Stratos!

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Wade Hampton III
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Stratos!

Post by Wade Hampton III » Thu Oct 18, 2018 4:16 am

Popular science fiction of the early 20th century depicted Venus as some
kind of wonderland of pleasantly warm temperatures, forests, swamps and
even dinosaurs. In 1950, the Hayden Planetarium at the American Natural
History Museum were soliciting reservations for the first space tourism
mission, well before the modern era of Blue Origins, SpaceX and Virgin
Galactic. All you had to do was supply your address and tick the box for
your preferred destination, which included Venus.
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Today, Venus is unlikely to be a dream destination for aspiring space
tourists. As revealed by numerous missions in the last few decades,
rather than being a paradise, the planet is a hellish world of infernal
temperatures, a corrosive toxic atmosphere and crushing pressures at
the surface. Despite this, NASA is currently working on a conceptual
manned mission to Venus, named the High Altitude Venus Operational
Concept – (HAVOC).
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But how is such a mission even possible? Temperatures on the planet's
surface (about 460°C) are in fact hotter than Mercury, even though
Venus is roughly double the distance from the sun. This is higher
than the melting point of many metals including bismuth and lead,
which may even fall as "snow" onto the higher mountain peaks. The
surface is a barren rocky landscape consisting of vast plains of
basaltic rock dotted with volcanic features, and several continent-
scale mountainous regions.

It is also geologically young, having undergone catastrophic
resurfacing events. Such extreme events are caused by the build up
of heat below the surface, eventually causing it to melt, release
heat and re-solidify. Certainly a scary prospect for any visitors.

Hovering in the atmosphere...
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Luckily, the idea behind NASA's new mission is not to land people
on the inhospitable surface, but to use the dense atmosphere as a
base for exploration. No actual date for a HAVOC type mission has
been publicly announced yet. This mission is a long term plan and
will rely on small test missions to be successful first. Such a
mission is actually possible, right now, with current technology.
The plan is to use airships which can stay aloft in the upper
atmosphere for extended periods of time.

Is surprising as it may seem, the upper atmosphere of Venus is
the most Earth-like location in the solar system. Between altitudes
of 50km and 60km, the pressure and temperature can be compared to
regions of the Earth's lower atmosphere. The atmospheric pressure
in the Venusian atmosphere at 55km is about half that of the pressure
at sea level on Earth. In fact you would be fine without a pressure
suit, as this is roughly equivalent to the air pressure you would
encounter at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Nor would you need
to insulate yourself as the temperature here ranges between 20°C
and 30°C.

The atmosphere above this altitude is also dense enough to protect
astronauts from ionising radiation from space. The closer proximity
of the sun provides an even greater abundance of available solar
radiation than on Earth, which can be used to generate power
(approximately 1.4 times greater).


The conceptual airship would float around the planet, being blown
by the wind. It could, usefully, be filled with a breathable gas
mixture such as oxygen and nitrogen, providing buoyancy. This is
possible because breathable air is less dense than the Venusian
atmosphere and, as result, would be a lifting gas. The Venusian
atmosphere is comprised of 97% carbon dioxide, about 3% nitrogen
and trace amounts of other gases. It famously contains a sprinkling
of sulphuric acid which forms dense clouds and is a major contributor
to its visible brightness when viewed from Earth. In fact the planet
reflects some 75% of the light that falls onto it from the sun. This
highly reflective cloud layer exists between 45km and 65km, with a haze
of sulphuric acid droplets underneath down to about 30km. As such, an
airship design would need to be resistant to the corrosive effect of
this acid.

Luckily we already have the technology required to overcome the problem
of acidity. Several commercially available materials, including teflon
and a number of plastics, have a high acidic resistance and could be used
for the outer envelope of the airship. Considering all these factors,
conceivably you could go for a walk on a platform outside the airship,
carrying only your air supply and wearing a chemical hazard suit.

RetiredAndLivingOnAltairIV

Re: Stratos!

Post by RetiredAndLivingOnAltairIV » Thu Oct 18, 2018 2:02 pm

Popular science fiction of the early 20th century depicted Venus as some
kind of wonderland of pleasantly warm temperatures, forests, swamps and
even dinosaurs.
Back then, and even well into the 1950's, it was a reasonable assumption. In fact, it was Venus rather than Mars where hospitable conditions for life were postulated, both by the general public and the scientific community. Perhaps the most famous and well-known dramatization of what Venus was thought to be like was Ray Bradbury's short story, "The Long Rain", which appeared in his novel, "The Illustrated Man" and later depicted in the movie by the same name:

Rod Steiger and Robert Drivas in "The Long Rain"
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A "sun dome", as portrayed in the remake of "The Long Rain" on TV's "The Ray Bradbury Theater"
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Younger readers might not know just how differently the planet Venus was perceived just 70 years ago, at the dawn of the Space Age. Because Venus was nearer the sun than Earth, was almost the same size, and had a discernible, cloudy atmosphere, it was thought it might be a steamy, tropical, jungle world. And science fiction writers of that time, believing the same, wrote many, many short stories along those lines, as collected here in this compilation of Venusian stories of that period.

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Wade Hampton III
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Re: Stratos!

Post by Wade Hampton III » Thu Oct 18, 2018 2:45 pm

Indeed...I saw this flick (produced in 1960 - released in 1962) as a wide-
eyed seventeen-year-old. I thought the metallic insects were kewel!

Synopsis:

In the not so distant future, Earth is peaceful, a model of international cooperation.
There is already a base on the Moon, and scientists are preparing the Cosmostrator, a
beautiful, four-spired Mars rocket.
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Construction workers in Siberia unearth an artifact called a 'spool', that is discovered
to be of extraterrestrial origin. Linguist Tchen Yu (Tang Hua-Ta) and mathematician Sikarna
(Kurt Rackelmann) team with American scientist Harringway (Oldrich Lukes) and nuclear
physicist Orloff (Ignacy Machowsky) to study the spool.
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They decide that it was part of an alien spaceship that exploded over Siberia in 1908,
creating a crater previously thought to be a meteor impact. The Cosmostrator is rerouted
to Venus, the source of the alien rocket, to investigate. Joining the group are four more
ethnically diverse [there's that "word" again - as early as 1962] astronauts: Cybernetics
expert Dr. Durand (Michail N. Postnikow) has a tanklike robot named Omega (pronounced with
the accent on the 'O'). Talua (Julius Ongewe) is the voyage's communications expert.
Sumiko Omigura (Yoko Tani) is a widowed physician whose husband died on the Moon. Ace
American astronaut Brinkman (Guenther Simon), was the first person to set foot on the Moon.
He has a crush on Sumiko, and interestingly was the only witness to her husband's accidental
death.
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Avoiding a meteor storm, the Cosmostrator lands on a bleak Venus of weird and unfamiliar
sights. Brinkman discovers a cave infested with metallic insects, that Sikarna determines
hold recorded data.

A 'vitrified' forest' is a tangle of radioactive trees that once functioned as some kind
of energy-projecting weapon. Like everything else on Venus, it appears to have been
partially destroyed in a nuclear holocaust, a theory borne out when shadows of Venusians
are seen burned into a wall, Hiroshima-style. Just as the explorers are realizing that
Venus was preparing to invade Earth, but destroyed themselves first, a chain reaction of
events throws their plans into chaos. A black and red ooze pursues Omigura, Brinkman and
Durand up the spiral ramp of a conical structure. Durand fires a ray gun at it in desperation,
a move which saves the trio but upsets the balance of the giant machines that still function
on the dead planet. An underground power plant starts augmenting gravity with a force field.
To allow the Cosmostrator to blast off, Talua and Tchen Yu enter the plant to try and reverse
the process. Tchen Yu's spacesuit is punctured, so Brinkman takes a mini-rocket in a rescue
attempt. Talua's efforts succeed in reversing the gravitation, which then swings to the opposite
extreme - negative gravity. The Cosmostrator is forced off the planet, while Brinkman is tossed
into the void. Poor Talua is abandoned on the surface. Back home, the five survivors mourn their
lost comrades but deliver a tale of world whose fate the Earth will hopefully not share.

RetiredAndLivingOnAltairIV

Re: Stratos!

Post by RetiredAndLivingOnAltairIV » Tue Oct 23, 2018 8:36 pm

Another concept for a floating city hovering high up in the clouds of Venus...

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Wade Hampton III
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Re: Stratos!

Post by Wade Hampton III » Wed Oct 24, 2018 1:47 am

RetiredAndLivingOnAltairIV wrote:Another concept for a floating city hovering high up in the clouds of Venus...]
...another potential benefit: Any Jews that somehow managed to infiltrate could easily be tossed
over the side and would be "well-holocausted" by the terrific temperatures and atmospheric
pressures at the Venusian surface! Stephen Spielberg would have his Jewish director's dream!
:lol:

RetiredAndLivingOnAltairIV

Re: Stratos!

Post by RetiredAndLivingOnAltairIV » Wed Oct 24, 2018 1:15 pm

In this comic book illustration from seventy some years ago, the cover art clearly served as a proxy for America's then pro-white racial views, depicting heroic Nordic blondes and gallant white Earthmen battling dark-skinned "Venusian" (read "African") natives on a distant, Venusian-type "veldt". Yet today's "progressives" like to pretend (or lie) that "America was always pro-diversity" when it was no such thing. And my fear is that these same "progressives" will imprint any future Martian colonization with their evil and false mindset.


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RetiredAndLivingOnAltairIV

Re: Stratos!

Post by RetiredAndLivingOnAltairIV » Wed Oct 24, 2018 3:11 pm

An imagined lightning strike on the surface of Venus:

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Wade Hampton III
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Re: Stratos!

Post by Wade Hampton III » Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:20 pm

RetiredAndLivingOnAltairIV wrote:An imagined lightning strike on the surface of Venus:
This may be an accurate portrayal. The atmosphere is so dense at the surface, that objects
in the distance would appear distorted in a manner similar to that in the Terrestrial ocean
depths. That is assuming of course, one had solved the problem of temperature and
pressure, and that it would be possible to make such an observation.

RetiredAndLivingOnAltairIV

Re: Stratos!

Post by RetiredAndLivingOnAltairIV » Wed Oct 24, 2018 8:30 pm

This may be an accurate portrayal. The atmosphere is so dense at the surface, that objects
in the distance would appear distorted in a manner similar to that in the Terrestrial ocean
depths. That is assuming of course, one had solved the problem of temperature and
pressure, and that it would be possible to make such an observation.
Here's an actual photo taken on the surface of Venus by the Russian probe Venera 13, back in 1982. In the foreground is part of the probe itself, which only survived on the surface for about two hours before going dark. An earlier Venera probe took some black-&-white images, but it was Venera 13 which took the first color ones. Had Venus even been approximately earth-like, I think we would have landed people there by now. But since it wasn't, there was no impetus to go.


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Re: Stratos!

Post by Wade Hampton III » Thu Oct 25, 2018 12:57 am

Venus is our solar system's analog to hell. Setting up a livable base on the
planet is a feat far beyond our technological capabilities right now, but
here's what life would be like if we could actually live on Venus:
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Aphrodite (Venus)
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https://www.space.com/28357-how-to-live-on-venus.html

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