Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: Moore's Law vs Rocket Science

A silver lining in this cloud
Gary — (archived)

One good thing that could come from Martian exobiology's demise would be moving Venus exploration to the front burner. From a science perspective, Venus as the Earth's dead twin sister is genuinely interesting. Funding Venus projects has been almost impossible (Venus lacks sex appeal). The situation had gotten to the point that even writing a proposal for a Venus lander was considered a fool's errand.

As an aeroshell designer, I'm hoping this will change. Designing aeroshells for Venusian entry is much more interesting than Mars. For Mars entry, it is dirt easy to design a heat shield. However for Venus we have to actually advance the state of the art (there's a lot of things we don't understand).

Gary

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