NASA Study Proposes Airships, Cloud Cities for Venus Exploration

Re:NASA Study Proposes Airships, Cloud Cities for Venus Expl... by ForHackernews on Tuesday December 16, 2014 @09:59PM (#8760864)

Actually, one suggestion has been colonizing Venus in floating cities: http://www.universetoday.com/15570/colonizing-venus-with-flo...

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Re:NASA Study Proposes Airships, Cloud Cities for Venus Expl... by danielweber on Wednesday December 17, 2014 @02:30AM (#8761441)

Colonization includes expansion.

For now assume that all the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen you want is available in the atmosphere and solar power. You still need hydrogen to make plastics, and you are going to need silicon to build more solar panels, and you need metals you can forge. The surface of Venus is 50km below, which isn't as far away as the ISS, but it's still 50km straight down and then back up for anything.

It might be a nice vacation spot, or a penal colony.

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Re:NASA Study Proposes Airships, Cloud Cities for Venus Expl... by moron4hire on Wednesday December 17, 2014 @12:42PM (#8763246)

There is work being done to replace silicon with graphene. It's of course a long shot, but would make this a lot more feasible if possible.

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Re:NASA Study Proposes Airships, Cloud Cities for Venus Expl... by tomp on Wednesday December 17, 2014 @08:05AM (#8762132)

For hydrogen, you have sulfuric acid.

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