In the passage that we are presented with the author suggests that studying Venus is a worthy pursuit by telling us of the similaraties between it and the earth. Venus is of a similar size and distance wise is not very far from us at all. No spacecraft has ever had any human pilots on it due to the fact that the spacefrafts never last very long once they land of the planet. The planet's stmosphere is made up of 97% of carbon dioxide and corrosive sulfuric acid. The temperature of the planet of on average over 800 degrees Fahrenheit and the atomspheric pressure is almost 90 times greater than our own.

Long ago Venus was proably covered by oceans and may have supported various formes of life similar to those of earth. It has similar geological features such as valleys, mountains, and craters. Due to its close proximity it may be the nearest option for a planetary visit. NASA in particular would like to send humans to study the planet. They thing that if they have the space craft hover about 30 miles above the planets surface they may be able to avoid the brunt of the problems. The temperature would still be about 170 degrees Fahrenheit, but the air pressure would be close to that of sea level on earth.