text: The author states that in the past Venus is thought to be a lot like Earth. Scientists think that Venus was "covered largely with oceans and could have supported various forms of life, just like Earth." Since Venus is thought to be the planet most like Earth scientist want to discovey what happened to in that made in inhospitable and why it happened to this planet. They have shown that Venus still has a lot of similar features that are very closely related to Earths. The author says scientists would like to get more information by landing people and spacecraft on the surface of Venus but the spacecraft has been proven to last only a couple hours on Venus. This is why "not a single spaceship has touched down on Venus in more that three decades."