Venus: Will it ever be possible to shield the planet from the sun and make it cool enough for habitation?

Answer 1

It will certainly be possible sometime in the future - not with today's technology of course. But a hundred years from now, who knows?

But think about the logistics.
The diameter of Venus is 13,000 km - that would need a solar shield of similar size. How would we build it, out of what, and how would we get it there?

Think about the cost/benefit.
How much would it cost, and what would we gain (and when)?

Think about the physics.
Shielding the planet from the sun would be fine, but making Venus habitable means we would have to get rid of about 90% of its atmosphere (that is what is holding the heat in, not the proximity to the sun).
And do we shield the whole planet, just part of it, all of just part of the time? And how would we know what would be the best solution?

There is no water in the atmosphere or on the land, so we'd have to bring billions of tons of water from somewhere.
There is no free oxygen in the air so we'd have to bring tons of that as well - and keep replenishing it because the elements in the atmosphere will combine with the oxygen and remove it.
But there is a lot of of carbon dioxide, so may a few billion tons of soil (and soil bacteria, worms, and fertilizer) and a few billion trees and plants might help with the air (maybe in only a few hundred thousand years).

Answer 2

Certainly. It would take either a huge construction (a sort of mirror, blocking a significant portion of the solar rays), or it might merely take the removal of all greenhouse gases from Venus' atmosphere.

Consider that a "mirror" could be made relatively small (relative to the planet) if set close to Venus in a Venus-synchronous orbit. It would merely have to block a portion of the sunlight, so it certainly need not be as large as the planet itself. Even better would be a translucent or polarized "mirror", which permits some of the light to pass through and the rest to be reflected. Of course, if this construct were ever struck by a meteor or comet and destroyed, then Venus Colony becomes Microwave City (perhaps reflective-surfaced buildings as a backup?).

Jim, http://www.jimpettis.com/wheel/

Answer 3

Even if you could do that AND you could exchange the atmosphere AND you could spin it up to have a near 24 hour cycle (the last one being basically impossible with any imaginable technology), it still would take thousand of years for the planet to cool down enough to be habitable.

Answer 4

First things first. Venus has high CO2. Massive amounts of sulfur. And its temperature is close to 900degrees.
Does Venus have a magnetic field?
Would it be ever possible? More than likely not in the next 10,000 years.

Answer 5

Any habitable area would have to be built underground or under a canopy so that it could be heated when in the shade and cooled when in the sun. But maybe. Perhaps we should go to Mercury... better solar power.

Answer 6

Venus has an almost completely carbon dioxide atmosphere and the cloud covering is sulphuric acid - nasty.

The upshot is that even if we could make it cool as a November day in Manchester you still wouldn't want to live there.

Answer 7

The Sun will become hot enough and big enough to engulf the Earth in time so I would like to see what shield could protect us from that!

X

Answer 8

Actually Venus is hotter than Mercury..

Answer 9

What about the other half of venus that is always in the shade and therefore to cold to be inhabitated?

Seems an awful lot of work to do by shading half a planet so only half will then be able to be of use

Answer 10

No, we gave up on the hostile atmosphere. We are working on Mars though as well as one of the moons of , I believe, Jupitor.