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Colonization of Venus

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Proposed colonization of the planet Venus

Artist's rendering of a crewed floating outpost on Venus of NASA's High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC)<br>The colonization of Venus is the proposed process of establishing human settlements on the planet Venus. Due to the planet's extremely hostile surface environment, proposals for settling Venus focus on habitats floating in the upper-middle atmosphere[1] or on settlement of the surface contingent on first terraforming the planet.

The colonization of Venus has been a subject of many works of science fiction since before the dawn of spaceflight, and is still discussed from both a fictional and a scientific standpoint.

Background<br>[edit]

Main article: Space colonization

Space colonization is a step beyond space exploration, and implies the permanent or long-term presence of humans in an environment outside Earth. Colonization of space was claimed by Stephen Hawking to be the best way to ensure the survival of humans as a species.[2] Other reasons for colonizing space include economic interests, long-term scientific research best carried out by humans as opposed to robotic probes, and sheer curiosity. Venus is the second largest terrestrial planet and Earth's closest neighbor, which makes it a potential target.

Advantages<br>[edit]

Scale representations of Venus and the Earth shown next to each other. Venus is only slightly smaller.<br>Venus has certain similarities to Earth which, if not for the hostile conditions, might make colonization easier in many respects in comparison with other possible destinations like the Moon or Mars. These similarities, and its proximity, have led Venus to be called Earth's "sister planet".

At present it has not been established whether the gravity of Mars, 0.38 times that of the Earth, would be sufficient to avoid bone decalcification and loss of muscle tone experienced by astronauts living in a micro-gravity environment. In contrast, Venus is close in size and mass to the Earth, resulting in a similar surface gravity (0.904 g) that would likely be sufficient to prevent the health problems associated with weightlessness. Most other space exploration and colonization plans face concerns about the damaging effect of long-term exposure to fractional g or zero gravity on the human musculoskeletal system.

Venus's relative proximity makes transportation and communications easier than for most other locations in the Solar System. With current propulsion systems, launch windows to Venus occur every 584 days,[3] compared to the 780 days for Mars.[4] Flight time is also somewhat shorter; the Venus Express probe that arrived at Venus in April 2006 spent slightly over five months en route, compared to nearly six months for Mars Express. This is because at closest approach, Venus is 40 million km (25 million mi) from Earth (approximated by perihelion of Earth minus aphelion of Venus) compared to 55 million km (34 million mi) for Mars (approximated by perihelion of Mars minus aphelion of Earth) making Venus the closest planet to Earth.

Venus's atmosphere consists mostly of carbon dioxide. Because nitrogen and oxygen are lighter than carbon dioxide, breathable-air-filled balloons will float at a height of about 50 km (31 mi). At this height, the temperature is a manageable 75 °C (348 K; 167 °F). At 5 km (3.1 mi) higher, it is a temperate 27 °C (300 K; 81 °F) (see Atmosphere of Venus § Troposphere).

Additionally, the upper atmosphere could provide protection from harmful solar radiation comparable to the protection provided by Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere of Mars, as well as the Moon provide little such protection.[5][6][7]

Difficulties<br>[edit]

Air pressure on Venus, beginning at a pressure on the surface 90 times that of Earth and reaching a single bar by 50 kilometers<br>Venus also presents several significant challenges to human colonization. Surface conditions on Venus are difficult to deal with: the temperature averages around 464 °C (737 K; 867 °F),[8] higher than the melting point of lead, which is 327 °C (600 K; 621 °F). The atmospheric pressure on the surface is also at least ninety times greater than on Earth, which is equivalent to the pressure experienced under a kilometer of water on Earth. These conditions have caused missions to the surface to be extremely brief: the Soviet Venera 5 and Venera 6 probes were crushed by high pressure while still 18 km above the surface. Following landers such as Venera 7 and Venera 8 succeeded in transmitting data after reaching the surface,...