Ever since the dawn of the space age, humans have been dreaming of traveling to our nieghbors in the solar system, Venus and Mars. Great strides have been made in the exploration of Mars. It is quite possible that within the next few years, astronauts will be visiting Mars and and studying the Red Planet in person. Such advances hve not been made in the exploration of Venus however. The environmental conditions of Venus have made it impossible for humans to make on the ground exploation of Venus a reality.

The third paragraph of the article gives a great host of reasons why we should not explore Venus. On the other hand, the reasons to visit Venus are, dare I say, lacking. The author points out the highly corrosive atmosphere, the extreme tempuratures, and the sky high pressure on the surface of Venus. They aslo point out that because of these difficult conditions, noone has ever been able to land even an unmanned spaceship on the planet without it being melted within a few hours.

The evidence to support going to Venus is average at best. The strongest argument given by the author is in paragraph 4 where they say, " Astronomers are fascinated by Venus because it may well once have been the most Earth-like planet in our solar system." This may be true, but I think the author has still given insufficient evidence for why it would be benificial to explore Venus. It may be possible in the future that new technologies allow us to explore Venus, but for now I think we should wait.

In closing, sometime in the forseeable future, it may be more possible and logical to visit Venus. In our current situation, I think it would be much more benefical to advance our technologies enough to where we can land on the surface and get a close look around. Though we may not have the materials today to withstand the harsh climate of Venus, we should still be inventing and advancing our technologies. Who knows, maybe we could make a discovey on Mars that could help us finally reach the "Evening Star", Venus.