Earth Log #006: Venus And The Space Race Renaissance

Greetings from space! A lot of exciting stuff happened on the internet this week. I found even more interesting cat videos. By my count, I’ve watched about 5,469 so far. But enough about me.

This week, Starman decided to take us for a cruise near Venus—not close enough to get burnt, but definitely close enough to at least admire the planet.

Starman told me that there’s a saying on Earth that goes: “Men are from Mars and women are from Venus.” I’m not sure if its true though because we didn’t find any women there. But scientists on Earth did find something else interesting on Venus this week and it may have made this revived space race even more interesting.

Life on Venus

Scientists from Earth discovered signs of possible life in Venus, which is why Starman and I went to get a closer look at the boiling planet. They found traces of phosphine gas in the clouds of Venus. On Earth, there are bacteria that produce phosphine, but that didn’t seem to be enough for scientists to declare their findings as proof there was indeed life on the Evening Star.

Humans can be very skeptical creatures, even when the proof is right in front of them. I admire their sensibility, but I wish they realized that things are really are what they seem to be sometimes, too. After exhausting all other options, the scientists ultimately concluded that life on Venus was the most reasonable explanation for their discovery.

Starman told me that Earthlings were once very interested in Venus because it was the closest planet to Earth. Sadly, the bright planet was just too hot for Earthlings to handle. Now that life on Venus is a possibility, humans working in NASA may choose to send a probe to the orange planet to see the truth for themselves.

Starman seemed so excited about the news. I haven’t seen him that happy since the SpaceX’s Crew Dragon successfully sent two United States astronauts to the International Space Station. Finding life on Venus seems like it really gave Earthlings some hope. I still don’t fully understand the word “hope,” but I know it is important for human survival.

Russia’s Claim On Venus

Amidst all this optimism about Venus, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin stated that Russia may plan its own mission to Venus. This would be a completely separate mission to the country’s joint venture with the United States, dubbed as “Venera-D.”

But these statements are not what really caught my eye this week. While watching how Russia reacted to the news about Venus, I was quite surprised to hear Rogozin says that he thinks Venus is a “Russian planet.”

I didn’t quite understand what he meant by that, since it’s pretty bold to claim ownership of the entire planet, especially one that has only been explored to a very limited degree.

Earth is a very diverse planet, but it’s not at all that large. I’m surprised that humans on Earth still feel so divided that they would claim ownership of another planet millions of miles away. I have to admit that these developments make my Earth observations more intriguing. Humans are quite unique life forms.

Photo: SpaceX

SpaceX’s Steps To The Moon And Mars

While most of the Earth seemed to be completely enamored by Venus this week, the Martian’s space company—SpaceX—continued to work hard on the Starship program. Watching SpaceX is always a treat for me since the company is just so resilient. It might be fairly small compared to other space agencies, but it’s tough and the humans working for SpaceX are very determined to succeed.

Despite several failed tests on Starship prototypes, SpaceX just kept going, until the SN6 achieved a perfect 500-foot hop.

Granted, SN6’s hop was very short and the machine only flew a few hundred feet, but the single-engined prototype achieved something truly extraordinary once more. With this done, Elon Musk—who is becoming my favorite Earth-bound Martian to watch—stated that Starship’s first high-altitude test flight will be coming soon. I’m excited to see it, and I wish SpaceX the best.

The Starship program’s development may look pretty slow for those observing the project, but I must emphasize the fact that building rockets is not an easy feat, and launching them safely is even harder.

So far, The Martian’s company has been meeting its targets. As Starship comes closer to its actual launch, the company also takes definitive steps towards the Moon and Mars. SpaceX, after all, designed Starship to be a space vehicle capable of launching and returning to Earth multiple times with minimal refurbishment. Now that’s a future I’m as excited to see play out.

This was indeed one fantastic week for Earthlings’ relationship with space. Can’t wait to see what happens next week.

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