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>A point in favor is that normal earth-like atmosphere is a lifting gas on Venus, so just large, lightly built structures would float naturally. That's not rea
by _dain_ 4y ago
>A point in favor is that normal earth-like atmosphere is a lifting gas on Venus, so just large, lightly built structures would float naturally.
That's not really a point in favour compared to an orbiting spinhab. You only need it to float so that it doesn't fall to the ground. And you can achieve that by not leaving orbit in the first place.
- shkkmo 4y agoA orbital habitat struggles with higher pressure differentials, no gravity and more challenging thermal management. A floating habitat would have less access to orbit, would have density / weight contraints and would have to deal with the corrosivity of the venusian clouds.
- _dain_ 4y agoGravity I'll grant you, but heatsinks are not difficult technology, and Venus has its own problems with pressure. It's not the overall pressure you worry about; each component of the gas has its own partial pressure. The outside is poison and it's trying to get into the livable parts, and that partial pressure against the breathable air is of the same order of magnitude as breathable air against a vacuum. The engineering challenges are similar.
- shkkmo 4y ago> that partial pressure against the breathable air is of the same order of magnitude as breathable air against a vacuum. The engineering challenges are similar. Those are very different engineering challenges. Separating similar pressure gas mixtures is question of porosity, but not force. Separating different pressures of the same gas mixture is not just a question of porosity, but you also need manage the forces created by the overall pressure differential. Edit: If you take a helium balloon into space (or high enough in our atmosphere) it explodes rather than just slowly leaking and equalizing it's gas mixture with the atmosphere.
- _dain_ 4y agoYes you're right, I didn't think it through properly