The Colonization of Venus

• Eventually, the collony will need to expand beyond just one habitat
• This is how the rest of the habitats will be created
• Outer Structure and living space
• Graphene and other metals
• Soil (for agricultural habitats)
• Carbon, Oxygen, and other metals to form minerals
• Atmosphere
• Oxygen extracted from CO2, Nitrogen from atmosphere
• Food
• Agriculture habitats

Colony Essentials: Habitat

• Due to the dense atmosphere cities filled with earth air can float
• Filling a large dome with earth air or pure oxygen, extracted from the CO2 rich atmosphere, will alow for a habitable enviornment to live in
• This design can easily upscaled, making it possible to make entire cities inside a floating habitat

Sources

Background (Cont.)

• This presentation will focus on all the details of establishing a colony on Venus
• It will also focus on how it is a much more plausible target than originally expected

Atkinson, N. (2015, December 24). Colonizing Venus With Floating Cities. Retrieved April 28, 2017, from https://www.universetoday.com/15570/colonizing-venus-with-floating-cities/

NASA. (2017, April 26). High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC). Retrieved April 28, 2017, from https://sacd.larc.nasa.gov/branches/space-mission-analysis-branch-smab/smab-projects/havoc/

PBS Space Time. (2015, March 04). Should We Colonize Venus Instead of Mars? | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios. Retrieved April 28, 2017,

The Planets. (n.d.). Venus Facts: Interesting Facts about Planet Venus • The Planets. Retrieved April 28, 2017,

VomLehn, D. (2017, January 23). Do We Have The Technology To Colonize Venus? Retrieved April 28, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/01/23/do-we-have-the-technology-to-colonize-venus/#55e7671d5d6e

Colony Essentials: Water

• Winds in the upper Venusian atmosphere can reach upto 130 kmph
• This will result in the ship passing through clouds all the time
• Clouds on Venus are composed of Sulfuric acid
• Using a technique called distillation, you can extract water from it
• Water can also be mined from nearby orbiting asteroids

Getting Started

• NASA has already started by affirming the validity of the concept and dedicating funding towards it
• Within the next 20 years, NASA has plans to launch a manned mission to Venus, using the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC)
• Once a 2-way trip to Venus is acheived, a permanent colony mision must be funded and launched
• This colony must be supported for the first 2-5 years until it becomes fully self-sustainable
• The colonies must remain active for a few centuries, resulting in eventual terraformation

Colony Essentials: Food

• Create different habitat bubbles for agriculture and living space
• Agriculture bubbles would be filled with venutian air at a lower pressure
• The high concentration of CO2 and increased sunlight will allow for enhanced plant life and harvest
• The food gained from agricultural habitats is sent to the housing habitats along with the oxygen produced by plants
• Vegan products will be the only form of food possible in Venutian colonies

Background

Terraformation

• Case for Venus
• Similar gravity
• Similar size
• Shorter and cheeper trip
• Large amounts of solar power
• Protected from solar radiation
• The Plan
• Use cloud cities to colonize Venus
• In the upper atmosphere, conditions are hospitable
• 35 C and 0.8 atm
• NASA has already put out a plan for applying this concept within the next 20 years
• This Project is Called HAVOC

• Eventually, a lot of the carbon will be used form graphene for expansion
• After thousands of year, almost all of the CO2 will have been converted into Oxygen, dropping pressure immensely, as well as creating a breathable atmosphere
• The runaway greenhouse effect on Venus will dissapear, dropping the temperature immensely
• The liquid core will turn solid, creating a magnetic field around the planet
• Eventually, in the proccess of colonization, we could create a new truly habitable planet.

Venusian Colonization

Expansion

Colony Essentials: Metals

• Still, A venutian colony would require metals, both for human consumption, as well as a material that cannot be made from graphene
• On venus, due to its extreme temperature, it rains metals
• A reinforced graphene bucket can be sent down to the surface, and pulled back up
• This water well like technique can be used to harvest metals from the surface.

Colony Essentials: Graphene

Video:

• The most abundant element on Venus is Carbon, which is the byproduct formed
• When arranged into lattices, carbon can form a structure known as graphene
• A one atom thick layer of carbon
• Harder than diamond
• 300 times stronger than steel
• Can be used as a conductur, semi-conductor, and insulator.
• As maleable as a metal
• This new wonder material can be used to create structures using a 3D printing method
• This can be used to make anything from complicated tools to entire buildings

By Aryan Luthra