Instead of Mars, people could move to Venus



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Venus was once thought to have conditions similar to Earth, and even its size was similar to Earth. Since then it has been revealed that the planet is hot, unfit for life due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases. However, according to new ideas, survival should not be imagined on the planet’s surface, but in the clouds of Venus.

During the 4.6 billion year history of Venus, so much greenhouse gas has accumulated in the atmosphere that the planet’s surface is even hotter than Mercury, which is closer to the Sun. Venus’s temperature exceeds 460 degrees Celsius due to volcanic activity and a thick, heavy and carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.

Above the toxic atmosphere, however, there is a layer of air similar in composition to Earth, filled with oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide (but the latter is no longer toxic), making it suitable for respiration.

Venus started out as a planet like Earth, but eventually turned into a hellish worldSource: NASA

That is why one researcher claims that humanity could find a “floating habitat” on the surface of Venus. This is no more an impossibility than it seems at first glance. First, Venus has been described as what could once be Earth’s twin brother, and much closer to Earth as Mars.

At the closest point in its orbit, Mars is approx. 55 million kilometers, while Venus is “only” 38 million kilometers from Earth.

An image of Venus from a Magellan spacecraft with synthetic aperture radarSource: NASA

In the documentary Venus: The Death of a Planet, said Geoffrey Landis, an engineer and researcher at NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

“We can float houses in the atmosphere of Venus, and these houses can be quite large, even on the order of several kilometers.”

“You don’t even need hydrogen or helium to float, as the upper atmosphere of Venus would make the structures float. The air that would keep us alive would also keep us alive because it is fit to breathe. “

A fantasy drawing of the cloud cities of VenusSource: NASA

However, others find the idea strange.

Jonathan Sauder, an engineer at JPL (NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory), said that he basically likes the idea of ​​cloud cities on Venus, but thinks people wouldn’t be passionate about having to float above a furnace. burning without solid ground.

But there is still a big problem. Due to the very high temperature of Venus, there is no liquid of any kind, so there is no water on the planet. It is not yet clear how the water supply to cloudy cities could be addressed.



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