<p>Venus is often refered to as Earth-twin, simply because of its similar size. In the very hypothetical case of a human mission to Venus, and leaving the all other challenges of Venus toxic atmosphere aside, I am wondering how big the problem of <strong>natural radioactivity is on Venus (on cloud top level).</strong></p>
<p>For Mars, I found a reference from <a href="https://www.mars-one.com/faq/health-and-ethics/how-much-radiation-will-the-settlers-be-exposed-to" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MarsOne</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Mars's surface receives more radiation than the Earth's but still blocks a considerable amount. Radiation exposure on the surface is 30 µSv per hour during solar minimum; during solar maximum, dosage equivalent of this exposure is reduced by the factor two.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I know that both Mars and Venus do not have a significant magnetic field which would shield away solar winds. Do I assume correctly that the radiation exposure of the solar wind is the main contribution to the &quot;background&quot; radioactivity on Venus?</p>
<h3>References</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/never-mind-mars-what-about-trip-venus-first-180953717/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Never Mind Mars, What About a Trip to Venus First?</a>: Apparently there is serious proposal to send astronauts to a floating cloud city in Venus’s atmosphere before heading to Mars.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/NASA-Spacecraft-Helps-Identify-Solar-Radiation-Patterns-That-Expose-the-Moon" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NASA: <em>Solar Radiation Patterns That Expose the Moon</em></a></li>
<li>A related question about the solar radiation part: <a href="https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/29977/why-venus-evolved-so-differently-from-earth">Why Venus evolved so differently from Earth?</a></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-08T15:18:05.023Z
I found http://astrobiology.com/2019/12/revisiting-the-cosmic-ray-induced-venusian-radiation-dose-in-the-context-of-habitability.html which is talking about **Atmospheric Radiation Interaction Simulator (AtRIS)** as computer model, but I would be very happy about an order of magnitude in Sv/Earth hour or something like that.
B--rian
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-08T15:25:01.750Z
I don't have any solid answers, but I doubt solar particle radiation would penetrate that deeply into the atmosphere...what gets through will mostly be galactic cosmic radiation. C-14 production from atmospheric nitrogen by cosmic radiation might be relevant to your question, but I haven't found any information on C-14 in the atmosphere of Venus.
Christopher James Huff
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-08T16:50:21.777Z
If you want to sit on the surface, radiation is no problem. If you want to float in the temperate region around 1-bar level, that could be more interesting.
AtmosphericPrisonEscape
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-08T16:54:40.757Z
@AtmosphericPrisonEscape Unrelated, but I feel urged to mention: I love your nickname. And yes, I would be interested e.g. in the 1-bar level. I just realized that "above clouds on Venus" requires more thoughts where that actually is (in terms of distance from the surface or at which pressure level).
B--rian
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-09T04:23:50.543Z
According to this NASA [Venus fact sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/venusfact.html): "Scale height: 15.9 km" That's of course not going to be true everywhere, but it does remind us that composition and temperature will affect it even though size and gravity of Venus are similar to Earth. If it's really twice Earth's surface scale height above the clouds on Venus, then you've got nearly 3x more mass above you than you would on Earth at a similar pressure. Interesting, let's see where this goes!
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-09T04:28:41.293Z
Just for your info: I asked elsewhere about a way how to guesstimate the upper cloud level for any planet with atmosphere: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/599285/253424
B--rian
<venus><radiation>
Background radation on Venus?
B--rian
# Background radation on Venus?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-12-08)

Venus is often refered to as Earth-twin, simply because of its similar size. In the very hypothetical case of a human mission to Venus, and leaving the all other challenges of Venus toxic atmosphere aside, I am wondering how big the problem of **natural radioactivity is on Venus (on cloud top level).**

For Mars, I found a reference from [MarsOne](https://www.mars-one.com/faq/health-and-ethics/how-much-radiation-will-the-settlers-be-exposed-to)

> Mars's surface receives more radiation than the Earth's but still blocks a considerable amount. Radiation exposure on the surface is 30 µSv per hour during solar minimum; during solar maximum, dosage equivalent of this exposure is reduced by the factor two.

I know that both Mars and Venus do not have a significant magnetic field which would shield away solar winds. Do I assume correctly that the radiation exposure of the solar wind is the main contribution to the "background" radioactivity on Venus?

### References

* [Never Mind Mars, What About a Trip to Venus First?](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/never-mind-mars-what-about-trip-venus-first-180953717/): Apparently there is serious proposal to send astronauts to a floating cloud city in Venus’s atmosphere before heading to Mars.
* [NASA: *Solar Radiation Patterns That Expose the Moon*](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/NASA-Spacecraft-Helps-Identify-Solar-Radiation-Patterns-That-Expose-the-Moon)
* A related question about the solar radiation part: [Why Venus evolved so differently from Earth?](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/29977/why-venus-evolved-so-differently-from-earth)

**Tags:** venus, radiation
> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I found http://astrobiology.com/2019/12/revisiting-the-cosmic-ray-induced-venusian-radiation-dose-in-the-context-of-habitability.html which is talking about **Atmospheric Radiation Interaction Simulator (AtRIS)** as computer model, but I would be very happy about an order of magnitude in Sv/Earth hour or something like that.  
> **username_1**: I don't have any solid answers, but I doubt solar particle radiation would penetrate that deeply into the atmosphere...what gets through will mostly be galactic cosmic radiation. C-14 production from atmospheric nitrogen by cosmic radiation might be relevant to your question, but I haven't found any information on C-14 in the atmosphere of Venus.  
> **username_2**: If you want to sit on the surface, radiation is no problem. If you want to float in the temperate region around 1-bar level, that could be more interesting.  
> **username_0**: @AtmosphericPrisonEscape Unrelated, but I feel urged to mention: I love your nickname. And yes, I would be interested e.g. in the 1-bar level. I just realized that "above clouds on Venus" requires more thoughts where that actually is (in terms of distance from the surface or at which pressure level).  
> **username_3**: According to this NASA [Venus fact sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/venusfact.html): "Scale height: 15.9 km" That's of course not going to be true everywhere, but it does remind us that composition and temperature will affect it even though size and gravity of Venus are similar to Earth. If it's really twice Earth's surface scale height above the clouds on Venus, then you've got nearly 3x more mass above you than you would on Earth at a similar pressure. Interesting, let's see where this goes!  
> **username_0**: Just for your info: I asked elsewhere about a way how to guesstimate the upper cloud level for any planet with atmosphere: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/599285/253424  

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## 0 answers

