I've been working on this for quite a while now.

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/8292/venuscolony.png

You did this yourself? It looks very good. Though Venus will be an extremely difficult planet to colonize, even in the atmosphere. I would consider dropping any connection to the ground and letting the 'sky island' float with the winds. They are at 220 mph in the atmosphere, which will make it very difficult to keep the 'sky island' tethered. Plus sulfuric acid, uber high temperatures and pressues will be putting fantastic strains on the tethers as well. Also any ground colony will face similar problems.

Lastly the rotation of the planet is so slow, actually in retrograde, that a day on the surface lasts 117 Earth days leaving it very difficult to grow anything with any natural light from the 'sky island'. But if you left the island to rotate with the winds, it will circle the planet about every 4 days. A much more manageable cycle for any crops that you wish to grow.
Brooks

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Dave Powell wrote:

Yeah, even if you can't get talked out of the tether, at least eliminate any significant ground-based facilities. Unlike the upper atmospheric structures, those structures would require building materials and technologies well in advance of anything we can reasonably extrapolate.

That proposal to circle the planet on the winds so you can have 4-day-long days instead of 117 is interesting, though.

Regards,

Mike Combs

From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of brooksn
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2011 10:46 AM
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: Venus Colony Concept

You did this yourself? It looks very good. Though Venus will be an extremely difficult planet to colonize, even in the atmosphere. I would consider dropping any connection to the ground and letting the 'sky island' float with the winds. They are at 220 mph in the atmosphere, which will make it very difficult to keep the 'sky island' tethered. Plus sulfuric acid, uber high temperatures and pressues will be putting fantastic strains on the tethers as well. Also any ground colony will face similar problems.

Lastly the rotation of the planet is so slow, actually in retrograde, that a day on the surface lasts 117 Earth days leaving it very difficult to grow anything with any natural light from the 'sky island'. But if you left the island to rotate with the winds, it will circle the planet about every 4 days. A much more manageable cycle for any crops that you wish to grow.
Brooks

Here is a full-sized version of the graphic:

http://www.spacehabitat.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=515

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 10:01 PM, sailor.barsoom wrote: