"Cloud cities of Venus (Cry HAVOC!)" Topic
8 Posts
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| willthepiper | 25 Dec 2014 10:33 p.m. PST |
NASA is developing a new concept for exploring Venus: dirigibles (aka the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept, or HAVOC)! The theory is that the temperatures and air pressure is almost bearable at an altitude of approx 50 km above the surface of the planet. Scientists will live in floating cities.
More in the story here. How cool is this! link |
| tsofian | 26 Dec 2014 7:59 a.m. PST |
This technology might also work on gas giants as well! Terry |
| Coelacanth | 26 Dec 2014 11:21 a.m. PST |
HAVOC is such a belligerent-sounding name. I propose Balloon Enclosed Special Purpose ENviroment. Ron P.S. I know, that's not how it's spelled. |
| Mako11 | 26 Dec 2014 3:16 p.m. PST |
I think I'll pass, though it is an interesting proposition. |
| Mute Bystander | 26 Dec 2014 3:39 p.m. PST |
If the lift technology fails… |
| Lion in the Stars | 26 Dec 2014 4:11 p.m. PST |
Not the lift tech failing that I'm worried about. It's just that balloons or whatever are really mass-limited on a good day. How the heck to you get several billion cubic meters of helium from Earth to Venus? Not to forget the question of how do we get the scientists BACK from there? While I KNOW there are some scientists so abrasive that they'd get volunteered for the trip, most science geeks do tend to want to come back from their most recent project. |
| Midgetmanifesto | 26 Dec 2014 6:14 p.m. PST |
You wouldn't need helium. As long as the gas inside the balloon is less dense than that outside (in the atmosphere) it should float. Given that venus is ~97% CO2, and O2 is lighter, you could fill the balloon with O2 and it would float. You can extract O2 from CO2 with fairly simple reactions requiring electricity. You could even do the same thing with plants, if you had the other sundry requirements of plant life. |
TheBeast  | 02 Jan 2015 6:48 a.m. PST |
Truly put, though having the percentage of O2 necessary to generate a lot of lift might be problematic in itself. There may be enough water vapor to go with H2, which has issues itself, but not so much with a CO2 atmosphere, but mostly the habitation's, right? In-and-out, LitS, seems hardly impossible; amongst many possibilities include trapeze capture. We're not seeing a complete project so far, but seems attainable. I'm more concerned from my being unfamiliar with upper atmosphere 'weather'. And Mars still seems better long term. Doug |
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