. The Mariner series, Pioneer series, Magellan and other probes have been launched successively, and most of them have been successful. Among them, there have also been flybys, orbits, hard landings, and soft landings, which have achieved considerable achievements.

The detection activities of the two major space powers mainly occurred in the last century. In this century, the European Space Agency launched the Venus Express probe in 2005, and Japan launched the Dawn probe in 2010, both of which successfully reached Venus. , detected by an orbiter.

The United States and Russia have now proposed a space cooperation mission called "Veneira-D". They plan to launch a probe to Venus around 2025 and release a lander to land on Venus. The surface working time will take It lasts several hours longer than previous detectors, allowing for a more detailed analysis of the ancient climate of Venus and whether it has the conditions to breed life.

So far, humans have sent more than 40 probes to Venus. According to incomplete statistics, there are 11 flyers, 9 orbiters, and 6 hard landing (fall) probes. , there are 10 soft landing detection ships, 2 balloon detection ships, and several failed detectors.

The longest soft landing operations on the surface of Venus were the former Soviet Union's Venera 11 and 12, both reaching 110 minutes. Through these detections, although humans cannot say that they have a complete understanding of Venus, they still have a general grasp of the basic situation. Detections show that Venus is a hellish world.

Venus has a dense atmosphere, the main component of which is carbon dioxide, accounting for more than 96% of the total; followed by nitrogen, accounting for more than 3%; the remaining gases of less than 1% include trace amounts of water vapor, sulfur dioxide, Oxygen, carbon monoxide, etc. Because the atmosphere is 100 times denser than Earth's, the surface pressure on Venus is more than 90 times that of Earth's sea level pressure.

Carbon dioxide is the main component of greenhouse gases. Therefore, surrounded by such a dense greenhouse gas, the surface temperature of Venus reaches 460~480 degrees Celsius, and the extreme temperature may be as high as 500 degrees Celsius. There is no water on the surface of Venus, but Venus also has clouds and rain. The dense orange-yellow clouds are filled with sulfuric acid and sulfur particles, so the rain that falls is not water, but concentrated sulfuric acid. This is why no matter how strong the detector is and tries to make it more resistant to corrosion and high temperatures, it cannot last long on the surface.

There are winds, lightning and thunder on Venus. The number and intensity of lightning are greater than those on Earth, with dozens of lightning strikes per minute. One lightning strike recorded by the detector lasted for 15 minutes. So is it possible for life to exist on Venus?

Through frequent detections of Venus in the last century, people have learned about the hellish extreme environment of Venus. Their illusions that Venusians may exist there have become disillusioned, so they gradually become disillusioned with Venus and basically have no idea that Venus exists. The expectation of life is a death sentence.

But a new discovery has reignited people's enthusiasm for Venus.

On September 14, 2020, the magazine "Nature Astronomy" disclosed a study that found the chemical characteristics of phosphine in the thick sulfuric acid clouds of Venus. The corresponding author of this research paper is Jane Greaves of Cardiff University in the UK and his colleagues. In 2017 and 2019, they used the Maxwell Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter The wave array observed Venus and detected a spectral feature that only belonged to phosphine, and estimated the abundance of phosphine in the clouds of Venus to be 20 ppb, which is one part per billion.

Phosphine is a poisonous gas that smells like garlic or rotten fish. It is generally associated with anaerobic microorganisms on Earth, so it is a signal of life. So is the appearance of this gas on Venus a symbol of life? It is currently impossible to determine.

The above-mentioned team also examined various ways of producing phosphine, including from the surface of Venus, micrometeorites, lightning, and chemical reactions inside clouds.

However, although the concentration of phosphine on Venus is very thin, the overall amount is still very large. This amount is difficult to explain by natural chemical reactions alone. Therefore, people are full of interest in the possibility of life on Venus.

Of course, even if life does exist, it will only be low-level microbial life. The "Veneira-D" space cooperation project between the United States and Russia may be designed to solve this mystery. So can humans land on Venus?

From the fact that the probe introduced earlier made a soft landing on the surface and the longest working time was less than 2 hours, it can be seen that even the machine cannot persist on Venus for a long time. The delicate body of human beings It is of course very difficult to land on Venus. But the difficulty is not impossible. Since the probe can persist there for a period of time, it leaves the possibility for humans to land on Venus in the future.

Whether it is a machine or a human being, if you want to land on Venus, you must first solve three major problems: one is high temperature resistance, the other is corrosion resistance, and the third is high pressure resistance. It is relatively easy to break through these three major problems one by one, but it is more difficult to solve them comprehensively and ensure survival for human landings.

For example, in terms of high temperature resistance, the fire scene that firefighters enter needs protective clothing that can withstand high temperatures of thousands of degrees. Carbon fiber can withstand high temperatures, but it is difficult for these to withstand high pressure; deep submersibles can dive to 10,000 degrees Celsius. In the meter-deep ocean trench, the pressure there is more than 1,000 times that of sea level, while it is only more than 90 times that on Venus. Therefore, it is not difficult to build a lander that can withstand high pressure. What is difficult is, can it still withstand concentrated sulfuric acid? Ceramics, glass and special rubber products can resist corrosion by concentrated sulfuric acid, but how to withstand pressure and high temperatures is another problem.

Currently, space suits can withstand temperatures as low as minus 180 degrees Fahrenheit and high temperatures as low as 150 degrees Fahrenheit; because they can be made of polytetrafluoroethylene reinforced glass fiber, they have strong corrosion resistance. But now the International Space Station mission, or the moon and Mars missions mainly deal with low pressure environments, so extravehicular space suits are mainly designed to deal with low pressure. Obviously, current space suits cannot protect the lives of astronauts on Venus.

(Pictures above: Wearing this kind of diving suit can dive to a depth of 330 meters, equivalent to 33 atmospheres)

Then in the future, a spacecraft or spacesuit suitable for activities on the surface of Venus can be designed ? I think it's possible. Now that humans can dive deep into the 10,000-meter ocean trench, they can create a lander that can withstand the pressure on the surface of Venus. They have also mastered high-temperature and anti-corrosion materials. The key is how to blend these materials and technologies together to create a lander that can withstand the surface pressure of Venus. Facilities that are resistant to high temperatures and can withstand high pressure and strong corrosion.

With the advancement of science and technology in the future of mankind, when mankind has an urgent need for the exploration or development of Venus, devices to ensure the work and survival of mankind on Venus will be manufactured. Don’t believe it? We can wait and see, it won't take long.

Humans will never be able to land on Venus? Probes launched by the Soviets have already done this. It's just that for the current level of human science and technology, the geographical environment of Venus is very harsh and difficult to land on. The environment of Venus can almost be described as hell. Human beings' landing on Venus is undoubtedly like landing in hell. The former Soviet Union's detector that landed on Venus only lasted less than 2 hours before being scrapped.

Venus is the closest planet to the Earth (Mars is sometimes closer). In recent years, humans have become very enthusiastic about several planets near the Earth, including landing on the moon, Mars, etc. However, as another planet near the Earth, humans have greatly reduced their enthusiasm for it. Why do humans only mention landing on the moon and Mars but not Venus?

Here are the basic data for Venus and Mars:

Surface temperature, degrees Celsius (min/avg/max): Mars: -87/-63/ -5; Venus: 465/475/485

It can be seen that Mars is at least still possible to survive. Venus is simply not suitable for human habitation. In addition, the temperature in some areas of Mars can reach ten to twenty degrees in summer.

Rotation period: Mars: 24.622 hours; Venus: 243 days

One day on Mars is about the same as that on Earth, but one day on Venus is too long. In addition, Venus does not have seasons, but Mars does.

The composition of the two atmospheres is similar, but Venus has hurricanes with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour and a large amount of sulfuric acid in the atmosphere. Even the detectors cannot last long, let alone humans.

The atmospheric pressure on the surface of Venus is 92 times that of the Earth. The atmospheric pressure of Mars is less than 1% of the Earth. Too much pressure means that it will be very difficult to land. If the pressure is too low, you can build a shed to live in, but if the pressure is too high, it will be more difficult. .

The above points can show that Mars is more suitable for human habitation than Venus. Venus is only about the same size as the Earth. Human space exploration is largely aimed at finding mankind's second home, and Venus is obviously not it. Therefore, there is not much enthusiasm for humans to land on Venus, and it is not as valuable as landing on Mars.

Because there are new clues suggesting that Venus may have once been a cloud-covered ocean world, which basically did not have the conditions for survival on Venus.

According to the knowledge we get from textbooks, Venus is a hot and desolate "wasteland". With a surface temperature of over 800 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Fahrenheit), it would be the absolute last place to look for water in the solar system. However, a group of scientists from the University of Paris-Saclay discovered new clues after using computer models to simulate the evolution of Venus under various conditions. Thanks to an extremely low rotational speed (about 1/116 that of Earth) and enough carbon dioxide remaining on the planet today, models reveal that Venus may have once had a vast and shallow ocean.

(The above picture is from NASA)

It sounds incredible, but there is actually another premise - if Venus is thick enough If the clouds come to help significantly cool the surface.

The new study builds on previous data and models of how rocky planets form initially, starting with extreme heat and tectonic activity, and then looking at what ultimately happens as they begin to cool.

Scientists speculate that Venus formed in a similar way to the Earth. Simulation results show that Venus only needs about 30% of the water in the Earth's oceans to cover its surface with a thin ocean layer.

It should be noted that the researchers are not betting all their chips on this theory, merely suggesting that our planetary neighbor "could have been liquid, supported by cloudy skies." water”.

Furthermore, we still don’t know much about what’s beneath Venus. If a Russian mission to Venus gets off the ground in 2024, we might not have to wait too long for answers.