# Colony on Venus?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 3, 2009, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650 "2009-01-03T00:28:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/1 "2009-01-03T00:28:19Z")
Seems more like a technological debate than a general factual question, so if the mods want to move it please do.
Could humans colonize Venus?
Not teraform it, beside the obvious requirement for liveable living space 🙂
Not visit it.
But send folks there and have them stay there, live there, and mostly be self sufficient (besides “fancy” stuff that makes more sense to send than be made on site).
Any 2 cents for sharing out there?
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/2 "2009-01-03T00:31:18Z")
I’m pretty sure the answer there is a big ol’ NO.
Unbreathable atmosphere at a huge pressure at a superhot temperature is kind of a deal breaker for the humans.
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### Author:  [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/3 "2009-01-03T00:42:02Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#):
>
> I’m pretty sure the answer there is a big ol’ NO.
>
> Unbreathable atmosphere at a huge pressure at a superhot temperature is kind of a deal breaker for the humans.
Is it really much worse than the condition on the moon?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/4 "2009-01-03T00:42:39Z")
The surface atmospheric conditions are very corrosive and hostile - I think we’d have a fairly hard time developing a decent range of suitably resistant materials with which to build a habitat.
Maybe underground dwelling would be possible, if a geologically stable place could be chosen.
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### Author:  [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/5 "2009-01-03T00:43:28Z")
> [@Sapo](#):
>
> Is it really much worse than the condition on the moon?
yeah!
those last renters really trashed the place 🙂
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/6 "2009-01-03T00:44:31Z")
> [@Sapo](#):
>
> Is it really much worse than the condition on the moon?
By orders of magnitude. As one example, the greatest pressure differential that lunar craft must endure is 1 atmosphere. On Venus, it’s over 100.
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### Author:  [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/7 "2009-01-03T00:47:28Z")
The surface would be too hot, but with the thick atmosphere on Venus, a blimplike floating structure could work.
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### Author:  [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/8 "2009-01-03T00:49:55Z")
Wikipedia agrees with me!
> [@](#):
>
> Despite the harsh conditions on the surface, the atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50 km to 65 km above the surface of the planet is nearly the same as that of the Earth, making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar System, even more so than the surface of Mars. Due to the similarity in pressure and temperature and the fact that breathable air (21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen) is a lifting gas on Venus in the same way that helium is a lifting gas on Earth, the upper atmosphere has been proposed as a location for both exploration and colonization.
So you could apparently just make a big zeppelin-like structure, fill it with Earth-style air, and live inside it.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/9 "2009-01-03T00:52:50Z")
Maybe - just as long as there was no way it could ever go wrong and plummet into the lower atmosphere. I would imagine the chemical composition of even the upper, rarefied layers is still going to be pretty tough on materials, isn’t it?
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### Author:  [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/10 "2009-01-03T01:02:13Z")
IIRC, it has been difficult for anyone to get a \*probe \*to survive the conditions in Venus’s atmosphere long enough to send a message back. No way puny humans can survive when a machine gets corroded and crushed in minutes, if not seconds.
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/11 "2009-01-03T01:08:57Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#):
>
> Wikipedia agrees with me!
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Despite the harsh conditions on the surface, the atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50 km to 65 km above the surface of the planet is nearly the same as that of the Earth, making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar System, even more so than the surface of Mars. Due to the similarity in pressure and temperature and the fact that breathable air (21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen) is a lifting gas on Venus in the same way that helium is a lifting gas on Earth, the upper atmosphere has been proposed as a location for both exploration and colonization.
>
> So you could apparently just make a big zeppelin-like structure, fill it with Earth-style air, and live inside it.
Cloud City anyone?
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### Author:  [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/12 "2009-01-03T01:11:31Z")
> [@MLS](#):
>
> IIRC, it has been difficult for anyone to get a \*probe \*to survive the conditions in Venus’s atmosphere long enough to send a message back. No way puny humans can survive when a machine gets corroded and crushed in minutes, if not seconds.
Buttttttt…
It was just a couple hundred pound probe that lasted an hour or so. It sent back plenty of pictures and data. You can’t even fit a human in that unless you puree em.
It didnt get crushed, it finally “warmed” up.
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### Author:  [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/13 "2009-01-03T01:11:34Z")
> [@MLS](#):
>
> IIRC, it has been difficult for anyone to get a \*probe \*to survive the conditions in Venus’s atmosphere long enough to send a message back. No way puny humans can survive when a machine gets corroded and crushed in minutes, if not seconds.
Crushing wouldn’t be an issue in the upper atmosphere, but those sulfuric acid clouds do sound pretty nasty . . .
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### Author:  [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/14 "2009-01-03T01:19:36Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#):
>
> Wikipedia agrees with me!
>
> So you could apparently just make a big zeppelin-like structure, fill it with Earth-style air, and live inside it.
That’s so cool! Screw Mars. This must be NASA’s next mission.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/15 "2009-01-03T02:11:56Z")
Do humans have the technology to fix Venus’s environment. Obviously even if we had the technology the cost would be prohibitive, but if you could ignore that for the moment, could we somehow get rid of the greenhouse effect?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/16 "2009-01-03T02:21:46Z")
> [@Markxxx](#):
>
> Do humans have the technology to fix Venus’s environment. Obviously even if we had the technology the cost would be prohibitive, but if you could ignore that for the moment, could we somehow get rid of the greenhouse effect?
It’s mostly just straightforward chemistry, I expect. What we lack (I think) is the ability to scale up the effort to sufficient size to make any difference.
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### Author:  [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/17 "2009-01-03T02:25:40Z")
> [@Lumpy](#):
>
> Cloud City anyone?
Actually, didn’t Niven or somebody do a short story related to this topic?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/18 "2009-01-03T02:30:30Z")
Niven did one where a race of space-living cyborg ship-beings came and did strange things to (drilling a hole through it and evacuating the core, or something like that). I think it was Niven.
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### Author:  [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/19 "2009-01-03T02:31:27Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> It’s mostly just straightforward chemistry, I expect. What we lack (I think) is the ability to scale up the effort to sufficient size to make any difference.
Do we have any heat loving sulfur munching extremophiles on earth that’d b up to the task? As long as they could thrive in the atmosphere and reproduce we’d just need to send a handful to significantly clear up the sulfuric acid problem.
Would that help with the temperature? What’d be the next problem?
edit: nvm op called no terreformses
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### Author:  [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2009, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colony-on-venus/479650/20 "2009-01-03T02:37:09Z")
Okay, Niven’s “[Becalmed in Hell](http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2007/09/larry-nivens-becalmed-in-hell-accident.html)” was what I was thinking of. (Linked page contains spoilers.)
We now return you to your regularly scheduled GQ thread.
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