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Isn't it better to colonize on Venus than Mars? Due to similar gravity and the atmosphere blocking a lot of the radiation?

XTImpossible
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    Seeing as we haven't proven a cloud city on Earth yet, what makes you think we even have the ability to build one and keep it in suspension around Venus? – Ehryk Feb 29 '16 at 06:31
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    @Ehryk the atmosphere of Venus is 90 times thicker than the atmosphere of Earth at the surface. A floating colony is the easiest approach to a permanent installation there, and has been studied by NASA for that reason. – kim holder Feb 29 '16 at 14:44
  • I suggest you take your question to [worldbuilding.se], with more information about how you think those cities should be built/operate/stay afloat (maybe citing that study), and the tag reality-check –  Feb 29 '16 at 14:52
  • Problems:
    1. Getting There
    2. Financing #1
    3. Engineering a floating city on earth with little ability to properly test it
    4. Financing #3
    5. Designing robotics to build it autonomously while in buoyant flight
    6. Financing #5
    7. Adding safety measures for all possible contingencies that can go wrong
    8. Financing #7
    9. Solving all the things that go wrong that we won't know are going to go wrong until we try it at a large scale
    10. Financing #9
    – Ehryk Mar 01 '16 at 08:14

1 Answers1

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Unfortunately not. There is no water. Venus has lost the vast majority of its hydrogen to space, as evidenced by a very high D/H ratio. Most of the remaining hydrogen is bound in sulfuric acid and hydrogen sulfide.

Mark Adler
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    desagree on that There is no water there is in form of water vapour: 20ppm H2O, atmosphere mass 4,8·10e20 kg(mostly CO2) == 3.43e+15 kg. it is, no need for digging searching. It have to be condensated. – MolbOrg Mar 01 '16 at 00:06
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    20 ppm is an excellent working definition for "none". – Mark Adler Mar 01 '16 at 02:25
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    Looks like you did't worked with such concentrations, definitely not working definition for "none" Threshold limit value (TLV) of most hazardous substances are noticeably below that limit. I see your point, and would agree in another circumstances. But in space tiny thing may make huge difference, and we did and do much more wonderful things, then just extracting 20ppm. – MolbOrg Mar 07 '16 at 03:32
  • Also, if there is Acid there is hydrogen (and water) that can be had. Ca3SiO5 + 3 H2SO4 = 3 CaSO4 + 3 H2O + SiO2 etc – King-Ink Apr 02 '16 at 14:13
  • I think this answer lacks nuance. While water is overall in low supply on Venus it is in fairly high concentrations in the cloud layers in the form of sulfuric acid which will release water when heated above 830 degrees celsius. I elaborate on the details of a Venus colonization here: https://medium.com/@Jernfrost/why-colonize-venus-instead-of-mars-c490d14c0531 – Erik Engheim Jul 31 '17 at 22:25
  • @AdamSmith I don't disagree. I'd be happy to delete my answer if you would like to write a better one. – Mark Adler Aug 01 '17 at 04:18
  • @MarkAdler okay, thanks I'll take a stab at it then, and then you'll can criticize me if I get anything wrong ;-) Edit: Oops I can't actually as the question has been closed by moderators as too broad. – Erik Engheim Aug 12 '17 at 11:44
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    @uhoh He can't post his own answer. Question was closed. – Mark Adler Aug 13 '17 at 11:48
  • @AdamSmith Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't notice that there was a unique arrangement happening here in comments, I should have checked more carefully. My apologies! – uhoh Aug 13 '17 at 12:04