Welcome to hell.
Sorry, I meant Venus.
Welcome to Venus.
Some say it's Earth's twin.
But this world
is nothing like home.
And you're about to experience
this scorching hot landscape
firsthand.
Your mission is to spend
five seconds
on this hellish planet.
Trust me, these are going to be
a very long five seconds.
Venus is the second planet
from the Sun
and our nearest neighbor.
At its closest approach,
Venus is a mere
40 million km (25 million mi)
away from us.
After just four months in space,
you'd finally be able
to witness this beautiful
but deadly planet up close.
Four and a half billion years ago,
Venus and Earth
formed in the same corner
of our Solar System.
This space rock
is about the same size
as Earth, and its gravity
is similar too.
But, unlike our home, the surface
situation on Venus is extreme.
We know this
because we’ve sent probes
to this scorching world.
Some probes orbited it,
some made a flyby.
And some even landed
on the surface of Venus.
But those didn’t last very long.
What happened to them?
Well, that’s what you’re about to find out.
Time to make your way
down to the surface.
Don't these clouds look beautiful?
Well, don't inhale them.
These yellowish bands
streaking across the sky
are clouds of sulfuric acid.
If you could only get
a whiff of them,
you'd smell
the reek of rotten eggs.
But to do that,
you'd need to remove your helmet,
and I definitely do not
recommend that.
At a height of 50 km (30 mi) above
the surface, visibility is poor.
You'd hardly be able to see anything.
The incredibly thick
atmosphere would block
views of this planet
and its tens of thousands
of volcanoes.
The atmosphere is mostly made up
of carbon dioxide.
And because it's so thick,
it traps heat on the planet's surface,
keeping it nice and toasty.
Just how toasty are we talking?
Oh, you are going to find out
the hard way.
As you descend another 15 km (10 mi),
the haze would begin to clear.
The world below would finally reveal itself.
A rust-colored surface covered
in mountains and volcanoes.
Looks like this
volcano is still active.
You’d fly around a little
to collect some samples
and take in the view.
Yep, the atmosphere
is mostly carbon dioxide
with traces of nitrogen.
That checks out.
OK, well, let's
see if you can land here.
This looks like the spot.
Mission control,
am I clear for landing?
Mission control?
Um, looks like there’s no signal.
Initiating the landing sequence
without clearance.
Fingers crossed.
Landing your spacecraft would kick up
clouds of dust that would take
several minutes to settle down
in the soupy atmosphere.
As it clears, you’d look up into the sky,
but you wouldn’t find the familiar
yellow circle of the Sun.
On Venus,
it always looks like dawn,
no matter what time of day it is.
That's because
the Venusian atmosphere
only lets about 10% of the sunlight
that hits it reach the surface.
But wait, what were we saying
earlier about the space probe
that landed on Venus?
Oh yeah, Venera 13.
This Soviet probe
made its fatal landing
back in 1981.
It survived the descent
and lasted for
a whopping 127 minutes.
That's longer
than any other spacecraft
that had made it to the surface.
But then, Venera 13 gave
way to the violent,
uninviting environment
of this hell.
It was likely crushed under extreme
pressure, or it melted.
But it's too late
to turn around now.
You've lived through
the one-hour-long landing,
and you're so close!
All you need to do to complete
your mission is to spend
five seconds out there.
Yes, out there.
In the most extreme environment
you've ever been to.
You made it!
You can hardly lift your arms.
Even though Venus
has about the same gravity
as Earth,
you'd be feeling the sheer
weight of its immensely dense air.
It would feel like
you were walking through water.
Very hot water.
And you'd be glad you were wearing so much protective gear.
A quick look at your thermometer would tell you
that it's a sweltering 475 °C (900 °F) out here.
That's hot enough to melt lead.
Your pressurized suit
would be working hard
to keep you safe.
Without it,
you'd be crushed
under all that pressure
before you could even
complete your mission.
This isn’t so bad after all.
Hey, if a spacecraft
could last over two hours
some 40 years ago,
well, you and your shiny new gear
can survive longer, right?
Venus is right here
for you to discover,
just take a few more steps.
Suddenly, something distracts you
from the first-ever firsthand human analysis
of Venus' surface conditions.
Your protective suit breaks.
The drastic pressure shift
would immediately make you feel
like you were deep underwater.
With an atmospheric pressure
90 times that of Earth,
Venus would be crushing you
from all directions.
At the same time,
you’d be struggling
to breathe in an atmosphere
without any oxygen.
Any the atmosphere
you did manage to inhale
would scald the inside of your mouth
and the top of your throat.
Unless you could scramble
very quickly back
to the safety of your spacecraft,
you'd be dead within seconds.
Hey, it could be worse.
High above you,
sulphuric acid clouds
would be raining acid.
But in this
unbearably hot environment,
the toxic rain wouldn’t
reach the surface.
It would evaporate
long before that.
So at least you wouldn't
have to worry about acid
dissolving your skin and bones.
That would be kind of gruesome.
You know, in hindsight,
maybe we shouldn't have sent you down
to explore this hellish surface.
We probably should’ve
terraformed Venus
into a more hospitable
planet first.
But that's a story
for another WHAT IF.