[c22]

I've long also thought Venus was undervalued as a destination, mostly for the air and temperature reasons you listed. I didn't know about your other bullets so thanks for the info. I wonder why we haven't seen more focus on the yellow planet.

[everdev]

One guess would be that people enjoy visuals and scenery. On Mars, there are landscapes, sunsets, and the stars. From a think Venus atmosphere, I'm not sure what the view would look like, but I'm guessing it would be pretty consistent and confining. Traveling through a cloud in an airplane is fun for a few minutes because of how unique it is, but seeing the ground feels more enjoyable and inspiring to me.

[cyrus_]

Good points! I'm not sure how interesting the clouds would look. There is definitely some dynamic behavior there, including electrical storms, and you'd have a day-night cycle spanning 4 days total, not due to the rotation of Venus but rather the atmospheric dynamics.

Also keep in mind that due to the dangers of radiation, the denizens of a lunar or Martian colony would not be outside that often. The most realistic plans I've seen actually have the habitats completely underground (e.g. in lava tubes on the moon [1]). Certainly a few of the colonists will leave on science missions with some frequency, but the vast majority of the time people will be inside and underground, albeit probably tele-operating mining equipment and things like that in many cases.

I think if you think big enough, in both cases the problem isn't that bad: being in an underground habitat / cloud habitat the size of a small town will feel like you're on solid ground, not like you're in an airplane in the clouds / in a cave. Artists and architects can design artificial landscape to keep things from being boring.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_lava_tube#Sites_for_huma...

[stevedonovan]

Judging from the happiness of my fellow city dwellers when they hang out in the mall, I suspect that colonists would not mind being inside as long as there was enough shopping.

[gsich]

Reaching Venus is also much harder then reaching Mars.

See: https://i.imgur.com/SqdzxzF.png

[jccooper]

Getting to Venus is somewhat easier with good mission design, utilizing aero effects. Getting back is notably harder.

[hackeraccount]

Dang it. Totally beaten to the punch.