The possibility of the colonization of Venus put forward by NASA

The only thing Venus has going for it is a stronger gravity field. That only seems useful if human health and reproduction in Mar's gravity ends up being unworkable. In terms of pressure and protection from cosmic rays, Titan is probably a better bet, but the gravity situation is even more tenuous. It is perfectly possible that no where in the solar system is suitable for human colonization due to a combination of reasons, even if human life may temporarily survive there.
 
Might as well build Home on Lagrange.

Why the heck would anyone want to terraform Mars or settle hellholes like Venus?

For similar effort, you can build your own can full of sky!

Terraforming or Venus sky-balloons are hardly cost effective next to space habitats!
 
A planet does give you raw materials to work with, if you can access them or process them. There would be at least a lot of rock to use as protection on Mars. Titan has seas of liquid hydrocarbons, which would allow for a lot of chemistry. Venus's surface seems inaccessible, though presumably some elements could be pulled from the atmosphere.

But I suspect building some kind of orbital or spinning up an asteroid is probably going to be easier than settling most parts of the solar system, depending on how human health and reproduction fair in microgravity and cosmic rays.

EDIT: a lot of planets would also have supplies of ice, which would be incredibly useful.
 
TMA1 said:
I get a little frustrated by the argument that we should not expand outward. Focus just on earth. There is something about it that strikes me as unhealthy. Same with only using robotics. This all has more to it than just acquisition of facts and bean counting.

That said it is clear the moon is the best first step. Mars is not as ideal as some make it out. In fact habitats would be pretty similar to something found on the moon. We need to get an initial foothold onto the moon with enough key infrastructure to start laying permanent residence through tunneling and building a base both above and below ground. If we got to the point of production and fabrication on the moon the ability to transport vehicles and products into orbit would be vastly easier. Also on earthside we need a mass driver, doesn't need to be safe enough for human travel just enough to get essential stuff into orbit relatively cheaply.
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Solar powered mass-driver from the moon.
 
chimeric oncogene said:
Might as well build Home on Lagrange.

Why the heck would anyone want to terraform Mars or settle hellholes like Venus?

For similar effort, you can build your own can full of sky!

Terraforming or Venus sky-balloons are hardly cost effective next to space habitats!
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L-5. See NASA's SP-413 report from the late 70s.
 
Josh_TN said:
The only thing Venus has going for it is a stronger gravity field. T
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Don't forget that it also has a temperate atmosphere. It's the only place other than Earth where you can come across "room temperature" with "room pressure." You have access to all the carbon and oxygen you could want; hydrogen and sulfur with a bit of effort. Due to the Earthlike atmosphere above, radiation would be low.
 
Is Venus 'room temperature' at any altitude? And if you're that high up, are you getting any radiation protection, particularly sans magnetic field?
 
Josh_TN said:
Is Venus 'room temperature' at any altitude? And if you're that high up, are you getting any radiation protection, particularly sans magnetic field?
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Yes.

If you're at ~53 km, you're about human body temperature, with an air pressure about 70% sea level. If you want more pressure, go lower. One atmosphere pressure is about 150 degrees F, which will require substantial active cooling... but not really that much of a challenge. These would put you in the upper cloud tops; a coating of teflon would be required, but it would make extracting water and sulfuric acid straightforward. Structures could be made from carbon extracted from the atmosphere; launch to orbit possible using rockets made from carbon, fueled with a combo of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.


Venus Atmosphere Temperature and Pressure Profiles

research into the occurrence of solar wind propelled interplanetary viral and bacterial transfers.
www.shadetreephysics.com

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Since oxygen is a buoyant gas in the Venusian atmosphere, balloon like habitats can potentially be sustained indefinitely via plants or algae. The problem might be water. Clouds on Venus consist primarily of sulfuric acid. The only way to strain water from them might be via chemical reactions with sodium hydroxide.

Power generation is less of a problem. Clouds on Venus are highly reflective and you can potentially double the power generation capacity by adding solar panels to both the top and bottom of the floating habitats.
 
siegecrossbow said:
Clouds on Venus consist primarily of sulfuric acid. The only way to strain water from them might be via chemical reactions with sodium hydroxide.
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Alternatively: C + 2 H2SO4 → CO2 + 2 SO2 + 2 H2O

Carbon is all about you in the atmosphere of Venus. Now you just need to break SO2 down into sulfur and oxygen. Release the oxygen, jettison the sulfur into orbit. Preferably in the form of a coating on solid balls of carbon a meter or so in diameter. Do this enough, and you start to build up a reflective ring system, just the thing for shading the planet.
 

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