Human Explorers on the Surface of the planet Venus

[BMalion]

@dracoi

…

Then you have issues of how to handle maintenance and repairs to damage. For example, let’s say there’s a Venus-quake that cracks your habitat. Did you build with enough strength to handle some damage without collapsing on you instantly? Who’s going to go outside to fix it, and how are they going to work?

Forcefields?

[ZenBeam]

Perhaps a tractable engineering problem (as a first step to what the OP wants, to stay on topic) would be a rover like on Mars, that could last months or a couple years, rather than minutes or a few hours. Do we have materials that could last that long on Venus?

Normal computers would fail, but could some other semiconductor work at those temperatures? Any ideas what material would have the right band gaps?

What about power? Is any sort of photovoltaic cell plausible with the clouds and heat? Thermal radioisotope generators would seem to be right out. What else could be used?

[Chronos]

Articulation needn’t be a problem: You make your thick-walled shell out of a single rigid piece, and then you put something else in it like a hamster ball to roll it around. Mind you, you won’t be doing anything but rolling around, and you’d have a Hell of a time getting back off the surface without (or even with) exposed working parts, but I think that’d technically meet the OP’s criteria.

[Stranger_On_A_Train]

@ZenBeam

Perhaps a tractable engineering problem (as a first step to what the OP wants, to stay on topic) would be a rover like on Mars, that could last months or a couple years, rather than minutes or a few hours. Do we have materials that could last that long on Venus?

The answer to all questions is no. At those temperatures, nothing functional is going to last very long, and no material that will last very long will serve to be functional.

@Chronos

Articulation needn’t be a problem: You make your thick-walled shell out of a single rigid piece, and then you put something else in it like a hamster ball to roll it around. Mind you, you won’t be doing anything but rolling around, and you’d have a Hell of a time getting back off the surface without (or even with) exposed working parts, but I think that’d technically meet the OP’s criteria.

Good luck going uphill with that.

Stranger

[Michael63129]

@ZenBeam

Perhaps a tractable engineering problem (as a first step to what the OP wants, to stay on topic) would be a rover like on Mars, that could last months or a couple years, rather than minutes or a few hours. Do we have materials that could last that long on Venus?

Normal computers would fail, but could some other semiconductor work at those temperatures? Any ideas what material would have the right band gaps?

What about power? Is any sort of photovoltaic cell plausible with the clouds and heat? Thermal radioisotope generators would seem to be right out. What else could be used?

Yes; silicon carbide, which can operate up to 650C and is already a practical material, used in LEDs, diodes and transistors and yes, PV cells (although the high band-gap limits the collection efficiency). Also, the surface of Venus is actually rather gloomy because of the thick clouds; Earth receives far more sunlight at the surface, despite half the total solar irradiance (only 17 W/m^2 reaches the surface of Venus; Earth averages around 198 W/m^2 day and night; this is the amount of sunlight indicated in the second picture as reaching the surface/absorbed+reflected), and of course there is the little problem of the length of nights

Of course, the acid problem is another matter; many materials that can withstand sulfuric acid near room temperature won’t do so well at high temperatures; even tantaline (a tantalum alloy; tantalum is also highly corrosion resistant but expensive), which is said to have the highest corrosion resistance, corrodes at relatively mild temperatures of only 150C.

[Mr.Kobayashi]

The Soviet Venusian probes in the '80s were designed to last about 30 minutes, in actuality they lasted a bit longer but had problems nevertheless.

I doubt they’d be any sort of translucent material that would allow you to see out to the surface without it rapidly melting and having your lungs crushed in your Venusian Rover, and if you want to rely on sensors to slosh around in the supercritical CO2 you might as well use an unmanned probe in the first place and guide it remotely, saving the risk and the cost of life support.

A while back the BBC made a drama about future space exploration, part of it included a walk on Venus. Stranger on a Train will love the realism in it!

A tad more realistic view of the surface courtesy of National Geographic (a full documentary, Earth’s Evil Twin); clouds of sulphuric acid that will corrode steel, temperatures that boil lead, a barren volcanic surface. It’s probably the worst place in the Solar System you could choose for a manned landing short of a gas giant or the sun.

[BMalion]

@Mr.Kobayashi

… or the sun.

Not if you go at night.

[Der_Trihs]

@FuzzyOgre

One overlooked fact: Getting people back off Venus would be a trick in itself.

Well, we can just push that little problem off as a problem for the Venus Manned Lander *Mark II. *

[ZenBeam]

@Michael63129

Yes; silicon carbide, which can operate up to 650C and is already a practical material, used in LEDs, diodes and transistors and yes, PV cells (although the high band-gap limits the collection efficiency). Also, the surface of Venus is actually rather gloomy because of the thick clouds; Earth receives far more sunlight at the surface, despite half the total solar irradiance (only 17 W/m^2 reaches the surface of Venus; Earth averages around 198 W/m^2 day and night; this is the amount of sunlight indicated in the second picture as reaching the surface/absorbed+reflected), and of course there is the little problem of the length of nights

Thanks. So the temperatures alone won’t prevent computers or photovoltaics.

The length of night just means you’d have to land in the morning, and you’d be limited to maybe 90 days or so, but that’s still pretty good.