Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science

Venus colonisation...
Adam — (archived)

Hi All

Gary made an interesting point about Venus being an interesting planet too and neglected because of the Martian exobiology fetish. David Grinspoon and Mark Bullock recently proposed the crustal overturn of ~ 0.8 Gyr ago might have coincided with the loss of the original Venusian oceans, presumably as the far end point of ocean loss to space. Hence Venus might have had oceans for its first 3 billion years or so, rather than not for long after its formation.

Venus today is nasty on the surface, but at the 1 bar level things are much cooler and the atmosphere's rotation time is not far from a terrestrial day, rather than the 243 day sol on the surface. Even though that's 50 km up, a breathable mix of N2/O2 is actually buoyant in Venus' atmosphere, so city-sized aerostats are feasible ideas and relatively easy to build. Solar power is abundant, available from above and below because the clouds are so reflective. And the gravity is 90% of terrestrial, so Venusians would never be barred from their parent's birth-world.

Even though Venus can't have a space-elevator, skyhooks are still feasible. Here's an idea: thel hub station orbits at ~ 4 Venus radii, while the base is skimming along at a mere 800 m/s relative to the clouds - 8 times slower than the orbtial velocity for that altitude. Extending out to 13 radii is the counterweight part of the skyhook, allowing interplanetary payloads to be flung away at 10 km/s.

Adam

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