Why Venus Is THE WORST

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Venus was once thought to have been very earth-like and pleasant, but now it's considered a harsh wasteland that we wouldn't even send a robot to.
#Space #Venus #Science
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Sources:
Pleasant Venus: doi.org/10.100...
Venus stats: solarsystem.na...
Deepest “dive”: archive.rubicon...
Venera: nssdc.gsfc.nas...
Engineering concerns: www.nasa.gov/d...
High temp computing: doi.org/10.1126...
Lake beds: doi.org/10.1126...
Hot springs: www.nature.com...
Asteroids watering earth: advances.scien...
Water on Itokawa: advances.scien...
Amino acids: onlinelibrary....
Mercury stats, carbon melting point, etc.: Wolfram Alpha.
solarsystem.na...

[@scishowspace]

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[@ThrottleKitty]

What is with the weird misplaced hatred of Venus? This video is basically just misrepresented information. Venus is by a MASSIVE margin the most habitable location in the solar system outside of Earth. The area of the upper atmosphere on top of the cloud layers is the most earth like location we've ever discovered. I hate that we ignore it because opinions like this

[@ThrottleKitty]

@Dieter Gaudlitz I did like the video, I like all their videos! I just hope they have one planned that details how great Venus is, for all us Venus lovers! Mars gets enough love...

[@ThrottleKitty]

@Dieter Gaudlitz Yeah, it's a shame Elon Musk isn't more into the actual SCIENCE of space. I love that man, but he has a problem with pipe dreams. Those hyperloop vacuum trains are basically physically impossible too, but he won't accept that in favor of the not only possible, but much cheaper and already designed types of high speed trains such as mag-lev that have become hugely popular in china.

[@sdfkjgh]

Throttle Kitty: Musk's tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ComplexityAddiction is getting to be almost as bad as hitler's.

[@saltydiarrhea386]

I'm a big fan of that shirt. Who makes it?

[@Roelioz1]

This video is brought to you by the Mars Tourism Commission.

[@zacherykingsbury3322]

This is the best

[@ThrottleKitty]

Mars ::: only about nine billion times less habitable than the upper atmosphere of venus! But humans still insist that's where life is, because IT HAS A DIRT.

[@jafar3326]

Mars cannot keep atmosphere f.cked period.

[@ThrottleKitty]

It would cost unfathomably less money to colonize Venus for long term research compared to any other body. It's RIGHT THERE, and entering it requires the same exact tech as earth! Keeping cost low as nothing new needs to be invented, we could practically colonize it with a space shuttle and a blimp! The upper atmosphere is very likely to contain life as well! On top of that, the way the currents work, we could study the ENTIRE PLANET without actually moving, just floating around! It's one of the most valuable research opportunities available to us, it's ridiculous we are just passing it up in favor of Mars! Which is legitimately one of the least habitable bodies in our solar system. There is legitimately an "agenda" for Mars, because humans like sticking their *boots in dirt.*

[@edcrichton9457]

@@ThrottleKitty It is more expensive to get to inner planets.

[@GoldSrc_]

To this day, landing on Venus and being able to send back photos from its surface is so far the most badass thing a little probe could do.

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

"To this day, landing on Venus and being able to send back photos from its surface is so far the most badass thing a little probe has done." Fixed it for you. The most badass thing a little probe could do would be to gather a surface sample, lift off and return to Earth. Granted, given Venus' almost 1G surface gravity and thick atmosphere, it would take a rocket of comparable size for an Earth launch. Therefore, badass.

[@GoldSrc_]

@@thegardenofeatin5965 A return sample mission from Venus would be indeed badass, but I doubt any current rocket could survive the pressure that Venus has.

[@evilynthecommenter2094]

@@GoldSrc_ How about some super-complicated and hella-precise cooperation? One probe lands, grabs a sample and puts it in some STRONG and HARD container that can survive high temperatures, then yeets it up so another probe can catch it and slingshot itself outta that nightmare and use the rest of fuel to somehow get back somewhere around Earth's orbit so yet another probe can grab it and hurl it to Earth(preferably a place in the ocean without the trash lands) where the scientists open it up, take the inner container with the sample and take it to lab. That's the first thing I thought of after reading your response.

[@GoldSrc_]

@@evilynthecommenter2094 You can only yeet stuff so fast before they burn going out of Venus, it's really difficult to pull off. I guess the only obstacle is money, but you know how politicians see space exploration now, it may as well be impossible.

[@geohiekim8705]

Venus is like earth's sister. I didn't know earth was *Zuko*

[@sspark2686]

@A non Pretty much lol

[@militantpacifist4087]

Geohie Kim Earth’s hot evil sister. We all know the evil ones are always the hotter ones. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)🌚

[@jaschabull2365]

Toph: *bends Zuko*

[@David-Dash-IBA]

If Earth were Zuko and Venus were Azula, how come we didn’t get zapped with lightning when Venus was trying to zap Mars?

[@alexisnoahastaquinta9840]

HAHAHAHA

[@zachcrawford5]

Apparently the USSR was metal enough FORTY FIVE years ago.

[@limiv5272]

For two whole hours...

[@dstinnettmusic]

*soviet anthem starts*

[@animistchannel2983]

Yah, but they had to send all those extra missions to save face, because they kept leaving the lens cap on.

[@zachcrawford5]

@@animistchannel2983 lol. Hate when that happens.

[@Ugrasrava]

@@limiv5272 That's enough to matter, especially back then when we knew quite a bit less about the solar system.

[@SQW0]

Mars just has better PR. Venus is a LOT closer than Mars which means a tremendous saving in fuel/supply cost for manned missions. You can get by Venus's surface issue by living in a blimp. Venus's dense atmosphere makes floating a lab in the air far easier than it would on earth. Finally, it has 90% of Earth's gravity compared to Mar's 37% - a HUGE consideration when it comes to astronaut endurance.

[@timezone5259]

Yes I have read about HAVOC or 'High Altitude Venus Operational Concept' which is basically the same idea you suggested

[@Peregrine1989]

Also, a god damn ionosphere. People seem to forget how important that is for us not dying of Cancer....and right now, unless the Astronauts on Mars want to live in a Lead box, we have no way to even CONSIDER a long term manned Mission to Mars. Mars also lacks any sort of Magnetic Field worth a damn so that wouldn't protect you either. Meanwhile, Venus is like, "Hi guys, remember my thick Atmosphere...makes a great Ionosphere. Sure I don't have a magnetic field, but I am the second safest planet from solar radiation by a country mile....well unless you want to try live on Jupiter or the like."

[@js-yall]

Have fun getting dissolved by H2SO4 :)

[@spl30011]

I think the delta v requirements to achieving a low Venus orbit is greater than the delta v requirements for a low orbit around Mars, launching from Earth in both cases.

[@SQW0]

@spl3001 Does the difference negate the requirement to travel an extra 20 million km, and the extra weight in fuel and life support for the extended travel time to Mars?

[@HeroDarkStorn]

"Hey, you done any work this week?" "Nah, just watched buncha movies" "I can't wait to see you explain this to boss" "Don't worry, I file it under fact-checking"

[@ScowlieMeerkat]

Venus: "Fight me you cowards!!!" NASA:

[@EvillClaws]

Also USSR: ok, ok! Stop hiting me! It was just a joke bro!

[@luciferangelica]

@@EvillClaws yeah right

[@3rdmonocle789]

Venus colonists: We'll take on your challenge Me: To heck with that I'm going to Enceladus, at least it has water.

[@demi-fiendoftime3825]

@@3rdmonocle789 Likely infected with alien bacterium your imune system would have no defence aganist

[@3rdmonocle789]

@@demi-fiendoftime3825 That's why I would wait 5 to 10 years for the sanitation squad to sterilise the water to be safe to drink.

[@PatrickKirkOKC]

If the Universe has a sense of humor, Venus will actually be the one other place in the Solar System that's teaming with life...

[@sohinidutta97]

Patrick Kirk That'll be so epic though. Maybe they're not developed enough for spacecrafts or maybe earth is too poisonous for them the way Venus is too poisonous for us and they're just steering clear 😂

[@TheReal_ist]

The upper atmosphere is identical to Earth in many ways and seeing as we have found Microbes way up in even the thin as hell Thermosphere and Exosphere even. Bet u any money if we had a few hundred blimp or quad copter drones we could filter as we fly and find the first Alien microbe. Shame we're wasting so much time digging in dirt like cavemen on a dead red rock.....

[@CoinEaterBTBM]

It’d be funny if it was just filled with animals people are scared of

[@ryank1273]

It could be possible...

[@adams13245]

Maybe the universe does have a sense of humor; after all it caused us to name the sulfuric acid raining ultra pressurized hellhole after a goddess of love.

[@nerysghemor5781]

What about floating something in the more hospitable parts of the atmosphere? Aren’t there altitudes where the pressure and temperature aren’t so bad?

[@Lodurrson]

That idea sounds cool, but it’s not practical. Humans have a pretty good relationship with the ground, I think we should at least try to colonize a planet we can walk on before building Sky Cities.

[@irinacd2537]

There are! NASA had a mission concept called HAVOC at some point (it's been scratched, from what I knows, but it's still very interesting and pretty detailed), and I think the Indian Space Agency is actually planning to send a robotic mission to Venus' atmosphere soon? I don't know all the details, but it was a similar concept. Either way, I think it's foolish to scratch Venus off the drawing board entirely. Sure, the chance for finding life-as-we-know-it is pretty much null, but we could still learn a lot from a mission to Venus, both from the planet itself and from the sheer amount of creative thought and engineering that would have to go into it *dreamy sigh*

[@nerysghemor5781]

Tremo I’m actually thinking more along the lines of unmanned missions...doing more the equivalent of a Venusian weather balloon or drone as opposed to a lander or rover like we would do for Mars.

[@Lodurrson]

Nerys Ghemor that’s fair. That would be really cool. You never said manned missions, I apologize :)

[@1248-k2s]

@@Lodurrson Manned missions to the upper venus atmosphere would probably be more effective if your goal was to colonize the planet this video from PBS Space Time explaines it pretty well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXuYfIlpp9-ol8k&t=

[@coryman125]

A planet that could have been home to life, but is now uninhabitable due to a runaway greenhouse effect? ...Conspiracy: people actually came from Venus and just moved here recently

[@AshleeKnowsNot]

Yep and then when Earth is like Venus we'll just hop on over to Mars.

[@JenLee66]

That's the way it's going, and Elon saw the future. Maybe he's a time traveler from Venus!

[@davidford3115]

The problem with the runaway greenhouse effect is that is glaringly ignores critical pieces of data. Namely that it does not explain how you get from 2-3 atmospheres to 90 atmospheres where CO2 acts more like a supercritical liquid rather than a gas. Looking at 1000mb the temperature is 131F(55C). For comparison, the hottest temp recorded on Earth was Death Valley at 121F(49C). Go up to 500mb and the temp is 70F(21C). In that entire column of air, it follows the Ideal Gas Law. With that in mind, the greenhouse effect is overblown.

[@b.sharp.]

You better do a video on why Venus is the BEST next

[@venus8485]

Honestly.

[@animistchannel2983]

@@venus8485, you're the best place to cook a pizza in 15 seconds just by holding it out the window. See, everyone is special in their own way.

[@ArgentavisMagnificens]

Two words: floating cities

[@davidbeppler3032]

Until we learn how to create artificial gravity...Mars is Death. Venus would be much better for sustained occupation.

[@animistchannel2983]

@@davidbeppler3032 We already know how to make artificial gravity. You spin a cylindrical ship and live inside where it's safe and has a nice atmosphere, lights, growing plants, all that, instead of on some toxic planet. Mars and venus are both bad places to live.

[@bjarnes.4423]

The same logic you use to determine that probes to Venus aren't worth it, is used to argue against space exploration in general. Currently we only have one orbiter around Venus, and due to a failure, the Japanese orbiter is at an sub-optimal orbit. One orbiter is clearly not enough. Mars has six active orbiters and one active rover. While I'd say that's not enough either, its still much more than what Venus has. And Mars has lots of planned missions as well

[@Niinkai]

Yes, because the video said nothing about Venera project's 16 past missions to Venus

[@J7Handle]

Eventually, high temperature electronics may pay off just at home. Even here, electronics are limited by temperature, requiring large fans and plenty air circulation or even liquid radiators to stay cool. Having something that could withstand up to 900 degrees might not be entirely useful for laptops or desktops where people don't want to get burned, but could be hugely useful for supercomputers or large collections of servers that don't need to sort about melting their surroundings as much. If we are successful in making heat resistant electronics (which would require costly research into a replacement for silicon chips), Venus missions will suddenly become a lot more viable.

[@AshleeKnowsNot]

I noticed that too. The more they said we shouldn't/cant go to Venus the more I was like damn it we need to go to Venus. And my list of reasons just keeps getting longer as I go through the comments.

[@davidford3115]

The apples to oranges false analogies in Scishow videos is astounding. I will list some basic facts they overlook when comparing Venus to Earth. With regards to Venus, the surface pressure in 90 atmospheres, and that is NOT because of partial-pressure. Mars has a similar atmospheric make up and its surface pressure is much less, though that planet also has a smaller mass. With 90 Atmospheres, CO2 acts more like a liquid than a gas. And in Venus's case, the temperature makes it a supercritical liquid. The depth of that liquid CO2 is about 5km, the top of which drops to 70 atmospheres as it transitions to gas. So a better analogy is to say Venus has an ocean of CO2. 1000mb pressure on Venus is at about 50km elevation from the surface. From data collected by the Venera program, the temperature at that pressure is about 130F (55C) For comparison, the hottest temperature on Earth was Death Valley at 121F (49C). Now keep in mind that Death Valley at that temp still has SOME water Vapor while Venus has none at all. Evaporate enough water into a parcel of air and the temperature drops. Add the same amount of moisture from Death Valley and it drops down from 131F to a more comparable 119F. Go up to 500mb elevation on Venus and the temperature is 70F(21C) which is warmer than 500mb at Earth's equator, but again the moisture issue comes into play. Doing a standard atmosphere side by side using appropriate air pressure values and you will find that Venus's atmosphere accurately follows the Ideal Gas Law. And very few discussions of that ever come up.

[@zainiikhwan9405]

Iirc there's a proposal for floating probe on venus upper atmosphere cause the area there is not too hostile. Somebody tweet Elon Musk about exploring Venus!

[@Quantiad]

USA: "Sending missions to Venus isn't worth it." USSR: "Hold my Vodka."

[@FMHikari]

Also USSR: *falls apart*

[@isaackarjala7916]

.... The US didn't have the tech to send remote controlled vehicles until the USSR collapsed and some of their scientists defected and joined NASA... By which point the Soviets had already done all the exploring that anyone wanted to do

[@Quantiad]

@@FMHikari Maybe, but not until they'd beaten the USA to pretty much every first in space. That must've stung. Oh but the US made it to the Moon, *USSR ruffles USA's hair*

[@JanetStarChild]

@@FMHikari Hey, jackass; the missions to Venus were still a success. They accomplished what they were sent out to do.

[@paige1925]

"Venus is the worst" - a memoir written by the Mercury high council

[@antifableach]

The upper atmosphere of Venus is the most Earth-like in our solar system. It has a comparable gravity and it's much closer than Mars also. We should build cloud cities on Venus.

[@antifableach]

@Dieter Gaudlitz it wouldn't need to be tethered to the ground. It would just basically float on the lower atmosphere. Also, we don't know a lot about Venus, but I bet we'd be able to learn more about it if we had a colony there.

[@antifableach]

@Dieter Gaudlitz The journey to get to Mars would take longer than anyone has been in space before. We could harvest gasses on Venus, but it could be a stepping stone for Mercury. My point is that everyone is focused on Mars, which I don't understand because as I said before the upper atmosphere of Venus is the most Earth-like environment in the Solar system.

[@sdfkjgh]

EXOsquad! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exosquad

[@UsmanSubhani2020]

The idea is that we dont take the construction materials with us since it would take a lot of fuel and instead use the planet's own materials for construction. I don't understand how can we do that on Venus for making cloud cities?

[@antifableach]

@@UsmanSubhani2020 take all the excess carbon from Venus and transport it Mars 😉

[@OverlordZephyros]

But venus is the most hospitable in the upper atmosphere .. We could build cloud cities 😎😎😁

[@kwanarchive]

This deal's getting worse all the time.

[@zitools]

not gonna believe you until Isaac Arthur says so.

[@elimalinsky7069]

Venus actually has nearly identical gravity to Earth. A person (hypothetically) standing on the ground or living in a floating city in the upper atmosphere won't even feel any immediately noticeable difference in gravity. On the other side of the solar sysyem, on Titan, the atmospheric pressure on the ground is only 50% greater than that of Earth, it's fully tolerable to humans, so you won't need a pressure suit.

[@jacksonstein809]

They’re made of sulfuric acid.

[@JoseMolina-ij3xx]

We can't even build cloud cities in Earth's atmosphere, and you're talking about them on Venus.

[@CondemnedInformer]

Venus is absolutely worth exploring, what an odd suggestion. It's clouds are probably the most interesting thing to us in the whole solar system.

[@madnessbydesignVria]

Interesting that he glossed over all the advantages of Venus altogether (especially since I think he presented another video showing why Venus was a better target). A surface mission to Venus would face monumental challenges with little reward, true. But a floating platform above the sulfuric acid clouds would be at Earth-atmosphere pressure levels, which is a HUGE benefit. Dealing with large pressure differentials is a nightmare when one bad valve or leak in your structure can spell disaster. Not having to wear a pressure suit to go outside would cut costs and increase safety many times over. Venus has .8 Earth gravity, as opposed to Mars' .4, which is another huge benefit. The effects of low gravity on the human body over time are a major problem. 80% of what we're used to is a subtle adjustment. 40% is a major obstacle. Venus also has an atmosphere which provides some level of radiation and projectile protection. Mars does not. Solar power on Venus would be better than on Earth (Venus is closer to the Sun). Solar power on Mars is weaker than Earth, and the current plan involves using small nuclear reactors (because THAT could never go wrong). If the goal is to study the origins of life, then a Mars colony makes no sense. We don't need a colony to study samples on Mars, since we've had probes doing it for decades. If the goal is really to colonize, then Mars is again, a poor choice. If the goal is industry, then the asteroids are obviously the best choice, since they're laden with raw materials, and would be far easier to mine than Mars. If Mars is not a valuable scientific or industrial target for a colony, then why is it being pushed for so hard? Easy. It's a political one. The Moon missions didn't stop because there was no more science to do on the Moon, they stopped because the politics changed. Now, there's a push to go back out there - but we've already been to the Moon, so that's out. If there's one thing we all intrinsically know, it's that explorers leave footprints. Venus can't give us that. We have a picture of a footprint in white moon dust. Give them a picture of a foot print in red sand, and all will be well...

[@trabladorr]

First off, I'd love a floating city on Venus! But it is a much harder problem than a colony on Mars: By being in the clouds, you can't use many native resources. You can get energy, you can extract carbon, you might even get enough water. But all the metals a base requires to be built, repaired or expanded have to be brought from elsewhere. Gravity is also more a curse than a blessing: Escaping its grasp is far harder on Venus than on Mars, so if the venunauts want (or need) to return, they will need a lot more fuel. I think that a self-sufficient long-term base in the venusian clouds is outside of our current engineering capabilities.

[@madnessbydesignVria]

@@trabladorr Colonizing either planet will be an epic battle, but Venus' atmosphere IS a huge natural resource. It can be processed into breathable air, water, and hydrogen fuel rather easily. It's true, the materials to 'build' (or rather, inflate) a base will have to be brought along, but those materials can be much lighter than the ones that will need to be brought to make a 'solid', pressurized Mars base. Gravity is a blessing, since escaping either place is never going to happen. The long-term effects of low-gravity on our bodies are devastating. It's actually one of the biggest hurdles the Mars colony faces. A Venus cloud base is largely within our technical grasp. Mars, on the other hand...

[@exoplanets]

Great video. I wonder if an extraterrestrial civilization spotted Venus and considers it as potentially habitable.

[@alexjansink9495]

We consider Venus habitable, but just not on the surface. We could probably survive in airships above the deadly rain.

[@ThrottleKitty]

It is incredibly habitable. The upper atmosphere of Venus is the most habitable place in the universe outside of earth we have ever discovered. By an incredibly, incredibly wide margin, to the point there could easily be life in the atmosphere, but we'll never know because people are so obsessed with the dead lifeless dirt lump that is mars.

[@evilsharkey8954]

Throttle Kitty, the heat and pressure aren’t the only things that make Venus basically Hell. That atmosphere is toxic. The only thing it has going for it over Mars is a magnetic field. Everything else about it is pretty terrible. The moons of Jupiter and Saturn are much better targets for exploration, despite their distance.

[@alanlee1355]

@@ThrottleKitty are you mad? Venus is absolute hell. Why would anyone want to float above it?

[@ThrottleKitty]

@Zangief The Red Everything I said is based on science, and theories proposed by well respected scientists. Your comment only applies to yourself, denying science because you, some dweeb on KZbin thinks you know better.

[@michaellesak6912]

the problem gets easier if you look at the atmosphere more as a low density ocean, and you dont start off going to the bottom right off the bat. always been curious what we will find when we actually start exploring venus.

[@TrekkieBrie]

Him: Not one one, not two, but six- Me: okay that's reasonable Hit: -teen Me: .....

[@Ramenoth]

One of the best of SciShow Space episodes! Awesome attitude and script!

[@jaroslavsvaha6065]

VENUS CLOUD CITIES VENUS CLOUD CITIES VENUS CLOUD CITIES... god dammit

[@vvMathematicalvv]

3:30 Same on you SciShow. Not worth it? .. Can you imagine what sort of innovations could come from developing a mission to Venus as you describe? Just think what of all the things NASA brought us that are now used in daily life. To think the only thing we would get out of it is some data is shortsighted and unscientific. Who wrote this script? This is the first time I've been disappointed in Scishow.

[@acvaticlifE]

Lol anyone here after the latest news that Venus seems very likely to harbour life? Who is the Worst now bitches?!

[@ChrisChoi123]

yup exactly same here lol

[@dstinnettmusic]

I think given that Venus can hold onto an atmosphere, it is actually the better target for colonization term, even if Mars is easier to work on the short term. It's just going to require more effort to start on Venus than Mars, but its a more viable planet to host earth-2

[@ProfessorPolitics]

I wonder if the cost benefit analysis would change if we actually funded NASA as much as it deserves.

[@MrScaryowl]

1Energine1 early engines are more efficient, more powerful and more reliable because of the techniques used to hand build them. Those techniques don’t exist anymore

[@4rkain3]

1Energine1 we also waste far more money on defense expenditures (even if you support the US armed forces, it’s true, because many of the projects are known to be technologies that will never work by contractors seeking only money lmao) than NASA does. We DO need to fix NASA at a foundational level and up, but it still needs to be better-funded than it is currently.

[@Grayfox426]

So this video kinda danced around the idea that NASA is looking into installations that would float high above the Venusian surface.

[@esra_erimez]

Floating balloons in the Venus atmosphere is the way to explore it and live there.

[@geniusmp2001]

Assuming you build your craft out of materials that aren't quickly corroded by the sulfuric acid. And are capable of withstanding the constant hurricane-force winds.

[@RickBoat]

Above the so2 clouds, and floating in the wind rather than flighting it.

[@stuslater9506]

I saw something about that on a channel called SciShow Space. But for real I was waiting for him to mention it.

[@geniusmp2001]

I don't know about you, but I've never met a human who would be physically or psychologically comfortable "floating with" a hurricane, especially placed precariously above certain death. And even if we could, why should we?

[@kevinmbrooks]

Matthew Prorok "Precariously above certain death" sounds like seafaring.

[@Invert_Scrub]

"We aren't metal enough for Venus" \m/ - SciShow 2019

[@cthulhutheendless1587]

Pennywise: *We all float down here!” Venus’ balloon cities: “You’ll float too!”

[@robertmclean6629]

Send lots of baking soda and Alcaseltzer.

[@johngz3413]

what we need to do is figure out how to scoop enough CO2 off Venus in 1 go to give mars enough for 1bar at ground level at the foot of Olimpus Mons

[@THeDoMeTB]

I just love that we have the best anti-example for climate change in Venus.

[@PBTophie]

"We are not metal enough for it... yet." That's the spirit. \m/ (No Bring Me the Horizon reference intended, as we're talking about metal)

[@rhekman]

Venus sounds like an example of the "easy science" paradox (I think there's an official name for it, but can't find it RN). Humans tend to keep studying things that are easy to access and avoid things that are hard.

[@RickBoat]

Balloons... drifting at the one atmosphere level above the clouds in the cool. Duh. Why land?

[@samtime2711]

@@animistchannel2983 these lacks the fact there are points in Venus atmosphere, where the air and temps are really not bad and that's not taken thinking that life simply may find a way to level in midpoint, much like it does on earth. Other face just because you can not see stuff with what human eye can see, does not mean you would able to pick up stuff on spectrumer or things that could look at make up stuff. Plus grivty and size if you get things working Venus could a much nice place to tereform beacuse your starting mass is closer to earth

[@smacky101]

@@animistchannel2983 Terraforming venus is a lot more realistic than terraforming Mars buddy

[@hyperx72]

That's why airship technology really took off after ww1 and was extremely practical and hasn't had constant problems?

[@RickBoat]

@@samtime2711 airships attempt to work in the lower atmosphere where there are storms and where they interact with landforms. Stratospheric ballons that never land dont have those problems.

[@MrMysticphantom]

"field of great targets" ... that was great... dont tell me you didnt chuckle and felt good about it when your brought it up

[@PRANKZOMBIE]

Venus is the worst, but I am growing to love it. (Its a love/hate relationship)

[@kwanarchive]

Mars takes your breath away, but Venus smothers you.

[@PremierCCGuyMMXVI]

Learning about other planets in our solar system is like looking at Earth’s history, about a billion years ago, there were probably 2 Earth like planets, but a billion years from now, there probably be 2 Venus like planets.

[@archenema6792]

Venus is the BEST. All it needs is a moon. Mars needs to gain a lot of weight to hold an atmosphere, and would still probably also need a moon. Mars looks better short term, but Venus looks WAY better long term.

[@FerrariKing]

Well Mercury is close by. Perhaps in a few centuries people will be able to terraform Venus and move Mercury. Then I may also win the lottery.

[@archenema6792]

@@FerrariKing Who knows? Mercury may be too big, and we may need to whack it with Ceres, breaking the two into several large pieces. This might be required anyway for the momentum to push the new Venusian Mercurette out of the stronger gravitational tug. Mercury might be too hard to move at all because of that. We'd have to start moving asteroids if that's case. Mars will need some, as well. :)

[@spacemoth4973]

Venus: *chaotic screaming* Earth: "why are you like this?"

[@fizzplease6742]

I now need all short timespans to be measured in movie runtime fractions.

[@evilsharkey8954]

Don’t forget about the volcanic surface. Most of the crust is basalt. Venus has resurfaced itself a few times, and some of the volcanoes on the surface may be live but dormant.

[@TenorCantusFirmus]

Venus has been called like the Greek-Roman goddess of beauty because it's like some beautiful girls: a gorgeous gem when seen from the distance, the hell inside once you get closer.

[@Marco_Onyxheart]

Venusian conservatives in the past: _Global warming and climate change are normal. Greenhouse effect has always happened._ Venusian conservatives now: _dead_

[@davidford3115]

I hope that is a joke. How do you explain going from 2-3 atmospheres pressure to 90 atmospheres. Simply changing the composition doesn't explain it because the partial-pressure is not that high.

[@rahn45]

Now that there's potential evidence of life on Venus, hopefully we'll be sending balloons and/or blimps there!

[@DragoniteSpam]

Venus is like a planetary Paper Mario: Sticker Star for me, I really want to like it but there are so many things about it that just don't work.

[@JosephFuller]

What about the HAVOC proposal? Wouldn't Venus be more suitable for long term human habitation than Mars?

[@SgtSupaman]

Future probes to Venus need to use aerogel insulation (if they aren't already).

[@slimjimcognito]

FlexSeal!

[@andersvesterholt2170]

Thermal insulation will only buy you time. It doesn't provide active measures to stake off the impending heat front moving towards the cargo through diffusion. It just prolongs the inevitable.

[@SgtSupaman]

@@andersvesterholt2170 , if it is inevitable, then prolonging it is the absolute best thing you can do, no? And that is exactly the point of insulators.

[@andersvesterholt2170]

@@SgtSupaman Yes, it's great for robotic missions, and it is used there. But it is not a solution on its own for living quarters for biological life

[@SgtSupaman]

@@andersvesterholt2170 , oh yeah, definitely not for living creatures to go there. I doubt there will ever be any gain by putting anything living on Venus.

[@aperson22222]

Seems to me it’s still a more attractive planet to colonize than Mars is. Earth-like gravity, polar magnets to protect us from solar radiation, and an interplanetary journey that’s a small fraction of that to Mars.

[@uss_04]

I always wondered if Venus would have been a bit more habitable if Mars and Venus swapped orbits.

[@joshuahunt3032]

As unlikely as it is that Venus has any semblance of extant life (i.e. Impossible), I’d argue Mars is also just as unlikely to have any extant life, even if it’s more likely to have had life in the distant past.

[@bwill325]

Man really disappointing video...there are some interesting ideas about exploring Venus' upper atmosphere's. Which would protect from the Sun's radiation and you don't have to deal with gravity issues of Mars. It's also quicker to get there. I mean im far from an expert and I know this it's surprising you didn't address it at all...considering Earth may have to deal with greenhouse effect it would be very relevant to study the most extreme one we know of too.

[@Karoku2100]

The problem is that the technology to build floating islands and settlements are completely impossible, if not just stupidly-dangerous outright. The atmosphere might be thick, but it's not dense enough to house a colony above the clouds that can support living spaces realistically. There's just too many variables that go against such an idea. Not to mention that even if something is discovered to keep sky cities afloat, it would likely demand resources that get used up faster than what can be replenished. That being said, Mars is terrible as well for two major reasons: Low-boiling point, and low gravity. Once again, no tech to be able to deal with either problem. Oh, and Martian dirt so toxic that it can get in the air. Now isn't that a treat? The only good point is that our technology can last _much_ longer on Mars, so at least we can safely study it without its resources going kaput after an hour or so.

[@deluxeassortment]

Can you imagine the cost of a computer made with graphene conductors?

[@hyperx72]

You'd be limited on the size of this hypothetical floating City, instead of being able to build and travel the entire planet. Not to mention having to send up enough materials from Earth to build this floating City.

[@itsgonnabeokai]

@@Karoku2100 it doesn't have to be a city, the video is about sending probes. Why aren't we trying to send the probes to the upper atmosphere where they don't have to deal with the pressure but are shielded from radiation?

[@DoctorSinister1987]

Great episode. Thanks guys!

[@roussounmanman]

Part of me wonders; Could Venus have been an Earth like planet, with life and all, billions of years ago, then its residents kick started a global warming effect into overdrive? Are we about to do the same?

[@teshikofurusato4541]

Climate change is real but humans aren't completely at fault. No thing will happen anytime soon unless all nukes on earth went off.

[@nerysghemor5781]

Νίκος Ρουσσουνέλος A factor they didn’t mention in the video is that the habitable zone itself around the Sun (or any star) moves outward over time because the Sun gets larger and hotter over time. The problem is not that Venus just had a bunch of CO2 floating around, but that over time it started getting hit by more and more heat from the sun. Billions of years in the future, no matter what humans do to Earth, Venus WILL be Earth’s fate due to the same processes doing their job on us.

[@DarthBiomech]

It took billions of years on our planet to just evolve that rad new thing called "multicellular organism", and both planets formed at the same time. Timeframes don't really match.

[@nerysghemor5781]

Dieter Gaudlitz As long as you’re counting only disasters originating from the Earth itself. The Theia impact was definitely worse, if we want to talk space-originating disasters. And then there’s the incredibly unpleasant thought of what would happen if a gamma ray burst hit the planet. Or if you want to just royally f over civilization without wiping out life on Earth, our good old sun can provide that for you too...just think of what would happen if the Carrington Event happened in modern times.

[@hellcat1988]

If they could make something to survive in the upper atmosphere, like a blimp, they could probably have a long term probe. Maybe then we could find the tardigrades that are probably there.

[@Penguin_Tree]

Can still try living above cloud layer

[@Penguin_Tree]

@@NerdyNEET from the atmosphere and you can send down machinery that's not too complicated. Kinda like an offshore oil rig

[@jackielinde7568]

The funny thing is, hearing of the planet's description fits some of the goddess's more "exciting" personality traits, if you piss her off. Especially if you're going by some of the Greek Goddess Aphrodite's stories. Her older interpretation has her as a war goddess, and there was that whole "Helen of Troy" thing, too.

[@asierra86]

Why not a floating lab? There are levels in the cloud atmosphere where the temperatures and pressures should allow for long lived missions

[@adlockhungry304]

What about some type of zeppelin style drone for exploring from within the upper atmosphere?

[@navanne]

#DirigibleLife

[@andrew2353]

I think Venus could be useful for harvesting the Carbon from it's atmosphere for Graphene in the distant future.

[@dougmoore6612]

Other commenters, please correct anything I get wrong here. My understanding is that at the altitude where Venus is about 1 Earth atmosphere pressure it is also a human comfortable temperature (somewhere between 50-90 degrees Fahrenheit but I can’t remember exactly). Also, our breathable atmosphere is still buoyant at that altitude and the sulfuric acid clouds are mostly below that altitude. So, a floating station above Venus would have livable pressure and temperature, float using the atmosphere we breath, and with a little navigation every once in a while it could avoid the sulfuric acid (using materials like teflon as well for when it can’t). We could literally walk around outside with a breathing mask during non-acidy times and if we really needed to go outside during acidy times, a thin teflon suit. The logistics of getting all of that equipment there are tough. Most Mars ideas rely on using the Martian soil for portions of the building materials. But the hopes of growing things on Mars were dashed by the perchlorates, at least until that problem is solved. So, why is Venus the worst?

[@francoisrd]

What about a Venusian cloud city?

[@GraveUypo]

Plot twist: venus has a 3km thick solid gold crust just 16 meter underground

[@GraveUypo]

@Dieter Gaudlitz gold has such good properties that even if we found a planet made entirely out of gold and were able to harvest it, gold would still be somewhat valuable. Excelent thermal and electric conductor, VERY stable (doesnt react easily with anything, it doesnt even oxidize), very dense, maleable, can be made into atom-thick sheets and strings... And yes, i have played minecraft... 10 years ago. It was fun for a couple of weeks and thats it. Dont make your life all about it

[@orchirion]

Aphrodite is really too smoking hot! She needs to chill out.😧

[@sohinidutta97]

Sinny IKR. Lucky Hephaestus though 😂

[@karnsingh3768]

Kratos tho 😆

[@googlebarbaralernerspectre2581]

Venus has many names from all the goddesses names in history :D shed look the best if she was terraformed.

[@orchirion]

@@sohinidutta97 Where do you think Hephaestus get all his heat for his forges. 😤

[@orchirion]

@@googlebarbaralernerspectre2581 Makeover😁

[@jessicap4998]

We seem to be able to build a rover that can deal with all these issues- but not at the same time. I think the acidic clouds would be the worst. That kind of corrosion will destroy everything.

[@thisiszaphod]

Nothing wrong with exploring Venus' atmosphere, where life may exist. None of the problems of landing on it, either.

[@TyroneSayWTF]

Thanks for saying what I was going to say - along with, I suspect there's a higher probability of finding life in Venus' upper atmosphere (or possibly even the polar areas) than there is of doing the same on Mars.

[@joshuahunt3032]

thisiszaphod Dead, once living things, maybe, but I doubt any of the terrestrial planets in the Inner Solar System aside from Earth have extant life, aside from fossils in the case of mars, the crushed remains of fossils in the case of Venus, and Mercury probably never had life to begin with. Anyway, I doubt Venusian life would’ve had time to develop an airborne ecosystem. Still might be worth building cloud cities for the wealth of nitrogen and carbon dioxide for growing plants (or keeping a Martian colony afloat), but I doubt there’s any native life left on or above Venus.

[@evilsharkey8954]

Except the toxic, corrosive atmosphere.

[@PuzzledMonkey]

www.space.com/29140-venus-airship-cloud-cities-incredible-technology.html

[@anthonydavidson6139]

The only thing Venus is good for us slamming into Mars so we can make the new planet Manus. This would fix a lot of the problems with Mars so that we could actually terraform it

[@RebrandSoon0000]

Sure and let's destroy Earth and mess up the solar formation doing that, XD.

[@anthonydavidson6139]

It could be done, just not with our current tech.

[@PalimpsestProd]

Balloons! Graphene balloons. No spellchecker, I meant Graphene not Geographer.

[@ryanmcmenamim9871]

It doesn't need to be Graphene. The air above Venus (about a mile up) is one of the most habitable regions in the solar system outside of Earth. 70 degrees Fahrenheit, 2 atmospheric pressure, it's cool. You could float a habit above the sufurous clouds just by having enough air in you habitat. Don't dangle from your balloon if you could live in it.

[@PalimpsestProd]

@@ryanmcmenamim9871 I agree w all of the above and add: graphene is stronger, lighter, more durable, leaks less than anything else, if somewhat fictional. It'll be 15 yrs(?) before we attempt a crewed mission so graphene rather than Mylar or polyethylene hopefully.

[@pencilfriendpaperscribbler6032]

Ryan McMenamim I am happy with your balloon idea. In my mind, people are serenely cultivating gourds as lightweight, organic, recyclable lunchboxes, and wearing things with drawstrings at the ankles. Axolotls and geckos are in, hornets, obviously, out.

[@superdupergrover9857]

Why not both? You could always make the graphene out of the geographers.

[@WKBucks]

i like how the venus with water picture credited to NASA is the lowest effort photoshop lmfao

[@mecha-sheep7674]

I TOTALLY DISAGREE ! High in Venus atmosphere, both the pressure and the temperature are the same than on planet Earth. And there are those moving black spots in the clouds, who may be venusian life forms. WE MUST CHECK THEM OUT ! All we need is to send a probe that is not a rover, but a blimp. It's not more difficult than to reach Mars. It's probable even easier, because the dense atmosphere really help if we use parachutes.

[@larryscott3982]

What about a vehicle that can float in the Venusian atmosphere? Like a blimp. If the surface is too hostile, why not stay aloft?

[@FerrariKing]

I wonder how far we will advance in the next few centuries. Perhaps they may even figure out how to terraform Venus.

[@spacenomad5484]

I wonder if we will survive this century, on this planet.

[@LordArioh]

There are tons of theories how to terraform Venus. The key is in its atmosphere, clear up the sky and make surface brighter, to reflect sunlight. Temperature will go down, easy ))

[@smacky101]

More easy than terraforming Mars honestly

[@LordArioh]

@@smacky101 Mars is pretty easy as well, just nuke the poles as Elon Musk promotes, and you'll have greenhouse effect in a century or so. Then spread a calcium perchlorate eating bacteria to clean the surface, which also produces oxygen as a byproduct. win-win.

[@smacky101]

@@LordArioh And how do you deal with the sun constantly depleting the atmosphere even if you get more than the whisp that is there

[@ceiling_cat]

Now Why Venus Is THE BEST: We can build flying cities in there

[@PremierCCGuyMMXVI]

Earths Sister, NAH more like Earths Hot Sister, literally

[@carthius]

Why dont we ever have scientists run for presidents?

[@Carrottime]

They're busy.

[@dzarko55]

Why do we need to go to the surface Airships are cool, and the planet is kinda cool up where the atmospheric density is around 1atm

[@garethtudor836]

I've just finished watching Season 2 of The Expanse, and this ties in beautifully with some of the themes in that epic production. Oh, and to get around the issue of humans not being metal enough for Venus, just get headbangers involved in the research...

[@SuperCookieGaming_]

Still my dream of cloud cities on venus lives on.

[@irinacd2537]

SAME

[@bri1085]

Bebop.

[@Pit1993x]

This!

[@stonferen584]

@Captain Daddy Titus Murdered By Retcon Becouse the gravity would be an absolute pain in the ass

[@SuperCookieGaming_]

@Captain Daddy Titus Murdered By Retcon because venus is closer and venus has a similar gravity to earth. Not to mention it is part of my tri-body colonization plan. first is the moon then mars then venus. by that point we can start on the asteroid belt and beyond. hopefully from this we can learn how to leave the system and find a second earth.

[@elanianiyvwia8687]

Yet Venus shows us an extreme we may encounter in our exploration of this wonderful universe. So keep studying it if even from a distance. So we know whatever we will about such extremes.

[@mkman1]

How do you know I'm not metal enough to survive on Venus you don't know me

[@marenjones6665]

Venus is worth it! #OccupyVenus #DirigibleLife

[@navanne]

#DirigibleLife is the best hashtag in this comment section. Nice. :)

[@AlexisBrookeM]

It would be worth the cost to send an orbiter to Venus. In fact, if you designed it with a plutonium-based power source, it could spend its life in the (very) upper atmosphere. Yeah, the atmosphere would pose a problem if scanning the surface is your objective, but you could solve that problem with a broad-spectrum camera.

[@regular-joe]

Still saying you need to credit the hosts in the descriptions. They're doing a great job, and deserve to be recognized.

[@narata1541]

Venus is my favorite planet! You take back that video title or else!!!! Errr…….

[@pedrolmlkzk]

me too

[@HailAzathoth]

Yeah but think how cool the first person to walk on Venus would be...

[@pbentesio]

I liked for the accuracy of the movie time comparisons 10/10 science done right

[@edelcorrallira]

Yes, landing is an issue... But the clouds are not so inhospitable and are not subject to as much radiation. Also they are a lot closer. If we had at least robots in the clouds we would be a step closer to deploying things with much weaker transmission. Finally, the conditions of Venus make a perfect factory. Heat is a great energy source, pressure should be harnessable,for ultra low temperature processes, and I'm sure there are many minerals that can be mined and obtained then lifted by means of a spacelift. Venus is an "easy" for a gliding robot, then flying research center, colony / remote operated factory. The potential is there, the costs arent that great. But so long as the plans on NASAs agenda dont lineup with it, all we will hear is how harsh the surface conditions are (Which they are) for our current technology.

[@Babarudra]

... but it's a dry heat. In actuality I guess it'd be very humid, in sulfuric-acid humidity.

[@tristanbaravraham6349]

That was a GREAT overview on Venus & her challenges 😻 She is indeed as metal as screwing in a car.

[@dentoncrimescene]

I'm gonna call it, when we get there, we're gonna find evidence of life.

[@ShimmerTheKintopian]

Im a big fan of the idea of venus having life

[@FuriouslyFurious]

KZbin: remind me in 200 years.

[@AshleeKnowsNot]

Honestly I tend to agree. We know so little and the atmosphere is so thick. Life survive some seriously ridiculous circumstances here on Earth. Why wouldn't it have been able to evolve and survive on Venus?

[@petercarioscia9189]

Na fam. We'd see bio signatures in the atmosphere.

[@epicgamer-ur1wg]

it's ok to smirk there’s evidence of dark patches in venus’ upper atmosphere that periodically come up which absorb UV light, they’re completely unexplained and it may be the only solid evidence of possible extraterrestrial life we have

[@itsmeblank4028]

Just imagine on Venus a Venus version of KZbin on Venus version of SciShow space a list of why Earth is the worse

[@nicholasn.2883]

Venus is just like mars in the doom games smh

[@jessehatred3667]

Excellent video! \m/

[@notablegoat]

What about the upper Venusian atmosphere?

[@evilsharkey8954]

notablegoat, still toxic and corrosive.

[@RickBoat]

Not really

[@jasonpost913]

I think I heard the upper atmosphere has perpetual hurricane force winds. So, still not ideal.

[@tncorgi92]

Solution for the acid rain: just dump a sh*t ton of baking soda on Venus.

[@Real_Ship_Engineer]

But Venus might have Cloud City one day. I would rather visit Venus than Mars.

[@Just_A_Dude]

I assume you'd rather eat broken glass and battery acid than a bowl of frosted flakes in milk then, too.

[@Real_Ship_Engineer]

@@Just_A_DudeAre you trying to assume Mars to a bowl of cereal? Maybe a bowl of perchlorate compounds containing chlorine.

[@marxtheenigma873]

I wonder if there is any silicon based life on Venus. Venus is very similar to a planet I've been to called Winik that has silicon life.