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by seszett 2661 days ago
On the other hand, the atmosphere of Venus could also been seen as a help since you could "just" float or fly to a great altitude instead of departing from the ground.

The ground is pretty much impossible to reach anyway, and not as interesting as the atmosphere about 50 km up, where temperature and pressure are about the same as on Earth and where breathable air is buoyant.

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> the atmosphere of Venus could also been seen as a help since you could "just" float or fly to a great altitude instead of departing from the ground

Yes, but I don't think the numbers given in the chart consider such possibilities. I think they're for a standard rocket blasting off from the surface and having to account for atmospheric drag when determining how much delta-v is required to reach orbit.