What If We Built Cloud Cities on Venus?

WHAT IF

NASA wants to build a floating city above the clouds of Venus. Should we be going to Venus instead of Mars?

Transcript

00:00 The Earth might not be here forever.

00:07 A huge solar flare,

00:09 an asteroid impact,

00:10 or a local gamma-ray burst,

00:12 anything could wipe us out for good.

00:16 If we're looking for someplace to escape to,

00:18 there is one planet in our Solar System

00:21 that's somewhat similar to Earth,

00:24 though we don't know much about it.

00:27 No, it's not Mars.

00:29 It's Venus.

00:31 Not only are Earth and Venus about the same size,

00:35 they both have identical interiors

00:37 with partially liquid cores,

00:39 mantles, and crusts.

00:42 Yet Venus happens to be the most hostile

00:45 terrestrial planet in the Solar System.

00:48 But what if I told you

00:50 that you could explore this hot planet

00:52 without ever setting foot on it?

00:55 This is WHAT IF,

00:58 and here's what would happen

00:59 if we built cloud cities on Venus.

01:03 Venus isn't a place you'd want to land on.

01:09 Thanks to its dense atmosphere

01:11 and turtle-like rotation,

01:13 the surface temperature of Venus

01:14 stays at 462 °C (1,000 °F).

01:18 The planet's atmospheric pressure

01:20 is 92 times greater than Earth's.

01:24 Because of such high pressure,

01:25 anything entering the atmosphere of Venus

01:28 gets immediately crushed

01:29 before it reaches the planet's volcanic surface.

01:33 With such extreme atmospheric conditions,

01:36 it's too dangerous to attempt a manned landing on Venus.

01:39 But we wouldn't need to go down there.

01:44 Above the dense layer of clouds,

01:46 Venus isn't that bad.

01:49 The atmospheric pressure is similar to Earth's,

01:52 the gravity is slightly lower,

01:54 and the temperature reaches 75 °C (1,000 °F).

01:57 Although that's a little hot,

02:00 it's still workable.

02:02 Now, how would we get there?

02:05 Well, we'd need to start small.

02:08 According to NASA's plan for exploring Venus,

02:11 we'd send two spaceships to our destination.

02:15 Venus is the closest planet to Earth.

02:18 That's why it would only take 100 days

02:21 for the craft to arrive there.

02:24 One of the ships would be run by robots.

02:27 It would carry a special airship

02:29 that would eject into the atmosphere upon arrival.

02:34 This airship would start to inflate itself with helium.

02:37 And since helium is lighter than air,

02:40 the airship would float,

02:42 orbiting about 52 km (1,000 mi) above the planet.

02:47 The second spaceship would have a crew of two people.

02:51 It would link up with the airship orbiting Venus.

02:55 The crew would have 30 days

02:57 to make all the environmental assessments.

03:00 After that, they'd detach from the airship

03:03 and start making their way back to Earth.

03:06 The return trip would take about 300 days

03:09 due to the Sun's strong gravitational pull.

03:13 But even with that,

03:14 the complete mission wouldn't take longer than 450 days.

03:20 After analyzing the information from the first mission,

03:23 we'd begin to plan our next trip to Venus.

03:26 But this time, we'd stay there longer.

03:29 The next crew would have a year

03:31 to study the planet and its atmosphere.

03:34 One of the things they'd be looking for on Venus

03:36 would be life.

03:38 Scientists think that because microbes on Earth

03:42 can thrive in acidic conditions surrounded by sulfur,

03:46 there could be life found in the Venusian atmosphere.

03:52 After the end of the second mission,

03:54 we would start preparing to stay on Venus permanently.

03:58 We would begin building cloud cities,

04:00 where future generations of humans would live,

04:03 and hopefully continue to explore space

04:06 and the origins of life in it.

04:09 They might even solve the pressure problem.

04:13 From there, they would terraform the planet

04:15 and settle down on the once-hostile Venusian surface.

04:20 But that's a story for another WHAT IF.

04:24 ♪ ♪

04:27 (dramatic music)

04:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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