Timothy Birdnow

Ah, to float above the clouds of Venus!

It is indeed true that a floating habitat on Venus would be possible. There is a region in the Venusian stratosphere that has Earthlike pressure and temperature. However the Venusian clouds are composed in no small measure of sulphuric acid, although there is more of it at lower levels. But what would be the point? You will see nothing, and all your food and water will have to be brought in (from Earth or an asteroid). It might be useful as a research base but you can learn as much in an orbital station. And remember, you will have to have as much thrust to get into Venusian orbit as you would to get to Earth orbit, so we're talking about a really tough time leaving the habitat (you would have to launch a rocket with a booster from a floating platform.) It would make far more sense to simply have an orbital station and some unmanned floating buoys.

This from Andrei Piriutko:

Venus has a CO2 atmosphere. Because CO2 is about 50% more dense than Earth air, ordinary Earth air could be a lifting gas on Venus. This has led to proposals for a human habitat that would float in the atmosphere of Venus at an altitude where both the pressure and the temperature are Earth-like. Because the atmosphere of Venus contains no oxygen, hydrogen is not flammable there, and could be a good lifting gas as well. In 1985, the Soviet Vega program deployed two helium balloons in Venus's atmosphere at an altitude of 54 km (34 mi).

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:36 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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