The odds of NASA funding a floating airship city 30 miles above Venus that’s capable of sheltering a human community are not very hopeful, but that type of research is going on with the HAVOC project. From Peter Shadbolt at CNN:

“Venus has the advantage of being much closer to Earth. Its minimum distance to Earth is 38 million kilometers, compared with 54.6 million to Mars.

‘The kind of multi-decade mission that we believe could succeed would be an evolutionary program for the exploration of Venus, with focus on the mission architecture and vehicle concept for a 30-day crewed mission into Venus’s atmosphere,’ he said.

At the heart of the concept is the logistically difficult task of sending a spacecraft into the atmosphere of Venus without landing it.

The HAVOC model involves placing the astronauts inside an ‘aeroshell’ that would enter the atmosphere at 4,500 miles per hour.

Decelerating during its descent to just 450 meters per second and then deploying a parachute, the shell would fall away to reveal a folded airship. Robotic arms would unfurl the blimp which would be inflated with helium to allow the airship to float 30 miles above the planet’s fiery surface.

Jones said the key technical challenges for the mission include performing the ‘aerocapture’ maneuvers at Venus and Earth (the process of entering the orbit of both planets), inserting and inflating the airships, and protecting the solar panels and structure from the sulphuric acid in the atmosphere.

‘With advances in technology and further refinement of the concept, missions to the Venusian atmosphere can expand humanity’s future in space,’ he said.

Permanent mission

Ultimately, NASA could seek a permanent manned presence in Venus’s atmosphere.

Suspended in a gondola beneath the airships, astronauts would not have to contend with the physical challenges of zero gravity, where weightlessness causes muscles to wither and bones to demineralize.”