It's noteasy to find comfortable places to stay elsewhere in the solar system. However,Geoffrey Landis, a scientist at NASA's Glenn Research Center, suggests thatVenus might be a good place to look.
I know what you're thinking. Venus? Surface temperature of 914 degrees Fahrenheit (490degrees Celsius) with about 92 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth'ssurface? Doesn't sound very hospitable.
At that altitude, the atmosphere of Venus is at its mostEarth-like. The atmosphere has an air pressure of about one bar and thetemperature ranges in the 32-122 degrees Fahrenheit range (0-50 degrees Celsius). You'd need breathingapparatus, but probably not a space suit.
Landis adds that a city might not be as difficult to build —and to keep afloat — as you might think.
"Because the atmosphere of Venus is CO2, the gases thatwe live in all the time, nitrogen and oxygen, would be a lifting gas,"Landis said. "On Earth, we know to get something to lift, you needsomething lighter than air. Well, on Venus, guess what? Our air is lighter thanair, or at least lighter than the Venus atmosphere."
"Ifyou could just take the room you're sitting in and replace the walls withsomething thinner, the room would float on Venus," he remarked.
SF fans are no doubt hoping that Lando Calrissian will beavailable to act as administrator; as long as you're building Cloud City, you might as well do it right.
Readers with an interest in the classics know that this isnot a new idea; the floating island ofLaputa forms one of the wondrous locations of interest in Jonathan Swift'sbook Gulliver's Travels, whichwas published in 1728.
- Video Player: Aerial Explorers: Around our Sister Planet in 80 Days
- Venus Data Sheet
- Spacecraft Eyes Venus for Active Volcanoes
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