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Wouldn't our ability to learn about more than the atmosphere of Venus be extremely impaired from an airship? If one of the goals is ultimately colonization, how

Wouldn't our ability to learn about more than the atmosphere of Venus be extremely impaired from an airship? If one of the goals is ultimately colonization, how would we harvest materials beyond those available in the atmosphere? Even robots would have great difficulty doing this task for us due to Venus' hellish conditions on the ground, assuming they could get the materials back up to the sky city or airship.

ForHackernews 12y ago
Actually, one suggestion has been colonizing Venus in floating cities: http://www.universetoday.com/15570/colonizing-venus-with-floating-cities/ http://www.universetoday.com/15570/colonizing-venus-with-flo...
- danielweber 12y ago
  Colonization includes expansion. For now assume that all the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen you want is available in the atmosphere and solar power. You still need hydrogen to make plastics, and you are going to need silicon to build more solar panels, and you need metals you can forge. The surface of Venus is 50km below, which isn't as far away as the ISS, but it's still 50km straight down and then back up for anything. It might be a nice vacation spot, or a penal colony.
  - tomp 12y ago
    For hydrogen, you have sulfuric acid.
  - moron4hire 12y ago
    There is work being done to replace silicon with graphene. It's of course a long shot, but would make this a lot more feasible if possible.
spcoll 12y ago
I find the term "colonization" offensive. So after having colonized all of the people of earth, white men want to colonize other planets next. The thirst for power of white men truly has no limits. Disgusting.
- anigbrowl 12y ago
  One colonizes land, not people. The Latin word colonus also means 'farmer' or 'settler.' At the current pace, I anticipate that the first interplanetary colony will be set up by China.
  - spcoll 12y ago
    See what you're doing? That's called whitesplaining.
    - javert 12y ago
      That isn't an argument. You might as well have said "parrot bird dog mouse." Actually, it's worse than that, because it is an attempt to emotionally manipulate in lieu of presenting an argument or even making a rational, factual statement.
    - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
      Read your history books a bit more. Territorial expansion was practiced by most post neolithic cultures.
  - protomyth 12y ago
    I'm actually hoping the gp poster is a troll account or one of the worst attempts at parody in a while. Sadly, some folks actually believe that type of thing. I remember one example from many years ago. I was working with an government grant when an evaluation team showed up for our yearly site visit. Now, site visits are conducted in order of best vacation spot / most senior staff. It shouldn't be that way, but when a staff member has a choice between Florida and North Dakota in February, you can guess which staff get assigned to North Dakota. I'm sure if asked, grant manager would say this isn't so, but well, human nature is human nature. One of the fun[1] staff members we got had decided the term "socialize" (which at the time simply meant kids mingling with kids and learning, etc.) actually had some weird indoctrination context. The havoc and psychosis of that visit lead me to believe that people who try to redefine words basically fit into the part of humanity that wants to gain outrage from people who meant none and were just trying to use the dictionary value of the word. An interesting offshoot to this is that you can see language drift in grants submitted to certain agencies that tell the funding folks who the "in" crowd is so the "in" crowd can continue to receive funding and lock out the newbies. Doesn't happen in all agencies, but it sure seems to have been a pattern. There is also the my group vs them identification of the whole thing. 1) fun = racist as they come. Some of the other behavior was scary and surreal. I blame a weekends bar bill on that visit. [edit: getting the same reaction from myself and anigbrowl leads me to believe it's a troll account]

ForHackernews 12y ago

Actually, one suggestion has been colonizing Venus in floating cities: http://www.universetoday.com/15570/colonizing-venus-with-floating-cities/ http://www.universetoday.com/15570/colonizing-venus-with-flo...

danielweber 12y ago
Colonization includes expansion. For now assume that all the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen you want is available in the atmosphere and solar power. You still need hydrogen to make plastics, and you are going to need silicon to build more solar panels, and you need metals you can forge. The surface of Venus is 50km below, which isn't as far away as the ISS, but it's still 50km straight down and then back up for anything. It might be a nice vacation spot, or a penal colony.
- tomp 12y ago
  For hydrogen, you have sulfuric acid.
- moron4hire 12y ago
  There is work being done to replace silicon with graphene. It's of course a long shot, but would make this a lot more feasible if possible.

spcoll 12y ago

I find the term "colonization" offensive. So after having colonized all of the people of earth, white men want to colonize other planets next. The thirst for power of white men truly has no limits. Disgusting.

anigbrowl 12y ago
One colonizes land, not people. The Latin word colonus also means 'farmer' or 'settler.' At the current pace, I anticipate that the first interplanetary colony will be set up by China.
- spcoll 12y ago
  See what you're doing? That's called whitesplaining.
  - javert 12y ago
    That isn't an argument. You might as well have said "parrot bird dog mouse." Actually, it's worse than that, because it is an attempt to emotionally manipulate in lieu of presenting an argument or even making a rational, factual statement.
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    Read your history books a bit more. Territorial expansion was practiced by most post neolithic cultures.
- protomyth 12y ago
  I'm actually hoping the gp poster is a troll account or one of the worst attempts at parody in a while. Sadly, some folks actually believe that type of thing. I remember one example from many years ago. I was working with an government grant when an evaluation team showed up for our yearly site visit. Now, site visits are conducted in order of best vacation spot / most senior staff. It shouldn't be that way, but when a staff member has a choice between Florida and North Dakota in February, you can guess which staff get assigned to North Dakota. I'm sure if asked, grant manager would say this isn't so, but well, human nature is human nature. One of the fun[1] staff members we got had decided the term "socialize" (which at the time simply meant kids mingling with kids and learning, etc.) actually had some weird indoctrination context. The havoc and psychosis of that visit lead me to believe that people who try to redefine words basically fit into the part of humanity that wants to gain outrage from people who meant none and were just trying to use the dictionary value of the word. An interesting offshoot to this is that you can see language drift in grants submitted to certain agencies that tell the funding folks who the "in" crowd is so the "in" crowd can continue to receive funding and lock out the newbies. Doesn't happen in all agencies, but it sure seems to have been a pattern. There is also the my group vs them identification of the whole thing. 1) fun = racist as they come. Some of the other behavior was scary and surreal. I blame a weekends bar bill on that visit. [edit: getting the same reaction from myself and anigbrowl leads me to believe it's a troll account]