what if Earth and Mars switched places?

Should we go to Venus instead of Mars?

when thinking about the future of space

exploration there is usually one planet

that comes to mind

Mars whether it be Rovers that have

explored the Red Planet's Elon Musk's

vision for a future colony

we usually get pretty excited about Mars

but what if I told you we might be

mistaken let's talk about that as you

probably notice from the title of this

article we are going to be talking about

the planet Venus the second closest

planet to the Sun known for its massive

atmosphere and high surface temperatures

but why would we want to explore Venus

it turns out that Venus can tell us a

lot about the evolution of terrestrial

planets because it's theorized that

Venus could have potentially been

habitable in the past it could have been

an oasis in our solar system but now

it's the hottest planet and essentially

unbearable right now so how did it go

from an oasis to what it is today

understanding this can give us a lot of

insight into what we should be looking

for in exoplanets around other stars so

how do we go about exploring Venus the?

best way to do this is to compare it to

exploring Mars what are the differences

between the two so first let's talk

about just sending a robotic mission to

these two planets it turns out that if

we wanted to send a mission to Venus it

would take roughly three months to get

there whereas if we sent a mission to

Mars it takes anywhere from eight to

nine months in addition it takes roughly

the same amount of fuel to go to Venus

or Mars but sometimes it's more

efficient to go to Mars and sometimes

it's more efficient to go to Venus just

depending on what you want to do once

you get there in addition if you want to

use solar panels it's actually four

times more effective to go to Venus than

it is to go to Mars however that

efficiency of four times starts to

decrease as you start to enter the

atmosphere of Venus so so far it sounds

like it's actually easier to go to Venus

than it is to Mars however some of the

challenges start to arise when we enter

the atmosphere at Venus the surface

Venus is 464 degrees Celsius and the

atmospheric pressure is 91 times the

atmosphere here on earth

whereas on Mars the average temperature

is negative 63 degrees Celsius and the

average pressure is only 0.6% of Earth's

atmosphere so you might be thinking well

Mars is really cold and has a really

small atmosphere and Venus are really hot

and has a large atmosphere so we can

design missions to go to either of these

places right well it turns out it's

easier to deal with the cold than it is

the warmth let me give you an example

let's look at our friend the opportunity

Rover it was able to survive through the

harsh winters on Mars because it had

electronics to keep it warm

you see these electronics emitted heat

which essentially kept it within it's

operable temperature range which meant

that essentially Opportunity had its own

personal heater that it could use on

Mars and therefore it lasted nearly 15

years on the surface of Mars whereas if

we go to Venus the first

Venera Lander had to survive these high

temperatures and high pressures once it

hit the surface and it only lasted for

50 minutes so again when we compare the

cold environment to the hot environment

it's much easier to hide somewhere where

it's colder than it is where it's

incredibly hot just because it's hard to

get to Venus doesn't make it impossible

in fact, researchers at NASA Glenn had

been able to develop electronics that

could survive the harsh environment on

Venus so why aren't we going in fact if

NASA really wanted to they could

probably put together a mission and send

it by the late 2020s however that's not

happening and you might be thinking

right now

well I still prefer Mars over Venus no

matter what you say in this article and

that's perfectly fine

Mars is a truly fascinating planet but

all I want to get across is that Venus

needs a little bit more attention and

let me tell you why the last time NASA

sent a spacecraft just to study Venus

was in May of 1989 nearly 31 years ago

and you

now know this but NASA has never landed

anything on the surface of Venus only

the Soviet Union has now to put this

into perspective since May of 1989 NASA

has sent 16 missions to Mars

not including to cube sets so 16 versus

one over the last 31 years

that's a pretty low ratio and recall

that it's almost as easy to go to Venus

as it is to Mars, I'm surprised that NASA

hasn't sent more missions to Venus that

just goes to show how much we haven't

gone to Venus in our history and there's

so much more that we can learn I should

mention that there are other agencies

that have gone to Venus the most recent

one being JAXA however there needs to be

more exploration if we really want to

understand more about the planet which

is pretty straightforward but what about

the future it turns out it might be

easier to send astronauts to Venus than

to Mars but why the first reason is

because of Venus is gravity Venus is

slightly smaller than Earth but the

gravity is roughly 90 percent of Earth's

gravity whereas Mars's gravity is only

38 percent of Earth's gravity and you

might be wondering what are these

percentages have to do with sending

people there and the reason is because

some of the largest health hazards of

going into space have to do with the

lack of gravity when astronauts are

weightless in the International Space

Station they experience a lot of issues

some of which being bone mass loss

muscle loss even issues with them

eyesight as well as cardiovascular

system which could be a major issue and

scientists aren't sure if the same

things will exist when we get to the

Moon or Mars however if they're on a

planet that has the closest gravity to

Earth then more than likely it would

make sense for them to be healthier so

it's interesting to note that going to

Venus might actually be healthier for

astronauts than going to Mars

another major health hazard of space

exploration is astronaut’s exposure to

radiation and here again Venus have a

major advantage the atmosphere around

Venus would protect astronaut’s way

better than Mars's atmosphere

would in fact it wouldn't even be a

problem if you went to Venus so it's

interesting to note some of the

comparisons between these two planets

now you might be thinking Venus is too

hot for us to live on and the answer to

that is, we don't have to live on the

surface

scientists believe that we could

actually, fly around in an airship in the

upper atmosphere of Venus at an altitude

of 50 kilometers above the surface of

Venus it would actually be just right

for human exploration the atmospheric

pressure would be equal to the

atmospheric pressure here on earth

meaning it would feel normal

it would be a little hot at 75 degrees

Celsius but you could wear a heat suit

to deal with this and if you had a

supply of oxygen you could just walk

around outside now note at an altitude

of 50 kilometers there isn't a surface

to walk on so you would have to bring

your own but essentially it would feel

normal you wouldn't need a massive

spacesuit like you would need on Mars

which is really interesting to think?

about so let's summarize if NASA were to

Sen astronautes to Mars versus Venus

what would the trips look like and I say?

NASA specifically because if it was a

company like SpaceX it might not be a

round-trip mission but NASA has

mentioned time and time again that they

would want to send a round-trip mission

if they were to go to another planet so

let's figure out what this comparison

looks like first of all if NASA was to

send astronauts to Venus the entire trip

would take around a year and a half

whereas if NASA were to send astronauts

to Mars it would take three years

getting to the planet would take three

months to go to Venus and nine months to

go to Mars so already it's taking less

time to get there

astronauts would be exposed to less

radiation on Venus and they would be

able to float around on a sky ship

whereas if they were on Mars, they would

be able to walk around on the surface of

the planet so ultimately you could see

how Venus could help reduce some of the

health risks a shorter mission helped

NASA understand how they can operate

astronauts on another planet but the

same time on Mars there's the major

advantage of being able to explore the

surface directly rather than flying

around on an airship now the last thing

that we can

mention is what about the far future

colonizing either one of these planets

and this is where I want to leave it off

to you would you rather live in a

geodesic structure on the surface of

Mars or in a cloud city like environment

on Venus let me know in the comments

below