There are enough similarities between Earth
and Venus that many scientists consider the two to be near twin planets that just
by happenstance evolved in different directions. In fact Venus is often referred to as our
sister planet because of similarities in size, mass, density and volume. It is
believed that both planets share a common origin forming at the same time about
4.5 billion years ago.
Regardless, there are a few interesting anomalies
worth siting between Venus and Earth, consider these — the direction of Venus’s
rotation . . . the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east; the “spin cycle”
of the planet is so slow that a “day” on Venus is equal to 243 Earth days &
nights; a Venusian year though is just under 225 (224.7)
Earth days & nights.
Our current knowledge of the planet Venus’
surface and its interior is similar to
the knowledge we held of Mars in the 1970’s following the Viking I & II missions. The Soviet Union placed a total of 8 probes on the surface of Venus, beginning with Venera 7 in 1970 and ending with Venera
14 in 1982; each of which took simple measurements within the 110 minutes or less
before the surface environment’s heat “cooked” their on-board electronics. NASA’s Magellan spacecraft mapped the surface
of Venus while in orbit with radar equipment in the early 1990’s before it
crashed and burned onto the planet.
Mapping Venus’ surface requires using imaging
radar that can penetrate its thick cloud cover. Unfortunately, the technology
in the early 1990’s when Magellan flew was comparatively new and crude by today’s
standards. Modern (2016) imaging radars are often used to study the surface of
the earth both from airplanes and from satellites. The technology is well established
and is relatively low cost.
During the past few years, something of a
cottage industry has grown up proposing new missions to map Venus. Dissimilar accounting rules make exact cost estimates
difficult, but the proposed missions by most estimates would cost in the
neighborhood of $600 Million at most. Well
yea, that’s a lot of money but then NASA’s budget that was approved last year
(2015), was $18.01 Billion — $549 Million more than the White House requested.
So why spend all those US Taxpayer Dollars on
a place in our Solar System that is extremely unlikely to ever be suitable for
supporting an Earth colony? The potential knowledge gained from such an
endeavor would address several key questions:
- Since the average age of Venus’ surface is just a few hundred million years old, a tiny fraction of the age of the surfaces of most rocky and icy moons in the solar system, we desperately need to determine just what processes resurfaced the planet; and while we’re at it, find out if it occurred within the same time period or did the resurfacing process spread over an extended period of time?
- A second important area of concern should be whether or not Venus is currently geologically active and if so continuing to remake her surface and release new gases into the atmosphere.
- Finally, and if for no other reason, we should look at each of our neighboring planets to help understand the perils of global warming. It is generally believed that both Mars and Venus started out much like Earth and then changed, thus holding priceless information for Earth’s climatologists.
Even though Venus’s atmosphere is much
thicker than Earth’s current climate, models can reproduce its present
temperature structure just fine. Planetary
scientists should therefore turn the clock back so as to understand why and how
Venus changed from its former Earth-like conditions into the “hellhole” of
today.
In Short, the greenhouse effect on Venus is often cited as a terrifying example of what may well happen to Earth if we don't get our current pollution pattern under control.
With a carbon dioxide rich atmosphere with a
pressure that’s nearly 92 times what we feel on Earth and an average surface
temperature that’s near 900° Fahrenheit, to say, “Venus does not have a welcoming environment”, is an understatement.
Venus is a planet of extremes. Yes, a few
physical characteristics are similar, but there are more differences than not. The most critical of which are perhaps the average
surface temperatures: Earth—14° Celsius / 57°Fahrenhite . . . Venus—462°
Celsius / 864°Fahrenhite.
Nevertheless about 31 miles above the planet’s
surface, Venus is still almost Earth-like. Beyond most of the clouds there's enough sunshine
to provide solar power, the temperature is warm but cool enough for liquid water
to exist, and the gravity is about 90% of what we experience on the Earth. The
gases at that altitude can also support life, even though a little help is
necessary and there's enough carbon dioxide to facilitate plant growth. The
nitrogen in the air along with hydrogen gathered from floating sulfuric acid
droplets can be turned into the elements necessary to support human life.
When you think about human beings
developing into a “multi-planet” species, the collective vision is typically a
future with humans living on both Earth and Mars. But then Venus just might be
a better choice.
The argument for this type colonizing
program was suggested by Geoffrey Landis, a scientist at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in a presentation at the Conference on Human Space Exploration, Space
Technology & Applications International Forum in New Mexico back in
2003. More than a decade later, it’s still a captivating idea. According to Mr. Robert Walker, a well-known
inventor & programmer for Tune
Smithy, Bounce Metronome, Virtual flower,
Lissajous 3D, and Activity
Timer, this idea actually dates back to the Russians in the early 1970’s.
Venus is, by most standards, a hellish world
. . . Yet that thick, heavy, toxic atmosphere is exactly what makes Venus an
appealing world for humans to live on. But then you do have to think “outside
the box”— in that nothing says that to live on another planet means actually
living on that planet’s surface! In
theory, you see, we could use Venus’ thick atmosphere to our advantage, and
build floating “Cloud Cities”.
Because the surface of Venus is far too hot,
and the atmosphere too dense for life derived from Earth’s surface to survive —
31 miles above the surface of Venus is, shall we say, “The Goldilocks Zone” in the Venusian region of our Solar System. Now keep in mind that on Venus, Earth
type air is actually a lifting gas with about half the lifting power helium has
on Earth . . . so much like Weather Balloons naturally rise to their operating
level high in Earth’s atmosphere, this method of operation should work in the
same way for our habitats on Venus. Earth bound Weather Balloons float at a level
where the pressure is equal inside and out, and can be built of light
construction materials as is a “Buckminster Fuller” dome. 31 miles beyond the Venusian surface is
arguably the most hospitable region for humanity in our solar system, outside
of Earth itself.
Simply put, a habitat filled with normal breathable
“Earth air” will float high atop the dense Venus atmosphere where the atmospheric
pressure is the same as Earth’s sea level. Yes, the surface of Venus is harsh to
the extreme, far beyond the range of habitability for any known life form from Earth.
However, the environment at the cloud tops of Venus is surprisingly comfortable.
Colonizing Venus in any manner might sound a
bit like insanity gone crazy, but it’s not, strictly speaking, impossible. In truth it’s not something we’re close to
achieving anytime soon, but the time is right to turn our planetary attention
to Venus in the ongoing quest to find a way to live on another world.
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