Venus, also known as the "Sister Planet of the Earth", may one day become the second home of mankind.
Welcome back to our ongoing "Interstellar" series. Today, we will take a look at the "sister planet" of the earth-Venus! Given the extreme conditions that exist on this planet, you might say that Venus is the "evil sister" of Earth. However, people can live there in many ways one day. All that is needed is the right resources, dedication and knowledge.
In fact, someone who travels to Venus one day may hear a recording of greetings like this:
"Welcome to Ishtar, your gateway to the always clear Cytherian sky! The time is 11:27 am standard Cytherian time. The ambient air pressure is normal 100 Pascals, inside and outside the dome, and the outside temperature is even 300. Kelvin.
"Please prepare your ID for scanning and make sure to include your biometric scan results. If you do not receive this free service on our liner, we encourage you to use one of the booths located throughout the atrium.
"We want to remind our newcomers that the days on Venus are quite long. In fact, less than one hundred and seventeen days. We recommend that you use a personal shade device every 16 hours to ensure adequate sleep. This will also ensure you Always adapt to the 24-hour schedule.
"Are you interested to know that it has been less than 175 days since we first settled in the sky? It can be said that in the fifty-six earth years since the establishment of Ishtar, time has moved It's slower for us!
"Remind all customers to be extra careful when transferring from the colony to their airship. The windows and docking collar are fixed to protect you, but please do not place any heavy objects or knock them. Once you board the plane, please sit down and relax Now, let us take you through the clouds!
Sounds neat, doesn't it? Go to a world where a city floats on top of dense clouds, and all transits are drifted from one place to another by airships. But wait, there is more! After centuries of hard work, these floating cities can change the atmosphere and surface of Venus. If this is the case one day, the welcome message might sound more like this:
"Welcome to Pythagoras Station, your gateway to Venus, the oceanic paradise of the solar system! The date is Sol Kukulkan, Cliodhna 25, and the time is Niobia Planitia at 10:30 AM. The temperature is a mild 300 Kelvin , The air pressure is even one hundred kilopascals. We thank you for making Venus your holiday destination, and hope that you will find endless relaxation on the endless coastline and the endless sea.
"As you travel down Beanstalk, you will notice that gravity is slowly moving. We assure you that this is completely normal and our safety procedures are prepared. Once you reach the surface, you will experience approximately 90% of the earth's gravity-normal, this will help to adjust easily.
"Enjoy the extra spring in your steps, knowing that it won't cost you any muscle or bone density! We also managed to speed up the rotation of the earth, so a day on Venus is the same as a day on Earth. Just another convenience Earth transformation makes our world possible!
"Be sure to familiarize yourself with the rules and regulations on the import of animals (including microorganisms). For your convenience, a clean room is set up during the entire installation process. It is forbidden for customers who bathe or have any form of contact with the Cytherean ocean without purification. We The marine ecosystem is still developing, and we ask you to respect the local biodiversity.
"Be sure to familiarize yourself with your accommodation package. Once you reach the surface, you need to choose the right ferry. Our ocean liner provides transportation to the mainland of Ishtar, Aphrodite and Lada Terra. Once you get there, you will be able to book where you want to go Access to sea resorts or island resorts."
For generations, humans have been fascinated by Venus, the brightest star in the night sky. Due to its appearance, it disappears for several days at a time, and then appears on the other side of the sun. It has long been considered to be two different stars-"Morning Star" and "Evening Star". "
Soon, ancient astronomers began to realize that these "stars" were actually the same thing. As they tracked the movement of Venus for generations and even centuries, they began to realize that Venus (like other planets) is not a star. Just like the ancient constellations, this planet began to produce its own myths and legends.
For ancient people all over the world, the earth was related to the goddess of fertility, childbirth, love, and pornography. When astronomy emerged as a modern science, new theories and new myths appeared. Until the 20th century, the opaque clouds of Venus were considered rain clouds, which gave rise to the concept that the surface of Venus was covered by the ocean.
Until the 1960s, people had speculated that there might be a Venus of life, and even civilization. This situation was eliminated when the first robotic probes were sent to Venus to collect information about its atmosphere and surface (as part of NASA's Mariner and Soviet Venus programs). Thanks to these missions, we learned the terrible truth about Venus.
Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, and its surface temperature is stable at around 464 °C (867 °F)-by the way, this temperature is enough to melt lead! The atmospheric pressure is also 92 times that of the earth, and the density is so high that it crushes people! Air is a toxic plume composed mainly of carbon dioxide (96.5%) and other trace gases.
As if this were not enough, sulfuric acid rain clouds also filled the atmosphere. Therefore, in addition to being melted or crushed, anything on the surface of Venus is likely to be dissolved. There are no two ways: Venus is the closest thing to Dante's hell in real life!
However, there are a few things that make Venus attractive as another potential home for mankind. Compared with other planets, the surface gravity is 8.87 m/s², which is just over 90% (0.9 g) of what we experience on Earth. On Mars and Mercury, gravity is about 0.38 grams, while the moon's gravity is 0.165 grams.
This means that the worst effects of living outside the earth—muscle atrophy, decreased bone density, reduced organ function—are not a problem for human settlers. Through a healthy exercise program and some minor medical interventions, life on Venus will be as close to life on Earth as possible (without fancy technical interventions).
For example, the dense nature of the atmosphere of Venus creates some unique opportunities for the living environment. At an altitude of 31 miles (50 kilometers) above the surface, the atmospheric pressure of Venus is about 100 kPa, slightly lower than the earth's sea level (101.325 kPa), and the temperature is as low as 86 °F (30 °C).
The upper atmosphere can also prevent cosmic radiation, similar to the way the earth's atmosphere protects life on the surface. For this reason, there has been speculation since the 1970s that humans can establish settlements in the atmosphere of Venus. This is the first instance recorded by Soviet scientists.
In 2003, NASA scientist Geoffrey A. Landis reinvigorated this idea in a paper entitled "The Colonization of Venus." He claimed that at an altitude of 31 miles (50 kilometers) above the surface, such a city would not be affected by the harsh environment of Venus:
"[T] The atmosphere of Venus is the most earth-like environment in the solar system (except for the earth itself). It is suggested here that in the short term, human exploration of Venus can be carried out through aerostats in the atmosphere, and in the long run, it can be Floating in the form of a city about 31 miles to establish permanent settlements (50 kilometers) at the height of the atmosphere of Venus."
According to Landis’ proposal, these aerostats will be able to stay afloat in the atmosphere of Venus, with nothing but breathable air (79:21 nitrogen and oxygen mixture). In 2015, NASA began exploring the possibility of sending a manned spacecraft to Venus as a serious mission concept as part of its High Altitude Venus Operation Concept (HAVOC).
As outlined by Dale Arney and Chris Jones (from NASA's Langley Research Center), the proposal requires the use of lighter than air vehicles to perform all manned parts of the mission. These habitats can also be used as a platform for transformation, slowly transforming Venus’ atmosphere into something habitable so that colonists can eventually migrate to the surface.
There are many ways to transform Venus. We mean to change the environment to be more like the earth. The process is very simple and requires four major changes:
Fortunately, each of these steps complements the other three steps in some way. Since Venus absorbs twice as much sunlight as Earth, solar radiation is believed to have played an important role in the runaway greenhouse effect, making it what it is today. Therefore, a proposed method of cooling the earth requires shading.
If it is a single lens, it can be located near the Sun-Venus L1 Lagrangian point, limiting the amount of sunlight reaching Venus. Alternatively, solar reflectors can be placed in the atmosphere to reflect solar radiation into space. These may appear in the form of large reflective balloons or flakes covered with diamond coating.
In his proposal, Landis suggested that his aerostat could be used as a solar shield and processing station. The advantage of this proposal is the use of locally sourced carbon dioxide, which is chemically decomposed to produce carbon (a basic component of organic synthesis) and oxygen (which can be used in habitats).
Shadows will gradually cool the atmosphere to the point where dense clouds of carbon dioxide will freeze and form dry ice. This ice can then be exported, buried or isolated, with the added benefit of lowering atmospheric pressure. Another possible method is to chemically convert the atmosphere into substances that can support life.
Carl Sagan (Carl Sagan) in the 1961 paper "The Planet Venus" (The Planet Venus) put forward the first proposal for the earth modification of Venus, suggesting that genetically engineered cyanobacteria be introduced into the atmosphere to convert carbon dioxide into organic molecular. Due to the discovery of sulfuric acid clouds on the earth, this idea has largely become infeasible.
It was closely followed by the proposal of the British scientist Paul Birch, who published a study entitled "Rapid Transformation of Venus" in 1991. Birch proposed bombarding the atmosphere of Venus with hydrogen and iron aerosols, which would produce large amounts of chemical water. This will trigger "long rain", which will eventually cover 80% of the Earth's oceans (maybe for the second time).
It also produces large amounts of graphite (crystalline carbon), which must be captured and removed. Birch estimates that the remaining atmospheric pressure is about 3 bar (3 times that of the earth), mainly composed of nitrogen that can be used as a buffer gas. Then oxygen can be imported or produced locally to make the atmosphere truly breathable.
Recently, futurist Isaac Arthur made another ambitious proposal to use hydrogen. In a video titled "The Winter of Venus", he explained how to make a "water cannon" by focusing ionized hydrogen into a beam directed at Venus. This combination of "rising stars" and "star formation" can be used to dilute the atmosphere of Venus and introduce hydrogen to produce water.
Another method is to bombard Venus with refined calcium and magnesium to produce carbonate. This idea was proposed by Mark Bullock and David H. Grinspoon (from the University of Colorado Boulder) in a 1996 paper entitled "The Stability of the Venus Climate." This can even be achieved by drilling into the crust of Venus to obtain its own calcium and magnesium oxide deposits.
These carbonates can be sequestered in the mantle, and one day they can become part of the carbon cycle (depending on the tectonic activity of Venus). Combined with shading, using hydrogen and iron aerosols (or both) to chemically transform the atmosphere, Venus will be covered by the ocean and leave behind abundant compounds.
Another effective way to transform Venus is to change its rotation speed. At present, Venus rotates once every 243 days, which is the slowest period of all planets in the solar system. Therefore, Venus has experienced extremely long days and nights, and it will be difficult for humans and the earth's animals and plants to adapt.
There are also theories that the slow rotation of this planet can explain why it does not have a significant magnetic field like the Earth. Over the years, several solutions have been proposed on how to accelerate the rotation period of Venus or how to simulate the rotation of the earth. In his proposal document, Burch proposed to create an orbital sunglasses system near the L1 Lagrangian point of Sun-Venus.
These mirrors will direct sunlight to another sunglasses in the polar orbit around Venus. By ensuring that different hemispheres receive reflected sunlight, this mirror system can simulate a 24-hour day and night cycle. Other proposals suggest speeding up the rotation of Venus by hitting the surface of Venus with meteors or flying close by with massive objects.
If impacted at the correct angle, these impacts may slow down and reverse the rotation of Venus, theoretically eventually speeding up its orbital period to 24 hours. The benefits include the possibility that the same dynamo effect of the earth's core (the magnetic field it gives us) will also be reawakened in Venus.
This magnetic field will help ensure that the new fluffy atmosphere of Venus will not be stripped by the solar wind over the course of billions of years. If these impactors also carry large amounts of calcium, magnesium and other carbon-fixing compounds, they will also help convert the atmosphere into respirable substances.
An additional benefit of the impactor is that it ejects some of the current atmosphere of Venus into space. Other methods of reducing the atmosphere by exporting gas require the installation of space elevators and mass accelerators on floating platforms above the clouds. Over time, they can "draw" gas from the atmosphere and eject it into space.
As you can see, the process of transforming Venus into a livable environment involves complementary steps. Whether we are thinning the atmosphere, cooling the earth, changing the atmosphere, or accelerating its rotation, progress in the field of earth transformation may also have a positive impact on other areas.
It seems that there are many options (or combinations of them) to achieve this goal. Through these options, Venus can become a warm, oceanic, very earth-like environment. People born in this paradise will be called "Venusians" or "Sicilians", and they are undoubtedly known for their hospitality and relaxed character!
At the same time, we can build floating cities, where this work is done generation after generation, until the city in the sky is ready to slowly descend to the ground. When they arrive, they will definitely find an ocean paradise, waiting for life to be (carefully) introduced to its surface.
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"Thank you for spending time with us on the high seas of Venus! We know that after many days of beach, surfing and sunshine, leaving may be difficult. Be sure to buy some souvenirs from our shop, including decorative patterns for all the goddesses of fertility. We There are also many copies of popular myths related to them. Be sure to try the volumes of "Inana's Underworld", "Iliad" and "The Legend of Goddess".
"We wish you all the best, and hope that if your final destination is not the earth, the transition to low gravity will be as easy as possible. We recommend that you take the time to adapt to the low gravity part of the Pythagoras station. It feels like If your booking allows, spend as much time as possible for free.
"When you consider your next vacation destination, you must remember Venus. Between our oceans, islands, seaside properties, and temperature conditions, we are a vacation destination in the solar system. In short, Venus has a reason. Known as the'Sister Planet of the Earth'."
Please continue to pay attention to more installments of the "Interstellar" series. Next, we will look at the only natural satellite of the earth: the moon!
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