Signs of two gases in clouds of Venus could indicate life, scientists say

Post by nickserv » Sat, Jul 20, 2024, 4:35 PM UTC

moffkalast wrote: post #39

nickserv wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A balloon inflated at 1 bar would float around quite nicely in the venusian atmosphere.

It's an interesting concept to be sure, but is it technically feasible to make it reliable enough? The transition from orbital velocity, to atmospheric entry and blimp deployment sounds like it would involve significant stresses, and that's after being in space for half a year to even get there. One small micrometeorite and you have a leaky envelope and the mission is over. I think there was a proposal for a solar po…

Some of the earlier Mars rovers used inflatable balloons to cushion the landing. They bounced around for dozens of meters on rocks without popping. Not an expert by any means, but would think it should be possible to inflate a gas bag at a certain altitude, after dumping the thermal shield and using a parachute to slow down.

A powered-flight probe would be interesting in that it could be more easily directed to specific areas and have the ability to stay over a given area. A balloon would likely not be as controllable.

But would be happy with any Venus mission, even a low altitude orbiter would be cool.

Post by financetechbro » Sat, Jul 20, 2024, 4:45 PM UTC

rbanffy wrote: post #38

idlewords wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the question of whether there's life that's entirely confined to clouds is open.

Doesn’t make much evolutionary sense on Earth where the high atmosphere is one of the least hospitable places to be. Makes more sense on Venus, where the high atmosphere is the least hellish place one can be. We can, in the meantime, investigate strategies for collecting our own cloud-dwellers so we can build a probe that does the same on Venus while it descends a little through the atmosphere before launching back a…

It’s not unreasonable to have microbial life floating around our atmosphere when you consider the fact that there is microbial life deep in the trenches of the ocean

Re: Signs of two gases in clouds of Venus could indicate life, scientists say

Re: Signs of two gases in clouds of Venus could indicate life, scientists say