Missions could see NASA spacecraft heading to Uranus and Neptune
I wait and hope for someone with more planetary knowledge than I have to explain the lack of interest in Venus as a habitable planet and thus the center of NASA&#x27;s attention ahead of Neptune, Uranus, and of course, Mars.<p>Based on what I&#x27;ve read, which includes a paper from a NASA (or was it JPL?) engineer, Venus&#x27; surface is not very hospitabl, but at a certain altitude it looks like an oasis in the Solar System:<p>Venus (at ~50-55 km altitude) &#x2F; Mars (surface): (all stats from Wikipedia, and yes not always complete or comparable)<p>* Gravity: 0.9G &#x2F; 0.38G<p>* Pressure:  ~1 atm &#x2F; 0.00628 atm (prevents liquid water)<p>* Temperature: 27-75 deg C &#x2F; -63 deg C (mean)<p>* Shortest distance from Earth (for logistics): 40M km &#x2F; 55M km<p>* Sunlight (energy): More than Earth &#x2F; 43% of Earth<p>Also, oxygen and nitrogen are lighter than the CO2-heavy atmosphere, so a balloon of O2 and N2 would float conveniently at 50 km. The CO2 in the atmosphere also could be a valuable resource.