Quote:
Originally Posted by Chip
Another idea might be to have kamikaze automated excavating machines that land and, based on earlier detailed surveying research, start digging out underground spaces. Such specialized construction equipment would be tough and last for a certain time after which further machines land, cannibalize them if possible and continue building and finishing underground dwellings. (This of course would be applicable where cooler, underground areas are discovered.) There would still be the problem of access to and escape from the harsh surface to upper atmosphere locations, but such surface access points would present a much lower surface profile than a dome and could be very durable below the intense heat and pressure.
Maintaining breathable atmosphere, water, food, life support, etcetera, would be similar to a surface dwelling. Gravity would feel almost the same as on Earth.
To me, the eventual long term goal in this poll/thread is altering the surface for habitation.  |
Well, if the long term goal in this thread is altering the surface, then it is best to do it from structures locating in the clouds which will survive long enough to accomplish some of those goals. I'm all for terraforming Venus so that we can eventually live on the surface, but floating cities will be crucial to that project, not a diversion from it.
BTW, what makes you think that Venus is cooler underground? Part of the reason that Venus is so hot is because of it's geothermal/volcanic activity. You'll have to determine the heat flow of the crust before digging in it. Also, the immediate surface can't cool much because of the greenhouse effect so it is likely as hot as the lower atmosphere. The earth's crust is only cool for the top few hundred feet, and then it starts getting hot again as you go deeper, and the earth's top crust is only cool because of longwave radiative cooling, atmospheric advection and hydrology, all of which Venus can't do.