An artickle every KSP fan should read.

[halbert5150]

I just read this article,

http://www.citylab.com/tech/2014/07/the-surprisingly-strong-case-for-colonizing-venus/373560/, and I thought that the subject of the article would be the exact kind of thing KSP fans would love.

Its about how to colonize Venus with floating stations.

[Streetwind]

This should probably go into the science discussion subforum, where there is a huge Venus colonization thread already.

However, I agree that it is interesting

[Ikaneko]

Its a trap!!

[Javster]

Floating space doughnuts!

[Greenfire32]

That is an insanely cool concept. However, why would we ever want to colonize Venus? Isn't that like THE most hostile planet in our solar system? I mean if we found a way to harvest resources from Venus, sure I can understand a small operation of temporary housing (or something), but as far as honest to god long-term colonization?

We'd have better luck living in an active volcano.

[SargeRho]

The only reason I can think of to establish a station like that is for scientific purposes.

You could do disease research there without even the slightest risk of the pathogens escaping

[Mitchz95]

I loved that line near the end: "Venus is for men. Men who like to eat meat – cooked in fire and acid and seasoned with the Devil’s own mix of volatiles boiled up from the pits of hell."

[velve]

This has got to be a joke right?

I'm getting sick of all these radical ideas the world is coming up with we can't even get humans to mars yet(I know technically we could, but I don't want to go into that here). I am simply saying that these "scientists" need to stop wasting time and start doing the things we know we possibly could, granted the finances are provided. Mars, lets focus on doing that first.

As for the article, still a bit overly optimistic as for the title "Colonizing Venus", What would be the point? Especially whilst floating, ok cool say this happens the next response would be "now what". Ok........ a rocket fueled miner, collecting resources from the surface....we cant even land a probe there! haha ah man well, this first paragraph pretty much proves they're hacks "Why worry about building a colony on Mars when instead you could float one high above the surface of Venus? Science fiction writer"

I'll just cut it short there as that says enough, seriously though, very bad article, I love it from a science fiction point of view, but not reality and they clearly have the two mixed up.

But thanks for sharing it. Doughnut pictures made me hungry.

[vger]

That is an insanely cool concept. However, why would we ever want to colonize Venus? Isn't that like THE most hostile planet in our solar system? I mean if we found a way to harvest resources from Venus, sure I can understand a small operation of temporary housing (or something), but as far as honest to god long-term colonization?

We'd have better luck living in an active volcano.

Mining operations operations have a way of spawning large developments. First you just have the industry that brought you there, but then your workers will want some amenities. More businesses move in, to provide these services, and next thing you know, you've got a city. We used to call them boom towns. Granted, some end up becoming ghost towns after the mines run dry, but that isn't going to happen in Venus's atmosphere.

Edited July 2, 2014 by vger

[softweir]

Isn't that like THE most hostile planet in our solar system?

30 miles up, it's quite cool and comparatively un-hostile. Yes, the air is rather rich in sulphuric acid, but with little water and at low temperatures it won't be too difficult to build safe buoyancy structures. Also, though the atmosphere at that altitude is very dense compared to that of Earth at sea level, the pressure is slightly *less* than standard on Earth, so colonists wouldn't have to worry about Venusian air leaking in, and, indeed, the air the ocloists breathe would only leak out fairly slowly.

The rest of it - getting there, building floating habitations etc etc etc is a VERY big ask: but at least the environment isn't viciously hostile!

[halbert5150]

Doing this would be a little like building a luxury resort in the mouth of an active volcano, but I think the point here is that it is possible. We have the engineering smarts to do it. Maybe we dont have the will or the money to do it but thats a different matter. We do have the engineering smarts to do it. So I find it to be an interesting idea.

Hal

[Winter Man]

Doing this would be a little like building a luxury resort in the mouth of an active volcano

Maybe if your resort were explosion proof, yeah. Sulphuric acid isn't *that* evil.

[78stonewobble]

Fail deadly... It adds spice to your lives...

[magnemoe]

Mining operations operations have a way of spawning large developments. First you just have the industry that brought you there, but then your workers will want some amenities. More businesses move in, to provide these services, and next thing you know, you've got a city. We used to call them boom towns. Granted, some end up becoming ghost towns after the mines run dry, but that isn't going to happen in Venus's atmosphere.

yes but why mine Venus, Moon and the asteroids make a lot of sense. However Venus have much of the same dV requirements and earth and you can not land.

Yes you could send stuff down to the ground and then haul up but this would be far harder than mining 3 km underwater.

In short it seems pointless unless you have something like reactionless engines doing 2g.

[YNM]

Why would you mine other bodies which are smaller than Earth ? We're the biggest already, yet you still ask for more ?

[zarakon]

From https://what-if.xkcd.com/30/

A much better bet would be to fly above the clouds. While Venus’s surface is awful, its upper atmosphere is surprisingly Earthlike. 55 kilometers up, a human could survive with an oxygen mask and a protective wetsuit; the air is room temperature and the pressure is similar to that on Earth mountains. You need the wetsuit, though, to protect you from the sulfuric acid. (I’m not selling this well, am I?)

The acid's no fun, but it turns out the area right above the clouds is a great environment for an airplane, as long as it has no exposed metal to be corroded away by the sulfuric acid. And is capable of flight in constant Category-5-hurricane-level winds, which are another thing I forgot to mention earlier.

Venus is a terrible place.

[SargeRho]

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/surface_area.png

Why would you mine other bodies which are smaller than Earth ? We're the biggest already, yet you still ask for more ?

Some bodies have stuff in abundance that is rare in Earth's crust. (Platinum anybody?)

[Greenfire32]

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/surface_area.png

Why would you mine other bodies which are smaller than Earth ? We're the biggest already, yet you still ask for more ?

Because we're running out of stuff to mine.

[jwenting]

This should probably go into the science discussion subforum, where there is a huge Venus colonization thread already.

However, I agree that it is interesting

more like science fiction. It's pure fiction, the entire "venus colonisation" thing is pure fiction.

[PakledHostage]

And is capable of flight in constant Category-5-hurricane-level winds, which are another thing I forgot to mention earlier.

I realise you were quoting XKCD's "What if", but for what it is worth, aircraft routinely fly in Category-5 hurricane force winds. Even today here on Earth, the jet stream wind speeds are that high south of the Aleutians. (Ref: Environment Canada 250 hPa Geopotential height wind velocity chart.) Eastbound airliners will intentionally fly in jet streams that strong or stronger to save fuel. And sometimes they'll fly in winds that strong out of necessity. Currently, winds at ~35 000 feet above the east coast of Hokkaido are blowing at 105 knots (195 km/h). The NOPAC fixed track system of air traffic "lanes" goes through that area and aircraft are required by ATC to stay at their assigned altitude and on their assigned track. What matters more than wind speed is turbulence. From what I understand, winds at the 55 km level in Venus' atmosphere are very fast but the flow is uniform (i.e. no turbulence).

[Everten P.]

Pshhhh.. If you put it 10km over the surface it could probably be buoyant if it was make from carbon fiber, carbon nanotubes, or graphene. Heck +90% of the atmosphere is Carbon Dioxide, so if you bring some oxygen you could grow some trees to convert some of the atmosphere to O1, O2, and O3.

DOUGHNUTS

[Everten P.]

I think you could mine the gases of Venus like Carbon

[Rakaydos]

Interestingly, the most dangerous parts of the venus atmosphere are also the parts most useful to convert into other elements. Fly a station, have it convert solpheric acid into rocket fuel and Co2 into graphine and oxygen, and use the rocketfuel to fly the gasses into space.

And keep doing this for thousands of years. Eventually, you'll start to run out od sulpheric acid and Co2, and the gas pressure of the planet would have dropped by those gasses atmospheric %. And venus would be that much closer to colonizable, less of a hellworld.

[Stargate525]

Why would you mine other bodies which are smaller than Earth ? We're the biggest already, yet you still ask for more ?

Because unlike earth, 80% of their surface isn't covered in water? Seriously, try mining anything under two miles of ocean.

Because a smaller planet has a smaller gravity well; easier to get the stuff into space.

Because those planets don't have biological life, and therefore we don't have to worry about otherwise unpleasant byproducts and hazards.

Because extreme cold, extreme heat, or vacuum in an otherwise industry-ready area might be useful?

Because we've tapped out the surface deposits of almost every useful mineral we could need here?

...I could go on.