4 ms·

I personally prefer Venus.

by rtx 6y ago

nerpderp82 6y ago
I prefer Mercury.
- valuearb 6y ago
  Ironically Mercury is definitely more inhabitable than Venus.
  - vardump 6y ago
    Due to very thick atmosphere, giant airships should be doable on Venus. You'd get atmospheric radiation shielding, same pressure as on Earth (although obviously unbreathable air), ample sunlight and plenty of materials (=carbon and oxygen) in the form of Venusian atmospheric gasses. Although hydrogen would be hard to come by, the atmospheric concentration is very low. That said, I doubt there's that much hydrogen on Mercury either. So who knows, maybe Venus is a better place for a human base than Mercury?
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      I agree. IIRC, the atmosphere at the Earth-standard-pressure level isn't corrosive, so we could park our bases there, and there's an ISRU possibility through extending scoops (or sending drones) to lower atmosphere and siphoning some of the more resource-rich air there.
    - valuearb 6y ago
      How do you get home?
  - juanbyrge 6y ago
    How so? The dark side of Mercury is frozen and Mercury rotates very slowly (one day on mercury is 2 months on earth). If you had a rolling home base you maybe able to avoid the extreme heat.
    - Tuna-Fish 6y ago
      Mercury has near-zero axial tilt, and massive craters on the poles. There glaciers on Mercury's south pole alone hold more water than all of Mars. They are of course in eternal darkness, but if want an artificial sun, just raise a diffuse reflector over the crater rim. If you need more concentrated energy, raise a mirror.
  - mkl 6y ago
    I don't think so. 50km up in Venus's atmosphere, the pressure and temperature are suitable for humans (though the atmosphere is not breathable), and human-suitable atmosphere is a lifting gas (like helium on Earth), so floating stations or cities are probably possible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus Mercury on the other hand swings in temperature from uninhabitably cold to about as hot as Venus's uninhabitable surface, and it has essentially no atmosphere. Not necessarily impossible, but it definitely seems more difficult. A little info here, but it doesn't seem to have been looked at in nearly as much detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_colonization#Mercury https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_colonization#Mercury
    - childintime 6y ago
      People who bring this up seem to miss that there is likely no practical way out of the Venus clouds. You'd be stuck until some next generation rocket tech comes along. Remember Venus has about 91% of earth mass, so a significant rocket would be needed to get into orbit. Maybe Starship could be a capable single stage LVO transporter, but I have difficulty seeing it floating in the clouds, fully topped up, tethered to a balloon.
      - mkl 6y ago
        I'm not saying it would be easy, but I think it would be easier than Mercury. Even getting to Mercury is hard. I think getting off Venus from 50km up wouldn't be too bad. If you've got enough flotation to carry a research station or city or whatever, with water supply, food production, life support, etc., you can carry a fuelled up Starship and Super Heavy (if your base is smaller, use a smaller rocket [1]). Launching them seems like it would be doable: drop in belly flop orientation, it glides a bit away as it falls, then starts the main engines and pivots to upright, and away it goes. "Landing" or whatever arrival would entail seems more complicated, but you might be able to make a platform a bit like landing on a barge (but one that can go down to cushion the landing). [1] A fully fuelled up Falcon 9 weighs more than the ISS, so we're talking a big research station for this to be feasible.

I personally prefer Venus.

by rtx 6y ago

I personally prefer Venus.

nerpderp82 6y ago

I prefer Mercury.

valuearb 6y ago
Ironically Mercury is definitely more inhabitable than Venus.
- vardump 6y ago
  Due to very thick atmosphere, giant airships should be doable on Venus. You'd get atmospheric radiation shielding, same pressure as on Earth (although obviously unbreathable air), ample sunlight and plenty of materials (=carbon and oxygen) in the form of Venusian atmospheric gasses. Although hydrogen would be hard to come by, the atmospheric concentration is very low. That said, I doubt there's that much hydrogen on Mercury either. So who knows, maybe Venus is a better place for a human base than Mercury?
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    I agree. IIRC, the atmosphere at the Earth-standard-pressure level isn't corrosive, so we could park our bases there, and there's an ISRU possibility through extending scoops (or sending drones) to lower atmosphere and siphoning some of the more resource-rich air there.
  - valuearb 6y ago
    How do you get home?
- juanbyrge 6y ago
  How so? The dark side of Mercury is frozen and Mercury rotates very slowly (one day on mercury is 2 months on earth). If you had a rolling home base you maybe able to avoid the extreme heat.
  - Tuna-Fish 6y ago
    Mercury has near-zero axial tilt, and massive craters on the poles. There glaciers on Mercury's south pole alone hold more water than all of Mars. They are of course in eternal darkness, but if want an artificial sun, just raise a diffuse reflector over the crater rim. If you need more concentrated energy, raise a mirror.
- mkl 6y ago
  I don't think so. 50km up in Venus's atmosphere, the pressure and temperature are suitable for humans (though the atmosphere is not breathable), and human-suitable atmosphere is a lifting gas (like helium on Earth), so floating stations or cities are probably possible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus Mercury on the other hand swings in temperature from uninhabitably cold to about as hot as Venus's uninhabitable surface, and it has essentially no atmosphere. Not necessarily impossible, but it definitely seems more difficult. A little info here, but it doesn't seem to have been looked at in nearly as much detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_colonization#Mercury https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_colonization#Mercury
  - childintime 6y ago
    People who bring this up seem to miss that there is likely no practical way out of the Venus clouds. You'd be stuck until some next generation rocket tech comes along. Remember Venus has about 91% of earth mass, so a significant rocket would be needed to get into orbit. Maybe Starship could be a capable single stage LVO transporter, but I have difficulty seeing it floating in the clouds, fully topped up, tethered to a balloon.
    - mkl 6y ago
      I'm not saying it would be easy, but I think it would be easier than Mercury. Even getting to Mercury is hard. I think getting off Venus from 50km up wouldn't be too bad. If you've got enough flotation to carry a research station or city or whatever, with water supply, food production, life support, etc., you can carry a fuelled up Starship and Super Heavy (if your base is smaller, use a smaller rocket [1]). Launching them seems like it would be doable: drop in belly flop orientation, it glides a bit away as it falls, then starts the main engines and pivots to upright, and away it goes. "Landing" or whatever arrival would entail seems more complicated, but you might be able to make a platform a bit like landing on a barge (but one that can go down to cushion the landing). [1] A fully fuelled up Falcon 9 weighs more than the ISS, so we're talking a big research station for this to be feasible.