A colony of settlers on Venus: the USSR was implementing a giant project

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Back in the 60s and 70s. of the previous century, the USSR with a serious intention wanted to master Venus. The Soviet Union planned to organize a colony of settlers there.

In December 70, the first spacecraft in the history of astronautics landed on the surface of this planet. In general, for more than 20 years, they managed to send almost two dozen devices there. The world then called Venus "the Russian planet".

There were several reasons for this, and the main one was concluded in the greatest similarity of Venus to Earth: here is the size, and mass, and composition. For example, Mars is too small, has a rarefied atmosphere and is located very far from the Earth. But Venus is considered for scientists, one might say, an earthly double.

As a second reason, we can consider the fact that even in the 1st half of the last century, the surface of the planet was a kind of giant ocean. It is the presence of the ocean, according to scientists, to some extent explains the clouds that eternally surround the planet. The ocean is life, and because of this, Venus is more attractive in this regard.

The third reason is the resources themselves. Venus is said to have immodest reserves of solid elements such as uranium. Also, due to its proximity to the luminary, Venus is a real natural thermonuclear reactor, capable of giving a strong impetus to energy development.

How was Venus “revived”?

Little was known for certain about Venus, since behind its dense layer, no telescope was able to examine the planetary surface, but because of this, the USSR did not stop in terms of building active tasks to colonize the planet. At the dawn of the 60s. of the last century, the astronomer from the United States Carl Sagan submitted an idea to the Soviet scientific community to disseminate the plan for terraforming Venus.

In other words, it is the creation of conditions on the planet that resemble those of the earth.

At the first stage, it was envisaged to send unicellular green algae to the planet itself, which would multiply rapidly if there were no natural enemies. As soon as they fill the ocean, the algae will begin to decompose in the excess of carbon dioxide available on the planet and enrich the atmosphere with oxygen.

All such processes will reduce the greenhouse effect, and the planetary temperature will gradually decrease. It has been speculated that over the course of a century, temperatures could drop to less than 100 ° C.

But in 1967, the 1st space station of the USSR flew to the atmosphere of this planet and transmitted information that violated all the plans of the scientific community, because, according to it, it turned out that there was no ocean on Venus.

In 1969, another station, called "Venus-6", flew to Venus, which gave even more accurate information, namely that the planet has more than 97% carbon dioxide, 2% nitrogen and 0.1% oxygen, and water vapor there are even fewer who can help start life.

Flying Islands

The above plan eventually collapsed, but it was replaced by a new concept. If the surface of the planet is so cruel and not suitable for life, is it not possible to settle on the clouds of the planet? At an altitude of 60 km. above the planetary surface there is a continuous cloud layer, the thickness of which is approximately 10 km.

The Venera-4 device recorded that at this altitude the temperature indicators reach -25 ° C. It is, of course, quite cold, but you can still endure if you compare it with +475, which is on the surface. The pressure in the zone of the cloud layer is also very similar to that of the Earth.

It is worth noting that clouds, like terrestrial ones, consist of the smallest ice crystals, so there is water there, although there is very little of it. All this makes the conditions for a person being there much more comfortable than on the Moon and Mars. Astronauts will not need a spacesuit, because a light mask with a unit for producing oxygen by a chemical method is enough.

The engineers of the USSR depicted a possible arrangement of such flying settlements. One drawing was posted back in 1971 in a magazine called Youth Technique.

The ship was a platform of gigantic dimensions, surrounded by a spherical shell, consisting of several layers of synthetic film, between which circulating movements of gas compounds, which keep the "airship" itself afloat. The shell is transparent, and through it you can see the whitish sky of the planet.

At the bottom of the platform, there are living quarters, warehouses and laboratories, and above them is the land where agricultural crops grow.

Dariy Nastich:

You read and tears in your eyes, and now we are preoccupied with building an office in the shape of a rocket!