- The clouds of Venus... made of sulfuric acid.
This was farther from the truth as when the Soviet Union sent the first Venera missions starting with 4, they discovered a planet more akin to Biblical depictions of Hell where temperatures of 450C (900F), an atmospheric pressure 90 times of Earth, virgae of sulfuric acid, and seas of lava flows covering 80 percent of its surface. Despite Venus and Earth having the most similar composition, mass, size, and orbits between two planets, they could not be much more different.
- Venera 12 landing site.
Today it is theorized Venus may have become too hot, its oceans boiled away causing a dramatic increase in atmospheric H2O as a greenhouse gas and forming a runaway temperature increase until the planet reached the conditions it has today. It is accepted that without water, tectonic plate movement on Venus ceased and through possibly atmospheric drag and tidal effect from the Sun like Mercury its rotation slowed and its molten outer core stopped circulating, shutting down its magnetic field. Without a magnetic field, the planet has overtime lost a majority of its water while heavier CO2 has become the dominant gas with no tectonic activity or oceans to cycle it.
This addon of Venus gives it a 4K cloud texture on top of 64K surface and normal textures colored to look like basalt. Closeups of up to 512K are provided for 13 Venera and Vega lander sites. Extra textures like Topography and Geology are also provided.
- Maxwell Montes and Cleopatra Crater.
NOTE: Due to Hurricane Ian, I have decided to release this beta version of the addon without the normal or extra maps. Perhaps maybe I will consider adding night maps for the likely volcanic activity on Venus but don't expect Io levels of eye candy.
UPDATE: Full version is finished
DOWNLOAD THE GRAND TOUR VENUS HERE!!!
- Venus with normal map enabled.
