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A comment on NASA Study Proposes Airships, Cloud Cities for Venus Exploration.

Re:NASA Study Proposes Airships, Cloud Cities for Venus Expl... by grondilu on Wednesday December 17, 2014 @08:10AM (#8762144)
It's definitely worth considering. At the very least, they could make a demonstration mission with a small, unmanned airship.

Also, question: 50km is pretty high, but is this too high for any chance of visibility to the ground? Such a mission would be much more interesting if it was possible to view at least a bit of the surface.

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Re:NASA Study Proposes Airships, Cloud Cities for Venus Expl... by krampian on Wednesday December 17, 2014 @08:42AM (#8762240)
Direct line of sight probably would be off the table because of the thick cloud layer in the Venusian atmosphere. Radar imaging as has been previously been done by orbiting probes should certainly be possible. More interestingly, it seems to me the airships would be good launching pads for all kinds of unmanned drones which could go down from there to take a look and return to base later.
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