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The British Interplanetary Society (JBIS is their journal) has a great history of publishing the first engineering studies for grand projects -- crewed Moon mis

by genmon 6y ago

The British Interplanetary Society (JBIS is their journal) has a great history of publishing the first engineering studies for grand projects -- crewed Moon missions (1938), geosynchronous satellites (1945), interstellar missions (1973), and more: https://www.bis-space.com/what-we-do/the-british-interplanetary-society/visionary-thinking https://www.bis-space.com/what-we-do/the-british-interplanet... I agree with your general point (why send humans when robots will do?) but the engineering feasibility studies push the envelope of what we can imagine -- and reveal where more work is required. I tend to read JBIS from that perspective.

ardy42 6y ago
> I agree with your general point (why send humans when robots will do?) That's not my general point, actually. I'm generally supportive of sending humans on exploration missions, but blimps on Venus seems off. It's like a manned mission down into the lava pool of an active volcano. Sure, maybe you could actually do it, but there's little point to do so except for the bragging rights. If humans wanted to visit the atmosphere of Venus, it seems a lot safer and more practical to do it in a supersonic rocket plane. Then you don't have to worry about launching a manned return rocket from a dirigible.
- genmon 6y ago
  I see. Yes, in the paper the scope was set to be model it on the space station: there's a habitable zone of the atmosphere about 50km up, and the mission parameters were to base there for ~10 years with multiple human/robot missions to the surface and a rotating crew. Other approaches (such as a supersonic plane) weren't considered.
- kavi87 6y ago
  It's not just about bragging, we are pretty sure that there aren't any life on Mars but Venus is another story. All we know is that the temperature is too high even for earth extremophiles but that's not an actual observation of the absence of life like on Mars, it's a conjecture. No entity has ever looked around on Venus for more than a few minutes and nothing has moved even 1 m at the surface. Venus won't have the potential for economic wealth like Mars colonization may have but at one point we will have to look and confirm scientifically if there is life or not.
imglorp 6y ago
Unfortunately the cited paper from OP is paywalled, further dragging down humanity. Anyone know how to find it on Sci-Hub? https://www.jbis.org.uk/paper/2020.73.115 https://www.jbis.org.uk/paper/2020.73.115

by genmon 6y ago

ardy42 6y ago

> I agree with your general point (why send humans when robots will do?) That's not my general point, actually. I'm generally supportive of sending humans on exploration missions, but blimps on Venus seems off. It's like a manned mission down into the lava pool of an active volcano. Sure, maybe you could actually do it, but there's little point to do so except for the bragging rights. If humans wanted to visit the atmosphere of Venus, it seems a lot safer and more practical to do it in a supersonic rocket plane. Then you don't have to worry about launching a manned return rocket from a dirigible.

genmon 6y ago
I see. Yes, in the paper the scope was set to be model it on the space station: there's a habitable zone of the atmosphere about 50km up, and the mission parameters were to base there for ~10 years with multiple human/robot missions to the surface and a rotating crew. Other approaches (such as a supersonic plane) weren't considered.
kavi87 6y ago
It's not just about bragging, we are pretty sure that there aren't any life on Mars but Venus is another story. All we know is that the temperature is too high even for earth extremophiles but that's not an actual observation of the absence of life like on Mars, it's a conjecture. No entity has ever looked around on Venus for more than a few minutes and nothing has moved even 1 m at the surface. Venus won't have the potential for economic wealth like Mars colonization may have but at one point we will have to look and confirm scientifically if there is life or not.

imglorp 6y ago

Unfortunately the cited paper from OP is paywalled, further dragging down humanity. Anyone know how to find it on Sci-Hub? https://www.jbis.org.uk/paper/2020.73.115 https://www.jbis.org.uk/paper/2020.73.115