While Venus’s surface is awful, its upper atmosphere is surprisingly Earthlike. At 55 kilometers, a human could survive with an oxygen mask and a protective wetsuit; the air is room temperature and the pressure is similar to that on Earth mountains. You would need the wetsuit, though, to protect you from the sulfuric acid.4 The acid’s no fun, but it turns out the area right above the clouds is a great environment for an airplane, as long as it has no exposed metal to be corroded away by the sulfuric acid. And is capable of flight in constant category-5-hurricane-level winds, which are another
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Flying on Venus is hilariously horrific
