this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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Science Memes

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Futures (mander.xyz)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 53 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Ironically, between Venus' earth-like gravity and high atmospheric density, it might actually be easier to build cloud colonies on Venus than ground colonies on Mars.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Except that venus is just absolutely hostile to everything

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Nah, we just need to crash Mercury into the surface of Venus, get the rotation sorted out and a moon going. After that, buildings.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Now you bring this home, add some broth, a potato, baby, you've got a stew going.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yep, yet it's my understanding that it'd be easier to colonize Venus than Mars. Venus is closer, Venus' gravity is similar to Earth's, the air is extremely dense which means balloons would be very effective, iirc Venus has more opportunities for inter-planetary transit, high-altitude temperatures (where the balloons would float) are more similar to Earth's, etc.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Okay, so make a blimp rover already if it's so easy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Sure, lemme just waltz over to my money tree and harvest some cash.

I didn't say it wouldn't still be obscenely expensive.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah what would be the benefit to colonies Venus vs just living in space? Gravity?

[–] MajorHavoc 4 points 6 months ago

I think the theory is that it proves that ones favorite -ism that starts with c- is objectively superior to ones least favorite -ism that starts with c-.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

That's why balloons! You can have sick blimps on Venus and IIRC you can capture atmospheric gasses to burn as fuel for them and to create water too.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The hard part would things like water and raw building materials, one of the benefits of ground is that it’s mostly iron, oxygen, and other metals, while basically everything on Venus would need to be shipped in from off world.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

In the long term, it's also possible to alter the atmosphere on Venus until it's approximately the same as Earth. It would be a massive undertaking, but a hell of a lot easier than getting Mars to a comfortably habitable state. And you could potentially get an entire habitable planet out of the deal, which would be nice.

Kurzgesagt had an interesting video on the topic.

Obviously it would take a significant investment of resources that would benefit some future generation, but not our own. So, back to being impossible, at least for now.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Right cause getting food/oxygen/water is so easy while in fucking hot air balloons.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (3 children)

They've come up with a way they could do it. I dunno why you're mad about that, I was just wanting to share an interesting tidbit I'd learned.

My understanding is that the reason why scientists like playing with the idea is that it's more feasible than it immediately seems, and it'd solve some of the issues that a Mars colony would have (increased solar radiation due to low atmospheric density and weak electromagnetic field as well at very low gravity).

Would it be expensive? Yeah. We're talking about colonizing another planet though. It already is going to cost hundreds of billions if not trillions to do.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing :)