Venus
Position on the route: 3/45 · level needed 20 · journey (Mk0 engine) 4.0 h
By the numbers
| Distance | 38–261 million km |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 12,104 km |
| Gravity | 8.87 m/s² (0.9 g) |
| Day | 243 Earth days (retrograde) |
| Year | 225 days |
| Surface temperature | 462 °C |
| Surface pressure | 92 bar |
| Atmosphere | 96 % CO₂, sulphuric-acid clouds |
The story
Earth’s twin in size and mass; hell in conditions. A runaway greenhouse effect heats the surface enough to melt lead, and the pressure equals the ocean at 900 m depth. The Soviet Venera 13 (1982) survived 127 minutes on the surface, still the record. The clouds are droplets of sulphuric acid.
Yet at 50–55 km altitude the temperature is 20–70 °C and the pressure about 1 bar: the most Earth-like environment in the solar system beyond Earth. Breathable air (nitrogen–oxygen) is a lifting gas in Venus’s atmosphere, which is why aerostat colonies floating above the clouds, like NASA’s HAVOC concept, are taken seriously. The game’s ‘cloud colony’ research stands for this.
Venus spins backwards and slower than it orbits; the sun rises in the west. In the 2030s VERITAS, DAVINCI and EnVision will study the surface and atmosphere again.
Missions
- Venera 7 (1970): first soft landing on another planet
- Venera 9 (1975): first picture from the surface
- Venera 13 (1982): 127 minutes, colour panorama
- Magellan (1990–94): radar map of the surface
- Venus Express (2006–14), Akatsuki (2015–)
Colony note
The surface is lethal: without the research the lander is crushed. The cloud-colony research founds an aerostat colony.
☠ The surface is 460 °C at 90 atmospheres: a landing is lethal. With the cloud-colony research an aerostat colony floats at 50 km, above the clouds.
What probes bring back
- Surface 462 °C, 92 bar: the probe lasted 127 minutes (Venera 13’s record).
- 1 bar and 60 °C at 52 km altitude: the layer fit for a cloud colony.
- Sulphuric acid in the clouds; the phosphine signal could not be confirmed.
- Young lava flows on the surface: Venus is geologically alive.