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First Human Colonies Should Be Among Venus' Clouds

Posted by samzenpus on from the head-in-the-clouds dept.

StartsWithABang writes: When we talk about humans existing on worlds other than Earth, the first choice of a planet to do so on is usually Mars, a world that may have been extremely Earth-like for the first billion years of our Solar System or so. Perhaps, with enough ingenuity and resources, we could terraform it to be more like Earth is today. But the most Earth-like conditions in the Solar System don't occur on the surface of Mars, but rather in the high altitudes of Venus' atmosphere, some 50-65 km up. Despite its harsh conditions, this may be the best location for the first human colonies, for a myriad of good, scientific reasons. NASA proposed something similar last year and released a report on the subject.

3 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Incredibly farfetched by Spy+Handler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From TFA:

    build a 1" thick hull out of steel in our desired shape,
    fill it with the same gases at the same temperatures and pressures in Earth's atmosphere,
    and let that baby loose on Venus.

    I'm no aerodynamicist, but common sense tells me that the volume of your balloon city will have to be very large and the amount of 1" thick steel you need to bring from Earth will be so massive, most Mars colony proposals will seem lightweight in comparison. Might as well just go to Mars.

    1. Re:Incredibly farfetched by garyebickford · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just to be clear - size is not largely irrelevant. The whole key to buoyancy is that the volume of a sphere goes up as the cube of the diameter while the surface area goes up as the square - for a non-sphere it's based on the three linear dimensions of course. So a very small craft can barely carry the skin, while a large one can carry much more in addition to the skin. There are other factors, but that's the primary one.

      For example, a one-foot box made with one inch steel would not float well.

      --
      It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
  2. Re:Huge waste of Resourses by Glarimore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ya moving to the closest planet to the sun being the first planet to get eaten by our sun when it expands and their is no question that will happen, is a great idea..Not.

    The timescale required to move to another planet at our current rate of technological advancement is trivial compared to the length of time that will pass before the sun expands to a diameter that would significantly affect temperatures on the planets in the solar system -- let alone "eat" them.

    Even if it took us one hundred thousand years to settle Venus, the sun would have barely changed in that time frame.