3 ms·

Floating Cloud cities on Venus makes more sense. 1g, 1atm, habitable temperature, endless CO2. We'd need Oxygen and Water but that's true on Mars too. https://

Floating Cloud cities on Venus makes more sense. 1g, 1atm, habitable temperature, endless CO2. We'd need Oxygen and Water but that's true on Mars too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus

jacobush 7y ago
Oxygen and water exist in ample supply on Mars - not at all on Venus.
prewett 7y ago
Venus makes even less sense than Mars. At least on Mars once you get there is no barrier to mining what you need. But on Venus you either have to haul all your materials there, or be able to deal with the pressure of 93 atmospheres at temperatures of 900 deg F just to mine stuff. Plus all that sulfuric acid, which at 900 deg F is going to be highly reactive. [1] Now your cloud city has to both float and be impervious to the sulfuric acid in that atmosphere. The best material I could using [2] was coated on smooth, uncorroded steel (making uncorroded steel on the surface is going to be a trick with all that sulfuric acid, you'll need a clean room just to make your steel). Steel isn't exactly the most floaty stuff, so I think it's going to be a challenge to make your floating city surrounded by a steel coating. Glass is also relatively impervious to acid, so you could surround your city with glass, at least it would let the light in, but I think it will make the weight problem even worse, because glass isn't all that strong. Compare to Mars: dig underground for radiation protection, and let the inside pressure provide the force to hold the shell in place. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Venus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Venus [2] http://www.sulphuric-acid.com/TechManual/Materials/materials_linings.htm http://www.sulphuric-acid.com/TechManual/Materials/materials...

3 ms·

Floating Cloud cities on Venus makes more sense. 1g, 1atm, habitable temperature, endless CO2. We'd need Oxygen and Water but that's true on Mars too. https://

by geogra4 7y ago

jacobush 7y ago
Oxygen and water exist in ample supply on Mars - not at all on Venus.
prewett 7y ago
Venus makes even less sense than Mars. At least on Mars once you get there is no barrier to mining what you need. But on Venus you either have to haul all your materials there, or be able to deal with the pressure of 93 atmospheres at temperatures of 900 deg F just to mine stuff. Plus all that sulfuric acid, which at 900 deg F is going to be highly reactive. [1] Now your cloud city has to both float and be impervious to the sulfuric acid in that atmosphere. The best material I could using [2] was coated on smooth, uncorroded steel (making uncorroded steel on the surface is going to be a trick with all that sulfuric acid, you'll need a clean room just to make your steel). Steel isn't exactly the most floaty stuff, so I think it's going to be a challenge to make your floating city surrounded by a steel coating. Glass is also relatively impervious to acid, so you could surround your city with glass, at least it would let the light in, but I think it will make the weight problem even worse, because glass isn't all that strong. Compare to Mars: dig underground for radiation protection, and let the inside pressure provide the force to hold the shell in place. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Venus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Venus [2] http://www.sulphuric-acid.com/TechManual/Materials/materials_linings.htm http://www.sulphuric-acid.com/TechManual/Materials/materials...