Editing Airship (section)

===Airships in space exploration===
[[File:NASA Cloud City on Venus.jpg|thumb|Artist's rendering of a NASA crewed floating outpost in the atmosphere of Venus]]

Airships have been proposed as a potential cheap alternative to surface rocket launches for achieving Earth orbit. [[JP Aerospace]] have proposed the Airship to Orbit project, which intends to float a multi-stage airship up to [[mesosphere|mesospheric]] altitudes of 55&nbsp;km (180,000&nbsp;ft) and then use [[ion propulsion]] to accelerate to [[orbital speed]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jpaerospace.com/atohandout.pdf|title=Airship to Orbit}}</ref> At these heights, air resistance would not be a significant problem for achieving such speeds. The company has not yet built any of the three stages.

[[NASA]] has proposed the [[High Altitude Venus Operational Concept]], which comprises a series of five missions including crewed missions to the [[atmosphere of Venus]] in airships.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://sacd.larc.nasa.gov/branches/space-mission-analysis-branch-smab/smab-projects/havoc/| title=HAVOC| date=14 June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0az7DEwG68A/| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211031/0az7DEwG68A| archive-date=2021-10-31 | url-status=live| title=A way to explore Venus| website=[[YouTube]]| date=10 October 2014}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.gizmag.com/nasa-havoc-concept-manned-mission-to-venus/35311//| title=NASA concept would send astronauts to Venus| date=20 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url= http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2014/12/20/nasa-havoc-venus.nasa-langley-research-cente//| title=NASA's floating 'habitat' above Venus?| website=[[CNN]]}}</ref> Pressures on the surface of the planet are too high for human habitation, but at a specific altitude the pressure is equal to that found on Earth and this makes Venus a potential target for human [[Colonization of Venus|colonization]].

Hypothetically, there could be an [[Vacuum airship|airship lifted by a vacuum]]—that is, by material that can contain nothing at all inside but withstand the atmospheric pressure from the outside. It is, at this point, science fiction, although NASA has posited that some kind of vacuum airship could eventually be used to explore the surface of Mars.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/29/blimps-hindenburg-flying-whales-airships/|title=The Age of the Airship May Be Dawning Again|first=Justin|last=Ling|date=12 January 2024 }}</ref>