How difficult would it be to make Venus habitable?

Question

I know that the planet Venus is currently very inhospitable. The atmosphere is toxic and it doesn't appear to have water. It about the same size as the earth and it is a terrestrial planet. It seems as if we had the technology we could transform it into a habitable planet. So how difficult would it be? How far into the future before we begin to start colonizing it?

Answer 1

It would be very difficult but still easier than making Mars habitable.

The only thing wrong with Venus is that it is too close to the Sun. If you could build a sunblocker at L1 big enough you would be reducing the amount of light falling on Venus. If you could block out 88% of the light Venus would get as much solar radiation as earth. And begin to cool down dramatically. When temperatures get low enough for the sulphuric acid and water vapour in the atmosphere to condense (the greater the pressure the greater the boiling point of water) things would begin to change real quick. Liquid water mixed with the parched soil would turn into hydroxides. CO2 dissolved in water becomes H2CO3. Acid + base becomes salt + water. In this case solid carbonate rock and water. The water is not consumed by the reaction (a catalyst) and is free to turn more CO2 and soil into carbonate rock. This reaction occurs spontaneous and would go on for as long as there is either CO2 or hydroxides in the soil. On earth (which had an atmosphere similar to Venus in its youth) almost all of the atmosphere was "sucked in" like this. The same thing would happen on Venus if there only was liquid water. And when the process is over the Venutian skies would be clear. No more sulphuric acid haze. Just some CO2 and nitrogen. Temperatures and surface pressure would be very much earthlike. (Venus actually has almost exactly the same amount of nitrogen in its atmosphere as earth.) Now, and not a day sooner, humans will actually need to go to the surface as all the work has been done at L1. And they will have a whole new world to settle.

Venus may have a lot less water than earth but it would still be enough to cover Venus with an ocean 30 cm deep (a foot) if the surface was perfectly smooth. More than enough for humans to live off. So what are you waiting for?

Answer 2

There have been a few proposals, but it seem impossible with current technology.


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...Carl Sagan, an astronomer and popularizer of science, proposed the planetary engineering of Venus in a 1961 article published in the journal Science entitled, "The Planet Venus."[3] Sagan imagined seeding the atmosphere of Venus with algae, which would remove carbon dioxide and reduce the greenhouse effect until surface temperatures dropped to "comfortable" levels. 3 billion years ago, the Earth had a carbon dioxide atmosphere. Blue-green algae and water evaporation changed the earth's atmosphere into oxygen and hydrogen gas. Later discoveries about the conditions on Venus made this particular approach impossible since Venus has too much atmosphere to process and sequester. Even if atmospheric algae could thrive in the hostile and arid environment of Venus's upper atmosphere, any carbon that was fixed in organic form would be liberated as carbon dioxide again as soon as it fell into the hot lower regions....

Answer 3

it depends on the "technology" that you assume to have.
suppose we obtain the technology to move planets, then it wont take much :D

but more realistically speaking, you are talking about an organism that can live in that harsh environment. now it wont be anything like the organisms on earth bcoz most of us are water and carbon-based. but it is possible atleast theoretically to have organisms based on other elements that can live comfortably in venus and, what do you know, they might just be there right now...

as far as us colonizing it is concerned, unless we can find a material that can shield ourselves from d terrible heat and radiation on the way to Venus, we cant even start the journey

Answer 4

Current technology makes it impossible. Mars would be a more likely choice. Mars has ice which suggests water is or was present at one time. Venus is too hot for us humans.

Answer 5

take it away from its current position from the sun..almost of its conditions basically depend on that fact. The habitable area in the solar system right now is somewhat past it but before mars. soon after about 4 billion years, it will shift towards mars.

in other words, the capability of a planet to hold life depends on its size and its distance from the star it revolves around.

Answer 6

To begin with you have to reverse the greenhouse effect - that means we have to develop a strain of plant that can survive 465 degrees C - since that is greater than water's boiling point thats going to be tough.

The temperatures are so high that lead melts on its surface. Its going to be near impossible to do it.

Mars on the other hand is easier as it needs warming up (greenhouse effect) which we know how to do. But it is still speculative as to whether it can hold onto this atmosphere, and terra formation takes years.

Answer 7

Very difficult, just a few details of its atmosphere: 90 atm, about 400 degrees C, full of toxic gases like sulfuric acid...

Answer 8

First of all it's nearly impossible to even reach the first 50 miles of Venus' atmosphere since the atmosphere is highly comprised of toxic matter, and it will be very difficult (impossible) to cleanse its atmosphere. The surface of Venus is so hot that lead mealts, which is also another factor to consider in making it Habitable.
Venus is also a Volcanic planet which is why it's so hot and full of Toxic.
Anyway it's IMPOSSIBLE to transfer a planet as Venus to be as habitable as Earth Only God can do that.

Answer 9

I don't think we could. To the person how said about revercingthe green house effect: If we could do that then we could just stay on earth.

Answer 10

Replace its atmosphere with one that is good enough to support life and also it needs lots of water. (Almost impossible). Actually today our technology can't even make it possible in a million years.