While most eyes are on Mars and the Moon for future settlements, some people are talking about Venus as another good location for human colonization. A recent
Citylab story noted the following:
The second planet from the Sun might
seem like a nasty place to build a home, with a surface temperature hot
enough to melt lead and an atmosphere so dense it would feel like being
submerged beneath 3000 feet of water. But the air on Venus thins out as
you rise above the surface and cools considerably; about 30 miles up
you hit the sweet spot for human habitation: Mediterranean temperatures
and sea-level barometric pressure. If ever there were a place to build a
floating city, this would be it.
Some of this conversation stems from a 2003 NASA paper by Geoffrey A. Landis titled
"Colonization of Venus," where he stated:
At cloud-top level, Venus is the paradise planet...at an altitude slightly above fifty km above the surface, the atmospheric pressure is equal to the Earth surface atmospheric pressure of I Bar. At this level, the environment of Venus is benign.
- above the clouds, there is abundant solar energy
- temperature is in the habitable "liquid water" range of 0-5OC
- atmosphere contains the primary volatiles required for life (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Sulfur)
- Gravity is 90% of the gravity at the surface of Earth.
While the atmosphere contains droplets of sulfuric acid, technology to avoid acid corrosion are well known, and have been used by chemists for centuries.
In short, the atmosphere of Venus is most earthlike environment in the solar system. Although humans cannot breathe the atmosphere, pressure vessels are not required to maintain one atmosphere of habitat pressure,and pressure suits are not required for humans outside the habitat.
This is certainly an interesting idea, as is the idea of living on asteroids and other areas. Of course, we are still trying to see if we can support a return trip to the Moon, so funding may be limited for extraterrestrial city-building for some time. However, big dreams never hurt and may stimulate more creative and productive thinking about our future in the solar system.
