Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Bryan See on December 06, 2015, 08:52:42 pm
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It seems that the Japanese Akatsuki (PLANET-C) Venus space mission is ready to make a second chance at Venus orbit insertion today.
I hope it will succeed, given the mission team's hard work. :)
UPDATE: Akatsuki has successfully entered orbit around Venus! Or isn't it?
EDIT: The title has been changed to Akatsuki at Venus to follow the developments of the Japanese Venus mission!
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Here's from the press release at JAXA (http://global.jaxa.jp/press/2015/12/20151209_akatsuki.html):
Venus Climate Orbiter “AKATSUKI” Inserted Into Venus' Orbit
December 9, 2015 (JST)
National Research and Development Agency
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully inserted the Venus Climate Orbiter “AKATSUKI” into the orbit circling around Venus.
As a result of measuring and calculating the AKATSUKI’s orbit after its thrust ejection, the orbiter is now flying on the elliptical orbit at the apoapsis altitude of about 440,000 km and periapsis altitude of about 400 km from Venus. The orbit period is 13 days and 14 hours. We also found that the orbiter is flying in the same direction as that of Venus’s rotation.
The AKATSUKI is in good health.
We will deploy the three scientific mission instruments namely the 2μm camera (IR2), the Lightning and Airglow Camera (LAC) and the Ultra-Stable oscillator (USO) and check their functions. JAXA will then perform initial observations with the above three instruments along with the three other instruments whose function has already been confirmed, the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI), the Longwave IR camera (LIR), and the 1μm camera (IR1) for about three months. At the same time, JAXA will also gradually adjust the orbit for shifting its elliptical orbit to the period of about nine days. The regular operation is scheduled to start in April, 2016.
(http://global.jaxa.jp/press/2015/12/images/20151209_akatsuki_2_1.jpg)
(http://global.jaxa.jp/press/2015/12/images/20151209_akatsuki_2_2.jpg)
(http://global.jaxa.jp/press/2015/12/images/20151209_akatsuki_2_3.jpg)
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Cool! I love Venus. :D I think we should go there for colonies as well as Mars.
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Sure, if you don't mind sulfuric acid raining from the sky, crushing pressure and the volcanic activity so intense that the entire crust material might be completely replaced every three years or so. There might be a livable altitude in there, but you'd have to build the colony on balloons of some sort (and still deal with sulfuric acid). Not exactly a place I'd want to live in. :) Not to mention ISRU would be very hard in a place like that and there's no way any useful Earth plants would grow there. You might be able to genetically engineer some of the more resilient extremophile organisms into usefulness, but even then, I wouldn't expect them to be terribly efficient at helping sustain the colony.
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Is it going to launch a spread of Type 93s?
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/Akatsuki_II.jpg/300px-Akatsuki_II.jpg)
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Someone should send a blimp to explore Venus
The upper atmosphere is quite mild
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Akatsuki at Venus?
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.
...
In all seriousness, though, I'm not sure what any atmospheric or surface mission could hope to learn beyond what we already know: that Venus is like Mordor, if Mordor featured unceasing torrential downpours of acid rain and air so hot and heavy that it crushes you at the same time it boils you.
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Anytime I hear someone espouse the idea of a Venusian atmospheric colony, I mentally replace it with 'terrible sky-prison'. Because why would you want to live suspended 50-some kilometers off the ground in a place where the ambient air is deadly, there are no valuable or useful resources to be gained, and oh yeah, there is no view unless you enjoy staring into a fog of sulfuric acid all the time?
Yeah, Venus is a terrible place. Well, okay, it's a pretty neat place to send probes for doing planetary and atmospheric science, and then kill them. And it's good for doing gravitational assists (AKA fly past Venus to help you get someplace far away from Venus.)
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Cloud City. It'd be a resort and scientific research planet. I'm building a whole scifi universe on it, so I admit I'm a bit biased, but I think the concept of living in a cloud city would be really exciting. Venus also has some amazing properties;
1) Atmospheric pressure and gravity is the same as Earth's at about 50 km up. So if you live on Venus, it's possible to actually come back to Earth - unlike Mars, where you'd have to spend a year in steadily increasing starship rotational gravity and you'd still suffer from bone loss. The atmospheric pressure means you can maneuver outside without clunky pressure suits and just need a chemical suit instead. Of course, materials tech would have to advance quite a ways for it to be safe.
2) I think living in a cloud ocean would be more visually interesting and "alien" to people than living on a desert planet, but I think it's just another cool place to live.
3) Living in atmo means easier space to planet transit.
I also think you could either mine from the ground and float em up, or bring resources in from elsewhere.
Anyway, it's Christmas so I'm distracted, but those are some rough thoughts from me on the issue.