robert casey wrote:
In the April issue of Sky and Telescope, page 30, it mentions that
there is some unknown chemistry in some of Venus' clouds. Particles
of something coated with sulfuric acid. To say that there could be
life on such would be a really long shot bet, but a sample return
mission might be interesting to do. Though building and flying to
Venus a return vehicle that could get back out of Venus' atmosphere
and gravity well (and some of the Sun's as well) and back to Earth
would be rather difficult. It'd be pretty much the same size rocket
you'd need to send a small probe from Earth to Mars. And you'd need
to ship that to Venus all fueled up... This doesn't look too feasible...

Probably more practical to send a small remote control chem lab on a
blimp...

They've been spotting upwellings of material in the Venusian atmosphere
recently also.
They think they are weather related, but I'd be very surprised if Venus
didn't have active volcanoes.
Given the sulfur-eating bacteria of the mid-Atlantic ridge, one can
certainly picture some sort of microscopic life dwelling in the clouds,
also possibly using the sunlight in some form for energy.

Pat