As long as they limit the passengers to people with a net worth of 100 million or higher, then I think this should be encouraged.
This article must be a joke, no one is literally that dumb. Like Venus surface is basically hell, just some really small miscalucation and bam your dead, body will just burn to nothing. The crash site may exist or not, but it’s extremely stupid.
Alright so it’s a colony NOT on the surface, hence the floating. Now the guy is still an idiot but the idea he’s pitching is hypothetically possible.
Oxygen is less dense than the Venusian atmosphere. So hypothetically speaking, one could fill a balloon with an O₂ and N₂ mixture that is slightly oxygen richer than here on Earth and the balloon would float above the vast majority of the Venusian atmosphere where all the acid rain and huge temperatures would be. Much like a Helium or Hydrogen balloon floats here on Earth because the gas is less dense than our atmosphere here.
So the idea is to make a balloon that is large enough to have people inside of it, because they can breath the lifting gas keeping the balloon afloat. The catch is, you aren’t above ALL of the atmosphere and there’s still a lot of caustic things that the balloon would have to account for, otherwise it’ll slowly leak. We don’t have a material that would withstand some of the things in the upper atmosphere of Venus. So the guy would literally have to invent a material that would be able to withstand the conditions or be self healing enough to deal with the conditions. Both are highly unlikely, not impossible but I sure as shit wouldn’t trust him on being the inventor of such.
So yes, the surface is inhospitable. But floating a colony above the clouds is doable and something that’s been investigated. At the 50km altitude of Venus, there’s still enough atmosphere to provide protection from harmful sunlight. The atmosphere at 50km is such that a balloon at 1.03 atm pressure would not have explosive decompression in the event of a rip, providing folks enough time to get emergency O₂ and ideally fix the tear. So basically, if a tear in the balloon did happen, it would be a light breeze and not a sudden POP as the oxygen escaped. So if the balloon is really, really big, it could take hours before the CO₂ slowly seeping in offset enough O₂ to start dropping your colony into the clouds of acid. And at 50km altitude, gravity there would be about 0.9g. Additionally, Venus is much closer to Earth than Mars, but since it’s closer to the sun, it’s actually a bit harder to get to.
So right around 50km above Venus is pretty much the most Earth like we’ve discovered in the Solar System so far. There’s just all this dizzying complexity to having a floating colony on Venus. And we don’t have anywhere near the materials or support infrastructure to really support anyone going to Venus, especially untrained people. But yeah you can see some of the renders NASA has done for a Venus colony. Here’s a page I found with one of the renders they’ve pitched.
What do we do about the frankly insane wind speeds?
Just ignore them, I suspect. If you’re already in a giant blimp, then what’s the harm in letting the wind carry you wherever it wants to go?
Ok so we have established it’s possible, now why would we ever want to do it?
That is truly stupid, failing to account for, checks list: Radiation, solar reach, mental health, supply convoys that take years, and that’s just at a surface level…
Wow ofc it would work…
Never underestimate human ignorance. Even if they make an idiot proof system, they’ll just turn around and make a better idiot.
Well they might as well incinerate their clients, this guy refuses to be one upped by his colleague, I mean what’s his option, the other guy diluted his clients at the bottom of the ocean, so this one must go the opposite way, in space, and with fire.
You know what the problem with space travel is?
Every ‘what if’ question is answered with ‘you die.’
What if there’s a leak in the spacecraft? What if we run out of food? What if we veer off course? What if the thrusters fail? etc.
I highly doubt and I’ll put $100 down that this doesn’t happen in 2050 because the difficulties and infrastructure just aren’t there for 1000 or even 100 people to do this.
Ok, but 2025 is over 25 years away. If he can get people to sign on then he can get some money coming in, and he’ll be a billionaire running away to Brazil long before 2050. It seems to me that his plan is solid.
… You know what, that’s an excellent idea.
Hey do you want to go to live on Mars? I have a solid plan and you can put a downpayment right now to secure your seat! Hurry, only 3 spots remaining!
Sorry, you’ve got to come up with something unique. You can’t just copy Mars One. At least pick a new planet! (It sounds like Venus is taken now)
Ah sheeit, well if we can’t go up then we must go down! Journey to the centre of the earth where it’s probably going to be colder than up here in 25 years!
Now you’re talking! Where can I sign up? I have more money than sense so I’d be willing to throw a few hundred thousand for a ticket, or even a million if you’ll put me on the first trip!
Jules Verne already went there, durr. It’s where the dinosaurs migrated to! Wait… Dino safari?
(you guys are hilarious)It’s called Agartha bro
Mercury or bust
You’re stuck in the 90s
I mean, not every what if, some at least leave the possibility to address the situation, consider the case of Apollo 13 for example. A great many risks can also be reduced with redundancy, for example, having your maneuvering systems fail is not as bad if your craft has an extra set of maneuvering thrusters. Air travel has similarly high risk of death if major components fail, and yet that has been made safe enough to be made commonplace.
I agree that it won’t happen by 2050 though. We’ve never sent humans on an interplanetary mission before, development of new spacecraft takes many years, especially manned systems, and Venus is an especially tough environment to build for. 2050 is less than three decades away, I’d guess that we might have at most a small research outpost on the moon by then, assuming no major delays or cuts to our current program to return there, and there’s no guarantee of that. I’d be surprised if even one person was sent to Venus by that year.
I respect the attempt to capitalise on a tragedy. Or possibly in disgusted by it. Either way.
Isn’t that the planet that is hotter than the planet that sits closer to the sun, has incredibly high atmospheric pressure and something that is not water rains from the skies?
Seems like a paradise, if we’re considering using a nearby planet as a toxic waste dump.
It’s not gonna implode, is it?
“How many atmospheres can this thing withstand?”
“Well it’s a spaceship, so anywhere between zero and 1.”
As we disembark the planet please let oligarchs and billionaires go first. They took all the risk to achieve such great things. And if you look deep down (12,500’) you will see this is the way it has to be.
Oh, I’m sure after what happened to the submersible that they’ll have volunteers lining up around the block for a space flight.
/s
Gotta love rich people trying to make their personal space kingdom instead of fixing the mess they made down here.I call dibs on the joypad. Don’t worry, I’m decedent at Gran Turismo.
Why don’t they do a floating colony on Earth first as a test?
click/rage bait
yea… at least mars has the potential of people being able to walk on the surface (with spacesuits).
Venus… Well. It’s pretty deadly. Its like the Australia of planets. Everything will kill you.
Deadly winds. Acid rain. Scorching hot.
Isn’t, too many positive traits…
