Why NASA Chose Mars Instead of Venus
Venus is closer. Venus is more similar in size. Venus has almost the same gravity. Yet NASA has sent a dozen rovers to Mars and only a handful of orbiters to Venus. The reason is not distance. It is survival.On Venus, the surface temperature hovers around 900 degrees Fahrenheit—hot enough to melt lead and zinc[citation:7]. The atmospheric pressure is 90 times that of Earth, equivalent to being half a mile underwater[citation:7]. The Soviet Venera 13 lander holds the record for survival on the Venusian surface: just 127 minutes before its instruments failed[citation:6]. No American lander has…
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