The Case For Venus
I believe asteroids parked in planetary orbits offer several advantages.
The Case For Venus is actually part of my Case For Asteroids.
The Earth-Venus synodic period is very close to 8/5 of a year.
The period of an Earth-Venus Hohmann transfer is very close to 4/5 of a year
This makes a system of five Earth to Venus cyclers possible.
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The locations of possible cycler-earth encounters form the points of a huge five pointed star.
The star would be slowly rotating, about 1 degree every 8 years.
I believe the line of apsides or cycler orbits could also be rotated
with planetary gravity assists or with relatively small rocket burns.
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In the diagram above a line segment moves along the edges of the five pointed star.
Each time the segment hits a point, a cycler encounters the Earth and
then makes the five month trip to Venus. This happens each 1.6 years.
The segment completes a circuit each 8 years.
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The points of the cycler orbit's Venus encounters also have a nearly 5 way symmetry.
A system of five Highly Elliptical Venus Orbits could have their
periapsi correctly positioned to receive passengers from the cyclers.
These orbits are going nearly escape velocity at periapsis.
Passengers from cyclers would only need to shed a small amount of delta vee
to match velocities with the rapidly moving HEEVO habitat.
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The circular High Venus Obit passing through the HEEVO apoapsis
has 5/2 the period of the HEEVO orbits, so there are regular, frequent encounters.
HVO habs can transfer people from one HEEVO hab to another.
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A similar array of cyclers and HEEVO habitats can be made for Venus to Earth trips.
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I believe the beautiful geometry of these orbits enable
large delta vee savings via the Oberth effect.
In terms of delta vee, these locations could be the closest to Earth in the solar system.
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Other Venus Advantages
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Geoffrey Landis has pointed out that 50 kilometers above Venus' surface,
the atmosphere is a comfortable pressure and temperature.
He has proposed floating Venusian cloud cities.
Although there is a lot of sulfuric acid there.
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Trips tmes to Venus are .4 years (about 5 months),
which is shorter than the 7 month Mars Hohmann trip.
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Venus launch windows occur every 8/5 years,
which is more frequent than the Martian launch windows
which occur roughly each 15/7 years.
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