Talk:High Altitude Venus Operational Concept

Initial To-Do for expansion
Ok, first go at a To-Do list:

This seems to be the most comprehensive news source on the HAVOC mission. NASA released two main productions about HAVOC: a video and a powerpoint. Most new outlets displayed the video, and took a slide or two from the powerpoint, but universe today article posted screen caps of the powerpoint itself, which is much more informative.

Things I don't know:


 * 1) To what degree NASA's powerpoint can be republished, and how it needs to be credited. Several of the slides are diagrams that are much more informative (and to my mind, interesting) than what's currently on the page.
 * 1) Does all the writing for the post need to be completely original? If I paraphrase or quote, to what extent is that okay?

To do:
 * 1) Rewrite the introduction
 * 2) Explain the different "phases" of HAVOC. Phase I is basically just a manned orbit. Phase II is a manned balloon ride for like a week. Phase III is a year, IIRC and then we get to the really crazy "floating city on Venus" stuff.
 * 3) Details of the missions, as much as is given by the slides

Dsigned (talk) 16:59, 14 August 2016 (UTC)

Link to the original work
Found a reference to the pdf of the original presentation — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dsigned (talk • contribs) 18:35, 14 August 2016 (UTC)

Proposed Edit partial first draft
High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC) is a proposed set of manned NASA missions to the planet Venus. The proposal is notable in that it proposes the entirety of the manned portions of the missions to be conducted from lighter than air craft or from orbit and de-emphasizes traditional “landings.”

Background: Venus is well known as a planet with a runaway greenhouse effect, with surface temperatures and pressure of 400C and 93 bar respectively. Hence, manned missions to Venus have historically been thought impractical, if not impossible. However, Venus has advantages for manned travel, such as Earth-like gravity (.90 Earth gravity), an atmosphere that provides a level of protection from solar and interstellar radiation, and a much greater proximity compared to Mars.

Whereas all ground missions measured their operational time in minutes or hours, several Soviet missions found success in launching small balloons, that operated until their batteries were exhausted (days). At 55 km of altitude, the atmosphere of Venus is 27C and .5 bar (the equivalent pressure to about 18000 feet on Earth). However, because the density for a given pressure is greater than in Earth’s atmosphere, breathable air acts as a buoyant gas at the altitude. Concurrently, the gravity at the proposed altitude is 8.73 m/s2 versus 9.81 m/s2 on Earth’s surface.

Proposed Missions:

Phase 1 involves robotic exploration in preparation for future manned missions

Phase 2 is for astronauts to orbit Venus. Venus has an induced magnetosphere from the interaction of its thick atmosphere with the Solar wind, and it’s nearer proximity to the Sun brings it further within the Sun’s magnetic field, which decreases the interstellar radiation levels. With the addition of the reduced deep space exposure time, the radiation levels anticipated by astronauts are potentially much less than an equivalent Mars mission. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dsigned (talk • contribs) 18:50, 14 August 2016 (UTC)

Second draft of proposed expansion
High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC) is a proposed set of manned NASA missions to the planet Venus. The proposal is notable in that it proposes the entirety of the manned portions of the missions to be conducted from lighter than air craft or from orbit and de-emphasizes traditional landings.

Background
Venus is a planet with a runaway greenhouse effect, with surface temperatures and pressure of 467 °C and 93 bar respectively. Hence, manned missions to Venus have historically been thought impractical, if not impossible. However, Venus has advantages for manned travel, such as Earth-like gravity (.90 Earth gravity), an atmosphere that provides a level of protection from solar and interstellar radiation, and a much greater proximity compared to Mars.

Whereas all ground missions measured their operational time in minutes or hours, the Soviet Vega missions found success in launching small balloons, that operated until their batteries were exhausted (days). At 55 km of altitude, the atmosphere of Venus is 27C and .5 bar (the equivalent pressure to about 18000 feet on Earth). However, because the density for a given pressure is greater than in Earth’s atmosphere, breathable air acts as a buoyant gas at the altitude. Concurrently, the gravity at the proposed altitude is 8.73 m/s2 versus 9.81 m/s2 on Earth’s surface.

Venus has an induced magnetosphere from the interaction of its thick atmosphere with the Solar wind, and it’s nearer proximity to the Sun brings it further within the Sun’s magnetic field, which decreases the interstellar radiation levels. With the addition of the reduced deep space exposure time, the radiation levels anticipated by astronauts are potentially much less than an equivalent Mars mission.

Phase 1


Phase 1 involves a proposed robotic exploration via a 31m long airship. It would be used to test many of the technologies that would be used in the manned version, including the dirigible, energy systems, and aerocapture/descent sled.

Phase 2
Phase 2 is for astronauts to orbit Venus. The individual components would be assembled remotely, and the crew would join the larger assembly when all the preparations are complete. There would be a return module sent to low Venus orbit ahead of the astronauts, with which they would rendezvous in Venusian orbit, before returning to Earth.

Phase 3
Phase 3 involves descending in to the atmosphere. The aeroshell would be used for heat dissipation. A parachute would be deployed to further slow the craft, before finally inflating the dirigible itself. Once inflated, the crew would live in the airship for a period equivalent to thirty Earth days, before detaching and ascending in the Venus Ascent Vehicle. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dsigned (talk • contribs) 21:52, 15 August 2016 (UTC)