Venus' supernimbal altitude supports a longstanding 11 AM flotilla, and a permanent flotilla; but these are not the same. Let's consider the school where these equations are taught.
Over the 584 day Venus-Earth synodic, many aerofoils cluster at 11 AM a hundred days before the V-E Hohmann window, 160 prior to Conjunction. Sporadic takeoffs go out to the L5 libration halo. About seventy days into this flight-time, begins the E-V Hohmann and, on V: Carnivale.
Consider the Earth-based or at least Earth-bound university student on Venus. I assume they are thrifty so needs rely upon the Hohmann cycle, using one or the other school-type ship.
As of the VSL5-E Hohmann the student from Earth has resided in floating cities on Venus for at least 333 days (since E-L4), but most likely 430 days - and either way, with another 146 days of Hohmann transfer before that. The launch of the (semi)permanent fleet is the culmination of his academic year.
Earth drives this Student's Package, then:
- Hohmann Inbound: 146 days
- First Flotilla: 40ish days
- Venus: 390ish days
- Second Flotilla: 40ish days
- Carnivale: 29.18 days [the last of it spent getting onto the ship]
- Hohmann Outbound: 146 days
OFFSET 11/5: Hohmann Inbound is shortened as students push off later, tho' before Conjunction.
I've put the Flotilla spans in an okay place
on account the Libration orbits are fuzzy. From the first Hohmann launch from Earth to the next Hohmann's dock at an Earth station, we can be more precise. For instance: 13 March 2231 to 12 April 2233. 2233.2821-2231.2035 = 2.0786 Earth years.
These dates don't always sync well with an Earth academic year; in 2231, one wonders what the student will do on Earth from December to early March. This tour works best for Master's candidates, and for the last two years of a Bachelor's. And for apprenticeships.
Since these are high-level students, each has taken a focus. So far I can think of: exo-medicine, carbon chemistry, phase-transitions, rocket physics and chemistry, closed-system agriculture. Applied mathematics. Fission physics. In transit, the aggies won't have much to do in the lab so they'll be sleeping through some of the trip.
(I don't include near-asthenosphere mining; miners, student or not, have nothing to do during the Hohmann span so don't waste time running it. If they are that good they just blast on over. On Brachistochrone, if the tech has aligned with the investment by then.)
Venus' orbit has a few specialties; it's not just aggies down here. SVL2 studies the ionic wind, and refuel-engineering. SVL5 has interplanetary and solar studies. Venus' direct orbit likely has something.
Some Earth students make the call to stay at Venus longer. But later will come Venus-raised students interested in a stint back on Earth.
METON 11/28/2020: As to cost: delta-V and travel-time follow a pattern. The costs recur eight Earth years minus two days; or, better, five synods. I use Don Mitchell's pentad. The time is longest where the delta-V is shortest, tightening and increasing (respectively) until reset five synods later. We absorb the delta-V hit to minimise strain on life support so: from A to E, take the D.
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