Venus is our closest planet to us besides Mars (sometimes) but does that mean that we should start to think about the possiblities of us landing there? The author of the article "The Challenges of Exploring Venus" is suggesting that we should go forward and try to study and hopefully go to Venus despite the dangers that are capable of happening. Venus may be our "twin planet", but it is very different from Earth. I think the author of this article supports this idea very much.

There are a couple reasons on why I think the author supports this article. One is because he talks about how Venus could have been. Venus is the most Earth-like planet that we know in our solar system but they don't exactly know if it once was like us or not. Astronomers think that Venus was once covered with oceans and it could even have supported forms of life. The author also talks about the features of Venus today. The author points out that the plant has some siliar features as us like valleys, mountains, and craters. The author ends the paragraph ,where he talks about this, with this sentence, "The value of returning to Venus seems indisputable, but what are the options for making a mission both safe and scientifically productive." This makes me think that the author is trying to get us informed about the options that it could take to make this Venus situation be safer.

This information we know about the planet is very different than ours. One of the details that the author points out is that it has a thick atmosphere of amost 97% carbon dioxide. Another thing he says is that the clouds are made up of sufuric acid and that the tempature is 800 degrees Fahrenheit. The author makes it clear that the conditions on Venus are very extreme and it would make a bad environment for us. With this information, the author makes it clear that NASA is still trying to find a possible solution for saftey reasons and informational reasons.

One of the ways that NASA is trying to study venus is by sending a "blimp-like vehicle hovering 30 or so miles above the roiling Venusian landscape." They would have to be in the air to fly over storms and get out of the way of the unfriendly ground conditions. In the air, the tempature would still be way too hot but they think that humans would be able to survieve that condition. The air pressure in the air will be close to the same pressure thats on the earth. At the end of the paragraph that talks about this , the author says that obviously these are not the best conditions but they are survivable for humans.

These are my claims on why and how the author is telling us that he supports the idea. He talks about the similarities and differences about the planet and Earth. He also talks about the possibilities this could happen in the future once we get more information. This is why I think that the author is supporting the idea of studying Venus even if the conditions are bad.