Like when I was asleep last night, my soul drove over to Cote de Pablo's house and we made sweet sweet love all night long. Then my soul bought a lottery ticket, which I won, and then I single handedly funded my very own 100m-class telescope which I proceeded to observe through with an eyepiece! Amazingly, while I was observing, Stephen Segal appeared out of nowhere and I proceeded to have a knife fight with him – man that guy is weak. I has his number in two minutes flat.

It was all frigging amazing. The only thing that sucks is that my soul only seems to be able to travel when I'm asleep. That sucks, because everything seems a bit hazy – a bit like a like a dream – when I wake up the next day.

@John Hanford, i couldn't agree more with your classification of UFO observers. Perhaps Ms. Hatoyama actually did visit Venus, and the atmospheric pressure affected her cognitive abilities.

I would not expect a venusian rover any time soon. It means the surface geology will remain largely elusive, except at a few spots where quick analysis might be done.

LC

I suppose a nuclear powered heat pump to cool the interior is what would be required for a long duration exploration probe on the surface.

I was thinking of that, too; however, in order for the heat-pump to work, the radiator would have to operate at a temperature well above that of the Venusian environment.

I studied Russian for a couple of years.

LC

I suppose we need to get some probes and rovers down on the surface there. That would be a lot harder than on Mars. The engineering problems with heat and pressure are formidable.

From Wikipedia — Venera-D:

The Venera-D (Russian: ??????-?) probe is a proposed Russian space probe to Venus, to be launched around 2016. Venera-D's prime purpose is to make remote-sensing observations around the planet Venus in a manner similar to that of the U.S. Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s, but with the use of more powerful radar. Venera-D is also intended to map future landing sites. A lander, based on the Venera design, is also planned, capable of surviving for a long duration on the planet's surface.

Venera-D is the first Russian-built probe to Venus (all past "Venera" probes were launched by the former Soviet Union). Venera-D will serve as the flagship for a new generation of Russian-built Venus probes, culminating with a lander capable of withstanding the harsh Venusian environment for more than the 1½ hours logged by the Soviet-era probes. In order to keep research and development costs down, the new Venera-D probe will most likely resemble the Soviet-era probes, but will rely on new technologies developed by Russia since its last Venus missions (Vega 1 and Vega 2 in 1985). Venera-D will most likely be launched on the venerable Proton booster, but may be designed to be launched on the more powerful Angara rocket instead.

Venera-D will follow on the coat-tails of the Phobos-Grunt mission, the first Russian Mars mission since the 1990s.

COOL! (metaphorically speaking.)

http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/venus/landings-on-venus/

regards
dave mundt

Shamanistic revivalist anyone?

Oh well, even Nancy Reagan consulted astrologers while her husband was president, so go figure

Back in the 1950s some microwave horned antennas were pointed at Venus. The place had a microwave signature matching a black body curve tail for a T between 500 and 900K. Even then people persisted with models of Venusian surface as a tropical paradise.

I suppose we need to get some probes and rovers down on the surface there. That would be a lot harder than on Mars. The engineering problems with heat and pressure are formidable.

Then again maybe the Venusians are fooling our sensors to conceal their planetary Sangri La from us

LC

"I also eat the sun," she said on the program, closing her eyes, pulling pieces off an imaginary Sun. "Like this, hum, hum, hum. It gives me enormous energy [...] My husband has recently started doing that too."

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