I'm not saying it would be easy, but I think it would be easier than Mercury. Even getting to Mercury is hard. I think getting off Venus from 50km up wouldn't

I'm not saying it would be easy, but I think it would be easier than Mercury. Even getting to Mercury is hard. I think getting off Venus from 50km up wouldn't be too bad. If you've got enough flotation to carry a research station or city or whatever, with water supply, food production, life support, etc., you can carry a fuelled up Starship and Super Heavy (if your base is smaller, use a smaller rocket [1]). Launching them seems like it would be doable: drop in belly flop orientation, it glides a bit away as it falls, then starts the main engines and pivots to upright, and away it goes. "Landing" or whatever arrival would entail seems more complicated, but you might be able to make a platform a bit like landing on a barge (but one that can go down to cushion the landing). [1] A fully fuelled up Falcon 9 weighs more than the ISS, so we're talking a big research station for this to be feasible.