Down to hell: travelling through the atmosphere of Venus
The popular science fiction of the early 20th century depicted Venus as a kind of wonderland;
with pleasantly warm temperatures, forests, swamps, and even dinosaurs. A kind of Jurassic
Park where someone already wanted to bring one-day rich tourists looking for emotions.
Today, Venus is unlikely to be perceived as a dream destination for would-be space tourists. As
revealed by numerous missions in recent decades, rather than being a paradise, Venus is a hell.
Roughly the size of Earth, its surface is plagued by temperatures that would melt lead,
pressures 90 times greater than Earth's, and clouds of sulfuric acid suspended in
an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrogen driven by winds of up to 350 km per hour. Under
the dazzling blanket of clouds that perpetually covers the planet comes little light to illuminate
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It's all true... this planet is a hellish world of hellish temperatures, surrounded by a toxic,
corrosive, and frighteningly "heavy" atmosphere... Despite this, today, March 14, 2047, I find myself
here, aboard a HAVOC-type airship, which stands for High Altitude Venus Operational Concept.
This is not the first aerostat to float in the atmosphere of Venus.
It is in fact since 2037 that NASA and ESA have started the exploration program of this planet.
The plan is to use airships that can stay in the Venusian atmosphere for long periods.
The aerostats are filled with oxygen and nitrogen, which are lighter than
the elements that make up the Venusian atmosphere and therefore allow them to float while providing
a large supply of breathable air for the crews. Strange as it may seem, Venus' upper atmosphere,
the one I'm in now, is as close to Earth's environment as there can be in the solar system.
The atmospheric pressure at 55 km altitude is about half that at sea level on Earth, and the
temperature varies between +20°C and +30°C. Incredible or not, under these conditions,
I could even go outside wearing a respirator and a simple, non-pressurized, chemical-resistant suit!
Almost a paradise... not to mention that the layers of clouds give us good
protection from radiation coming from space... there is plenty of sunlight
to generate energy with photovoltaic systems and gravity is 90% of Earth's.
The airship that is hosting me is not the only one to navigate in these parts, but it will be the
first to bring down to the surface a pressurized probe, able to withstand the pressure and the
heat of that hell that is 100 km below our feet. If all goes well I will be the first man to step
on the ground of this absurd world; otherwise, I will simply be the first to die on it.
The bathyscaphe to which we will entrust our lives has been very appropriately named Trieste...
like the one that in 1960 took Jacques Piccard to explore the bottom of the Mariana Trench,
at a depth of 11 thousand meters. Descending into the atmosphere of
Venus will be very similar, in fact, to a very long dive into the depths of the ocean.
In this will accompany me the pilot and friend Don Walsh,
who will have the task of managing all the parameters of the mission.
The probe basically consists of a two-seat, spherical-shaped cabin
measuring 2.54 meters in diameter. It is constructed entirely of tungsten carbide,
which is basically a light alloy of high resistance to wear, corrosion, and heat.
The heat from the outside is absorbed by a lithium nitrate trihydrate thermal accumulator
and heat exchanger. Two onboard cameras face outward through 2-inch-thick quartz portholes.
The sphere is attached to a carbon fiber balloon covered with twelve centimeters of honeycomb
insulation. The balloon, 25 meters in diameter, is filled with gases lighter than Venus' atmosphere
at the time of ascent. And that should allow us to make our way back to the mother blimp that
awaits us 50 kilometers higher up... Before that, however, there will be
the most dangerous part of the entire mission. In a special pressurized suit,
I will have to pass through the small compensation area located just behind the seats, open a hatch
and with all the caution of this world try to make a few steps on the surface ... just enough
time to collect some pebbles and some data on the ability of the suit to keep me alive.
March 15, 2042. We are already aboard the Trieste and free of all ties with the mother airship.
We are ready to descend by progressively releasing
a certain amount of the gas contained in the balloon.
The on-board computer calculates the ideal descent speed and the amount of gas to be released.
T= 0 - We are at an altitude of 100 km. For the next 10 km, we will cross a very
thin layer of the atmosphere, practically undetectable. The temperature is -114°C.
The sky above us is absolutely black, a sign that we are immersed in an impalpable atmosphere.
Despite this, the anemometer indicates that the wind is blowing at a speed of 349 km per hour!
An oddity that we still cannot understand. Venus rotates very slowly, taking a good 243
Earth days to complete a full revolution around its axis. Yes, you heard me right:
one day on Venus is as long as 243 days on Earth. It is even longer than a year,
which on Venus is only 224 Earth days. Even so, Venus' atmosphere rotates 60 times faster, so that
the thick clouds that surround the planet take only four Earth days to complete a full circle.
The fast-moving atmosphere transports heat from the side lit by day, to the side
where it is night, mitigating temperature differences between the two hemispheres.
There is still no certainty as to the real cause of this super-rotation.
The fact is that in an uncontrolled descent like ours it is necessary to calculate well the effect
that the force of the wind will have on our final destination, which should be Navka Planitia, the
place where Venera 7 landed on December 15, 1970, the first probe to touch the ground of Venus.
T= 37 minutes - We leave the highest layer and plunge into a layer of haze,
at times clearly visible, formed by tiny drops of sulfuric acid.
The temperature is -73°C and the winds are blowing at 322 km per hour.
T=1h 53m - We proceeded to descend about twenty kilometers until at an altitude of 70 km
the fog began to thicken and take on an amber yellow color.
This is the sign that we are entering the main layer of Venus' cloud system,
where the clouds that we can only see from Earth in the ultraviolet are formed.
From where we are now, that is inside the clouds, however, the clouds can
be seen very well. And they are scary. Driven by winds of around 250 km per hour,
these giant clusters of sulfur dioxide saturated with large drops of sulfuric acid jolt the probe
in a very unpleasant way. At times we are also hit by violent bursts of corrosive rain, which
is most likely putting a strain on our materials. However, this rain soon dissolves and - dissolved
by the heat - only falls for a few kilometers. At around 55 km altitude, the pressure is the
same as it would be on Earth in the high mountains, and the temperature even becomes
spring-like. We have reached the altitude where our mother airship floats, along with many others.
The wind, held back by the ever-increasing pressure, gets weaker and weaker.
Lightning? If there were any it would be trouble for us, but fortunately, the fear of dangerous
electrical activity on Venus, widespread until twenty years ago, has since proved unfounded.
Since the beginning of the HAVOC airship exploration program ten years ago, only on
three occasions has the sighting of an electric discharge between cloud and cloud been certified.
Besides their composition, Venusian clouds differ from terrestrial ones for the mechanism of their
formation. On our planet, they are formed as a result of the cooling of rising air that causes
the condensation of water vapor. The clouds of Venus instead resemble smog, as they are
the product of chemical reactions between sulfur dioxide and water that are triggered by sunlight.
T = 2h33m - Below 50 km altitude we come out of the clouds and the temperature begins to
rise sharply, reaching 110°C at 45 km, with the pressure already twice that of the Earth.
The temperature is so high that the sulfuric acid particles dissociate
again in sulfur dioxide and water vapor, thus preventing the formation of clouds.
From here on, up to 30 km, we descend much more quietly through a layer of fairly thin mist,
composed of very dilute sulfur dioxide. For the first time, we can see the surface,
while the winds decrease in intensity and slightly exceed 100 km per hour.
At this moment we are the first human beings to see Venus as a rocky planet with a walkable
surface, and not as a whitish ball of gas. Seen from here, the general coloration of the
planet is gray-ochre, with an orography more similar to that of Titan than that of Mars.
The impression is that of a once-thriving world, where then something must have gone wrong...
Venus was perhaps a habitable world for most of its history,
then destroyed by the greenhouse effect in an uncontrolled process.
At some point in its history, the dense CO2 atmosphere spewed out by
explosive volcanic activity must have heated the planet; causing the oceans to boil and also
all the residual water vapor, condemning the planet to death with all that inhabited it...
T = 3h33m - At an altitude of 30 km, even the very light haze that had accompanied us
after leaving the clouds disappears, and the atmosphere appears completely clear.
The external pressure is 22 times higher than the Earth's and winds are blowing at 90 km per hour.
But the most worrying thing is the temperature... we are already at 300°C,
and Don tells me that the lithium thermal accumulator is starting to show some discomfort.
We decide to proceed anyway.
T = 4h14m - At an altitude of 10 km, Don again informs me that we are quite far from the planned
landing point and that we will probably miss the meeting with Venera 7 by at least 40 km.
It doesn't matter, that would have been the icing on the cake, but it was certainly
not the main target of the mission. The important thing is to land on safe ground.
The temperature is at 392°C! The wind speed drops dramatically: only 25 km per hour.
We prepare for landing.
T = 5h43m - Don has reduced his descent speed. We are at 100 meters and we are
approaching the ground one meter per second. Tension is through the roof. We are enchanted
by the landscape that is welcoming us, but we are also busy checking the efficiency
of the accumulator which is now at full scale. The temperature at 424°C.
T = 5h45m - We have touched down.
There is no time to waste, yet Don and I, without saying a word, allow ourselves a
couple of minutes of incredulous satisfaction in front of the monitors. We are on Venus.
Outside the calm is absolute, the wind seems not to be there.
We missed the Venera 7 site by only 32 km... Not bad.
T = 5h47m - As planned, we now have only 15 minutes before we
have to leave this seemingly peaceful hell. Don helps me adjust the pressurized suit and
screws on my helmet. I close the airlock door behind me and open the one to the outside.
Am I going or not? In any case,
I am connected to the probe by a 15-meter cable that prevents the wind from carrying me away.
In fact, although on the ground the wind blows at 3 or 4 km per hour, because of the pressure
it can exert an enormous thrust on the obstacles it encounters. Could this be the reason why the
ground seems to have been leveled and tiled? I put one foot on the ground. I lean against the
hatch and try to figure out how I feel. I'm fine, even feeling cold.
I get out, finally, and look around. The sunlight manages to filter through the thick blanket of
clouds quite effectively, illuminating the surface of the planet in much the same way as it does on
Earth on a day when the sky is overcast. I am surrounded by debris and flat stones
of various sizes. I am not a geologist, but I understand that they are basalts,
typical magmatic effusive rocks, produced by the solidification of lava.
Among the rocks, there is also some sandy soil of a very dark color.
I don't feel the heat, but I feel the pressure exerted by the wind,
like that of a large hand trying to push me forward... with force, but very slowly.
With effort, I fill the front pocket of my suit with small rocks and stones.
I look up and all around me there is only this endless extension of rocks, all the same until
the horizon. A desolate, desert landscape. I look towards a camera and greet Don,
who is obviously watching me inside. I give him a nod that means "all is well",
but inside I am suddenly afraid. I'm becoming aware of my situation:
Me, standing on the surface of another planet. A killer planet, at that.
The viewer tells me I've been out for four minutes. I turn around and go back. I step into
the chamber and turn around for one last look. Goodbye Venus, I already know I'm going to miss
you in a minute, and I'm going to miss you for the rest of my life.
Come on, let's get out of here Don, let's go back up!