The Venus project

"She'd been enamoured with Venus ever since childhood, staring up at it through her mum's telescope. A perfect, rose-tinted disk. She'd loved the constellations, loved the other planets, but none had captured her like Venus. She felt drawn to it. As a teen, Afrodi had observed the public's obsession with Mars. She read Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, listened to talks about a Mars landing, of potential colonization plans. She couldn't understand the appeal."

"Top of her class was a boy named Res, from Greece. He wanted to be the next Michael Collins, overseeing his very own Neil and Buzz to their safe landing on Mars. He told everyone about Collins's joke with the Moon landers, that they should say 'Oh God, what is that thing?' and cut their mic. He told everyone he had something even funnier he'd make his crew say."

Afrodi watches Venus's arrival with intense anticipation as her team views the full-wall screen. She has loved Venus since childhood, enchanted by its rose-tinted disk and fascinated by its possible ancient habitability. Public interest centers on Mars and colonization fantasies, which Afrodi finds unappealing compared with Venus's volatile character and exotic phenomena. She studied astrophysics to learn Venus's history and remained focused despite classmates' Mars ambitions. A top student, Res, idolizes astronaut lore and dreams of Mars missions, representing the prevailing Mars obsession Afrodi rejects.

Read at Nature