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#Blimp
deep-space-netwerk · 1 month
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What do you mean by Venus floating cities?
I'm hoping to write a science fiction story about visiting Venus as part of the space race and I would love your input
Alright so the thing with Venus is that we're all very familiar with her horrible hell-death clouds and 900°F surface temperatures. We all understand the surface of Venus is not a fun place for humans to be.
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But, nobody ever talks about the fact that ABOVE the hell-death clouds, Venus is a paradise. The most Earth-like environment we know of in the solar system, beyond Earth itself, is actually in the skies of Venus.
About 30 miles above the surface, the pressure is ~1 atmosphere, and the temperature ranges from 30 - 100°F, which is Happy Human™ standard pressure and temperature.
What's more, a breathable mix of oxygen and nitrogen provides over 60% the lifting power on Venus that helium does on Earth. In other words, a balloon full of human-breathable air would float to the habitable range of Venus's atmosphere. We could float a ship with the very air we breathe.
The other great thing about this is that it avoids one of the big problems with Mars colonization. On Mars, any habitat on the surface full of breathable air is vulnerable to leaks and explosive decompression, a la the Martian.
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Floating on Venus, a balloon full of breathable air doesn't have a significant pressure difference between the inside and the outside. Which means, any leaks or tears would be very slow and manageable. You could fix that shit with duct tape!
Similarly, because the environment outside the balloon is so Earth-like, humans living there wouldn't need any big fancy pressurized suits for extravehicular work. We'd need air to breathe, maybe some heat protection, and protection against the acid rain. That's it. 
Venus also provides the tools to keep us fed! It's atmosphere is made primarily of carbon dioxide, even above the dense horrible clouds. What likes carbon dioxide? Plants from Earth!! Lets grow FOOD on FLOATING PLATFORMS in the SKIES of VENUS.
This whole idea actually came out of a NASA effort exploring potential Venus colonization. The program was called HAVOC - the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept.
It hasn't really gone anywhere, and as far as I know there are no real plans to revisit it. Unfortunately, from a practicality standpoint, Mars is a much more viable target for human colonization. Not only is it better poised for outer solar system exploration, being farther away from the sun, but living on Venus would come with too many complicated contingencies. In the event of a major failure on Venus, you'd need to fly to another base, or fuck off all the way to orbit. I understand why people aren't really in a hurry to live somewhere where landing on the surface means certain death.
But that doesn't mean I won't be forever and always enamored by the skies of Venus. Here's one of the artist concepts to come out of HAVOC.
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I want to be there.
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yuumei-art · 2 years
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My preferred mode of transportation~ on a giant steampunk koi blimp
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zangtang · 8 months
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Have you ever considered that you might be making too much of a big deal about whether anyone can see your belly hang
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artbookisland · 1 year
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An impressive scan from “Akira Club”, Katsuhiro Otomo.
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electronicsquid · 2 months
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The Flying A Gasoline blimp used by Dartmouth students to invade Princeton
(Michael Rougier. 1947)
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fatmanluver99 · 1 month
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Damn look at this delicious sexy fat pig. Ive pinned him down to the bed permanently and now he’s going to be fed forever. My beautiful blimp of pig.
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bigglesworld · 3 months
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Goodyear blimp 'Puritan'. Over Cleveland. 1920s
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downfalldestiny · 6 months
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Cappadocia 🎈 !.
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nemfrog · 9 months
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Above the arctic. Polar guide. 1948.
Internet Archive
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teacyn · 5 months
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I present to you all: A balloon named Teacyn! This is gonna be my lovely Midwest Furfest badge, and is drawn by @aspiffygoat! Looking forward to wearing it.
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zangtang · 6 months
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Another perfect fit.
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cassettefuturism87 · 2 years
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Neo-constellation 
A new constellation indicates a new destination. But is it for you?
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nobrashfestivity · 11 months
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Unknown , Home Movie, 1950s
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electronicsquid · 4 days
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Crew steadying a navy blimp used for searching for submarines
(J.R. Eyerman. 1951)
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newyorkthegoldenage · 6 months
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The Goodyear baby dirigible Puritan would have visited folks at Battery Park in lower Manhattan had it not been for the high winds, September 27, 1928. The little air ship was flown to Roosevelt Field, L.I. from Lakehurst, N.J.. From there, it flew over the city, then swooped low over the Battery, where it dropped a note saying that high winds prevented the scheduled landing.
Photo: Associated Press
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