Changes: Colonization of Venus

Revision as of 17:44, 2 February 2022

02011122414522522 — The surface of Venus is always hidden from view by thick cloud coverage. To the naked eye, it appears white and almost featureless.

The colonization of Venus has been a subject of much speculation and many works of science fiction since before the dawn of spaceflight, and is still much discussed. With the discovery of Venus' hostile surface environment, attention has largely shifted towards the colonization of the Moon and the colonization of Mars. Recently however, papers have surfaced on the feasibility of colonizing Venus beginning from the less hostile cloud-tops, making surface exploration in the beginning unnecessary. This two-part approach to the exploration and colonization of the planet has refocused interest on Venus.

Colonization of Venus with present conditions

To launch a safe colonization, as the atmosphere is not at all made up of oxygen, you would need to create your own. Plants would be able to live given the chemical content of the atmosphere (mostly carbon dioxide - about 96.5% - and nitrogen- 3.5% -) they breath in the carbon dioxide and out oxygen.

A habitat filled with same composition of earth's atmosphere at sea level will float high in the dense Venus atmosphere, The atmospheric pressure at 50 km above the surface of Venus is the same as Earth sea level (1 bar). Just in the same way that weather balloons float away from the high dense gas at the surface until the internal pressure is equal with the external pressure in the upper atmosphere, a balloon habitat with the internal pressure like that of earth would rise to an altitude where the external pressure was the same, since carbon dioxide is much more dense than the Nitrogen in our atmosphere. Temperatures are perfect for Earth, just over 0°C at that altitude on Venus. Essentially, you could walk outside onto a ramp with just an oxygen tank and look over the clouds below. Ideally, these floating habitats would be self sufficient closed systems, meaning they would produce their own oxygen through photosynthesis which wouldn't be difficult in a carbon dioxide atmosphere. Water could be extracted from the sulfuric acid in the clouds below.

Terraforming of Venus

Main article: Terraforming of Venus

Venus has been the subject of a number of terraforming proposals. The proposals seek to remove or convert the dense carbon dioxide atmosphere, reduce Venus's 500 °C (770 K) surface temperature, and establish a day/night light cycle closer to that of Earth's.

Most proposals involve deployment of a solar shade and/or a system of orbital mirrors, for the purpose of reducing insolation and providing light to the dark side of Venus. Another way to cool Venus is via a lens system where the light is bent away from the planet or even concentrated at the equator. By concentrating enoumous amounts of sunlight in a small area at the equator we could potentially cause a change in the circulation of the planets atmosphere via a huge upwelling Hadley cell structure. If the atmosphere could be turned over it would cool much quicker, its easier for heat to escape 1 bar of atmosphere than 90 for instance. Another common thread in most proposals involves some introduction of large quantities hydrogen or water. Proposals also involve either freezing most of Venus's atmospheric CO2, or converting it to carbonates, urea or other forms.

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-[[File:02011122414522522.jpg|thumb|295x295px|The surface of Venus is always hidden from view by thick cloud coverage. To the naked eye, it appears white and almost featureless. ]]"''In many ways Venus is the hell planet...However, viewed in a different way, the problem with Venus is merely that the ground level is too far below the one atmosphere level. At cloud-top level, Venus is the paradise planet."''
+[[File:02011122414522522.jpg|thumb|295x295px|The surface of Venus is always hidden from view by thick cloud coverage. To the naked eye, it appears white and almost featureless. ]]The '''colonization of Venus''' has been a subject of much speculation and many works of science fiction since before the dawn of spaceflight, and is still much discussed. With the discovery of Venus' hostile surface environment, attention has largely shifted towards the colonization of the Moon and the colonization of Mars. Recently however, papers have surfaced on the feasibility of colonizing Venus beginning from the less hostile cloud-tops, making surface exploration in the beginning unnecessary. This two-part approach to the exploration and colonization of the planet has refocused interest on Venus.
+'''Colonization of Venus with present conditions'''
--Geoffrey A. Landis
+To launch a safe colonization, as the atmosphere is not at all made up of oxygen, you would need to create your own. Plants would be able to live given the chemical content of the atmosphere (mostly carbon dioxide - about 96.5% - and nitrogen- 3.5% -) they breath in the carbon dioxide and out oxygen.
-'''[[Venus]] '''is the second planet from the Sun and the closest to Earth. It is very similar to Earth in size and mass, but due to a number of significant differences the conditions on Venus are some of the most extreme in the solar system.
+A habitat filled with same composition of earth's atmosphere at sea level will float high in the dense Venus atmosphere, The atmospheric pressure at 50 km above the surface of Venus is the same as Earth sea level (1 bar). Just in the same way that weather balloons float away from the high dense gas at the surface until the internal pressure is equal with the external pressure in the upper atmosphere, a balloon habitat with the internal pressure like that of earth would rise to an altitude where the external pressure was the same, since carbon dioxide is much more dense than the Nitrogen in our atmosphere. Temperatures are perfect for Earth, just over 0°C at that altitude on Venus. Essentially, you could walk outside onto a ramp with just an oxygen tank and look over the clouds below. Ideally, these floating habitats would be self sufficient closed systems, meaning they would produce their own oxygen through photosynthesis which wouldn't be difficult in a carbon dioxide atmosphere. Water could be extracted from the sulfuric acid in the clouds below.
-Venus has a thick atmosphere composed of mainly carbon dioxide, which has led to a runaway greenhouse effect. The result is surface temperatures over 450 C, hot enough to melt lead, and atmospheric pressures ninety times that of Earth at sea level. Clouds of sulfuric acid are also present in large quantities, pushed by winds of up to 100 m/s in the higher levels of the atmosphere. In addition, Venus rotates extremely slowly and in the opposite direction of the other planets, resulting in a solar day lasting close to 117 Earth days. All of these present significant obstacles to colonization.
-== '''Proposals''' ==
-=== Floating Habitats ===
-The hellish surface environment of Venus makes even robotic exploration extremely difficult, and living directly on the surface would be nearly impossible. However, around 50 km above the surface the atmospheric pressure is approximately 1 atm, and temperatures in this band are a very reasonable 20 C to 37 C. An aerostat habitat or 'floating city' at this altitude would find possibly the most Earth-like environment in the solar system outside of our own planet.
-[[File:Aerostat_Habitat.jpg|thumb|left|688x688px|NASA High Venus Operational Concept]]
-Due to the density of the Venusian atmosphere, oxygen functions as a lifting gas and a structure filled with breathable air would float high in the clouds without additional volumes of lightweight gas. There would be no need for pressure suits or extensive heat shielding outside, and any gas leaks would not result in explosive decompression but rather slow diffusion. If untethered and allowed to move with the air, the high speed winds would push the habitat around the planet every four days, producing a day/ night cycle much closer to Earth and removing structural requirements for resisting the high winds.
-Plentiful carbon dioxide could be used for plant photosynthesis, which would produce oxygen and food. Water vapor is present at around 20 ppm, as well as large quantities of sulfuric acid that could potentially be used to produce water. Solar energy is accessible even through the cloud cover, and the thick atmosphere above would provide radiation protection even given Venus' weak magnetosphere.
-== Terraforming of Venus ==
-{{main|Terraforming of Venus}}
+=== Terraforming of Venus ===
+: ''Main article: Terraforming of Venus''
 Venus has been the subject of a number of terraforming proposals. The proposals seek to remove or convert the dense carbon dioxide atmosphere, reduce Venus's 500 °C (770 K) surface temperature, and establish a day/night light cycle closer to that of Earth's.
-Most proposals involve deployment of a solar shade and/or a system of orbital mirrors, for the purpose of reducing insolation and providing light to the dark side of Venus. Another common thread in most proposals involves some introduction of large quantities hydrogen or water. Proposals also involve either freezing most of Venus's atmospheric CO2, or converting it to carbonates, urea or other forms.
+Most proposals involve deployment of a solar shade and/or a system of orbital mirrors, for the purpose of reducing insolation and providing light to the dark side of Venus. Another way to cool Venus is via a lens system where the light is bent away from the planet or even concentrated at the equator. By concentrating enoumous amounts of sunlight in a small area at the equator we could potentially cause a change in the circulation of the planets atmosphere via a huge upwelling Hadley cell structure. If the atmosphere could be turned over it would cool much quicker, its easier for heat to escape 1 bar of atmosphere than 90 for instance. Another common thread in most proposals involves some introduction of large quantities hydrogen or water. Proposals also involve either freezing most of Venus's atmospheric CO2, or converting it to carbonates, urea or other forms.__FORCETOC__
-{{Wikipedia}}
 [[Category:Space colonization by location]]