Would you live on terraformed Venus?

[Anomalocaris]

[g within the atmosphere of Venus.



Hi!

Mars is more talked about because it is simply less energy intensive to get to with the chemical rockets of today.

It takes more rocket reaction mass to go inwards, towards the Sun, that outwards, away from the Sun.

But then... if you've made it into Earth's orbit? You're practically half way to ever where else.

Not at work.

Not true.   It is easier from space flight point of view to go to Venus than to go to mars.

Whether it is more or less energy intensive doesn’t depend on whether you go inward or outward in the solar system.    It depends on the relative energy states of the orbits of the destination planet.    As it happens, Venus approaches earth more closely and Net difference between orbital energies of Venus and earth is less than that between orbital energies of mars and earth.  So it is energetically easier to escape earth, execute a heliocentric transfer orbit to Venus,  and inject into orbit around that it is to escape earth, execute a heliocentric transfer to mars, and then inject into orbit around Mars.   It is also easier to get back to earth from Venus than to get back to earth from Mars.

The main reason why mars is more talked about is simply that Martian surface are:

1.  Mars is at present far less inhospitable than Venus.

2.  mars has almost limitless (compared to oUr foreseeable needs) reservoir of water near the surface where as Venus has none and all that would be needed would need to be carried there.

3. Our current understanding of the geology of mars suggests that the present surface of mars had experienced much the same hydrothermal and hydrochemical processes that on earth formed many of earth’s most useful and economically valuable mineral ore deposits.  So we have reasonable expectation that mars has varied mineral ore resources and will be able to supply a fairly sizeable number of raw materials needed of a self-sustaining colony.  On the other hand, our current understanding of the geology of Venus suggest the present surface of Venus formed after Venus had lost all her water, so Venusian surface is unlikely to have experienced most of the ore forming geological processes earth and mars has known, so Venus is likely to be largely devoid of important mineral ore deposits required to support a self-sustaining colonies.