4 ms·

Venusian cloud cities actually seem pretty doable lately. Mars soil is essentially bleach, and the rems are a show stopper without a lot of lead. Venus has neit

Venusian cloud cities actually seem pretty doable lately. Mars soil is essentially bleach, and the rems are a show stopper without a lot of lead. Venus has neither of those problems - if you stay in the nearly-habitable layer 50km up.

kjs3 4y ago
Build and operate a cloud city right above your head for a couple of years without incident before you try and sell the idea of doing it a few tens of millions of miles a year on a planet that if you don't do it perfect, you get to drift down and get incinerated.
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  Doesn't Venus's thick atmosphere make it different from trying to do it over Earth?
  - 8note 4y ago
    Yeah, it's harder because you'd be floating on acid rain
    - Apocryphon 4y ago
      Isn't the acidity normal in the upper atmosphere? Though I suppose up there the advantage of greater buoyancy might be lost.
      - idlewords 4y ago
        At about 55 kilometers (where it's close to 25 degrees C and maybe 2/3 of standard air pressure) there are clouds of sulfuric acid. I believe you can avoid them by going higher, but then you lose the appeal of having earthlike temperature and pressure.
        m4rtink 4y ago
        Well, H2S04 provides you with many useful elements if you can process it. :)
  - kjs3 4y ago
    The "Vesuvian Bespin" proposal here is that scientists have found high enough in the Vesuvian atmosphere, atmospheric pressure and temperature are potentially comfortable for humans to go without (or at least much less) extensive life support (ignoring chemistry problems mentioned below). So, Earth would be kind of the ideal place test such a construction before committing to going to Venus. If you want easier 'floating' (making certain assumptions about the technology one might use to do that, e.g. we haven't invented anti-gravity machines), you go down to denser atmosphere and trade off against ease of human habitability. Which would seem to defeat the purpose.

kjs3 4y ago

Build and operate a cloud city right above your head for a couple of years without incident before you try and sell the idea of doing it a few tens of millions of miles a year on a planet that if you don't do it perfect, you get to drift down and get incinerated.

Apocryphon 4y ago
Doesn't Venus's thick atmosphere make it different from trying to do it over Earth?
- 8note 4y ago
  Yeah, it's harder because you'd be floating on acid rain
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    Isn't the acidity normal in the upper atmosphere? Though I suppose up there the advantage of greater buoyancy might be lost.
    - idlewords 4y ago
      At about 55 kilometers (where it's close to 25 degrees C and maybe 2/3 of standard air pressure) there are clouds of sulfuric acid. I believe you can avoid them by going higher, but then you lose the appeal of having earthlike temperature and pressure.
      - m4rtink 4y ago
        Well, H2S04 provides you with many useful elements if you can process it. :)
- kjs3 4y ago
  The "Vesuvian Bespin" proposal here is that scientists have found high enough in the Vesuvian atmosphere, atmospheric pressure and temperature are potentially comfortable for humans to go without (or at least much less) extensive life support (ignoring chemistry problems mentioned below). So, Earth would be kind of the ideal place test such a construction before committing to going to Venus. If you want easier 'floating' (making certain assumptions about the technology one might use to do that, e.g. we haven't invented anti-gravity machines), you go down to denser atmosphere and trade off against ease of human habitability. Which would seem to defeat the purpose.