Chapter 1: Introduction

• Leaving Earth to find new homes in space is an old dream of humanity

• Mars is often considered as a potential colony for humans

• What if we consider Venus as a potential colony instead?

Chapter 2: Venus as a Potential Colony

• Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system with a surface temperature of 460 degrees Celsius

• Venus has the most extreme greenhouse effect in the solar system

  • CO2 is the main component of Venus's atmosphere, contributing to the extreme heat

  • Even a small increase in CO2 concentration in Earth's atmosphere is causing global warming

• Venus's atmosphere is 97% CO2

• Venus's atmosphere is 93 times denser than Earth's atmosphere

  • Standing on Venus's surface would feel like being under immense pressure, similar to diving deep into the ocean

  • The high pressure on Venus's surface is instantly lethal

Chapter 3: Why Consider Venus?

• Venus is a truly horrible place with extreme conditions

• Considering Venus as a potential colony challenges us to think bigger

• Turning Venus into a habitable planet would be a remarkable achievement

Chapter 2: A Proper Terraformed Venus

• Venus is almost as big as Earth and has 90 percent of its surface gravity

  • Surface gravity is a big problem when colonizing the solar system

  • Long days in low gravity places can have negative health effects

• Venus's size means it could be the 2nd largest habitat in the solar system

  • A new home for 1,000,000,000 of humans and trillions of animals

  • It could have oceans, lush forests, and a beautiful blue sky

• A proper terraformed Venus may be the most pleasant place to live outside of Earth

  • Terraforming is not possible currently, but a future version of us could take on the project

Cooling Down Venus and Removing the Atmosphere

• Before anything else, we need to cool Venus down and remove the gas that makes up the extremely heavy atmosphere

  • The atmosphere of Venus weighs around 465,000,000,000 tons

• Options for removing the atmosphere:

  • Create giant solar collectors powering a huge array of laser beams to heat up the atmosphere and blast it into space

    • Requires thousands of times the entire power generating capacity of humanity

    • Would still take thousands of years to remove the atmosphere

  • Sequester the atmosphere by binding the CO2 in different compounds through chemical reactions

Chapter 3: Free The Atmosphere

• Mining elements on Mercury and shooting them at Venus

  • Elements like calcium or magnesium

  • Mass driver systems

  • Electric rails

  • Binding CO2 into carbonates

  • Impractical due to scale

  • Requires several 100,000,000,000 tons of material

  • May take too long

• Constructing a huge mirror to block out the sun

  • Mirror doesn't need to be complex or massive

  • Thin foil with structural support

  • Multiple pieces forming a mirror

  • Annular slacks of angled mirrors

  • Reflecting sunlight from one set of mirrors to the next

  • Redirecting light to the back to balance force

  • Keeping the mirror in position

• Progression of the atmosphere on Venus

  • Infrastructure takes a few years to set up

  • Atmosphere slowly cools down over the first few decades

  • Atmosphere remains dense and deadly

  • After 60 years, temperature reaches 31 degrees Celsius

  • CO2 turns to liquid and begins to rain down

  • Constant global rainstorm lasting 30 years