Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Venus colonisation...

re: Venus colonisation...
Robert E. Bleier — (archived)

Venus has three main problems to overcome before it can be habitable.
1. Too hot
2. Too much atmosphere
3. Length of day is too long

The ‘too hot’ problem and the ‘length of day’ problem could both be solved from orbit. I had originally thought that a combination of solar shade and mirrors could solve these problems.

Here is an idea I have been toying with. Instead of using a solar shade and mirrors, build a large sphere around Venus (Using asteroids and/or Mercury’s resources). The sphere would be open at the poles. The outside of the sphere would allow sunlight to enter. The sunlight would travel through fiber optics inside the sphere. The sunlight could be channeled anywhere in the sphere. The Venus facing surface of the sphere would allow sunlight to exit. We could control not only where the sunlight exited the inside surface of the sphere, but also the amount of sunlight exiting. This would not only allow us to control the day on Venus, but the climate as well. Excess energy could be used to generate power.

Basically, it would give us complete control over the Sun’s energy reaching Venus. As a bonus, a similar sphere could be used around Earth when the Sun’s gradual warming starts to heat things up here on Earth.

As for the atmosphere problem, I still like my idea of mining Venus atmosphere and sending over half of its Nitrogen to Mars. If we could mine a gas giant for hydrogen and ship it to Venus, we could convert all that Carbon Dioxide to Water. The leftover carbon could be used to build many things, including the tankers to ship the Nitrogen to Mars.

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