In "The Challenge of Exploring Venus," the author suggests that studying Venus is a worthy pursuit despite the dangers it presents. The author has shown how Venus is a planet that is worthy of our exploration through a few different points in this essay. However the author also uses many different examples of why Venus is/has been too dangerous for humans to venture on. But the essay does lean towards how necessary it is for humans to be curious about this journey more so than not, and they author does this using a few examples. Overall the author uses a large amount of their evidence from NASA mainly to describe certain ways they are trying to solve the problems and how they have started to already.

The author does introduce the con aspect of their essay first by explaining why humans have not been able to journey onto Venus' surface yet. They start by saying, "Each previous mission was unmanned, and for good reason, since no spacecraft survived the landing for more than a few hours. Maybe the issue explains why not a single spaceship has touched down on Venus in more than three decades"(paragraph 2). This is not the most reassuring few phrases when the goal is to get humans on the surface of Venus. But by adding this in the author is placing an understanding of what the dangers are. The dangers are plainly that if a spacecraft cannot survive the surface of our neighbor planet. . .then how can a human possibly do it.

So by adding in that scare factor the author then switches the tone to describes the certain parts of Venus that scientists need to get close to. Because in order to study it they need to be close enough to see it clearly. The author tells us all of the different features that are similar to Earth and because of all of these similarities scientists can learn and discover so much about our planet from Venus. The author names all of these similarities which are: "Astronomers are fascinated by Venus because it may well once have been the most Earth-like planet in our solar system . . . has a surface of rocky sedimet and includes familiar features such as valleys, mountians, and craters"(paragraph 4). When the author says this they are leading the reader in to want to know more about what Venus is like. This is because when they say that Venus is "the most Earth-like planet in our solar system" they are making the reader wonder what Venus must be like. Also making the readers curious as to what humans can learn from this planet as well. Which is a major benifit in a risk management scale.

Next, the author also introduced a possible solution to the problem that is Venus' surface. They found out that NASA is doing their own research on how to land safely on Venus and to be able to withstand a longer duration of time there as well. The author said, "NASA's possible solution to the hostile conditions on the surface of Venus would allow scientists to float above the fray. . . Just as our jet airplanes travel at higher altitude to fly over many storms, a vehicle hovering over Venus woud avoid the unfriendly groung conditions by staying up and out of their way"(paragraph 5). This is a major point because if NASA is already finding different ways that they can have ships on Venus, they are a step closer to having a ship survive on the surface as well. This is also very important because as they are discovering different materials that are lasting in Venus-like condition, and they are learning more about what could work for humans. Because if they were to create the ship that would float above the fray; then they would be able to have scientist there to observe and learn about Venus. The only problem with this is that the scientists wouldn't be able to collect samples from the surface yet.

Furthermore, the author explained a few different points throughout the entire essay. Some of them consisting of cons to the situation, like how a spacecraft is unable to last longer than a few hours on the planet. But other parts of the essay were how important it is for people to go and search Earth's sister planet because of the very similar landscape that the two share. The author also added in some of the different solutions NASA is trying to decypher and perfect. For example the plan to have a ship floating over the fray so that scientists are close enough to make observations but they are just far away enough that they are unable to take samples. Over all, the author portrayed Venus as a highly worthy planet to explore and that there are many different factors as to why it is so important.