(2019 Archived) The Phases of Colonization with Regard to Venus and the Cycling of Essential Resources

Having written this in 2019, and originally published in 2021.. when I was 15 and 17, there would be inaccuracies that I would correct here. Having removed it, I'm publishing  again, for sake of completion so that the efforts wouldn't have gone to vain: 

The colonization of an alien world, or technically anything, is divisible into three common stages, which are universally applicable to all potential colonies. They are as follows ^[51]:

The first phase is based on exploration, which would include the cartography of environment and looking for resources. If North America were to be taken as our example; it would be the arrival of Columbus and his fleet, and some of the following missions. They set up camps, mapped the area, and went looking for resources. But they didn’t stay there for long; after a while, they abandoned camp and went back to their motherland ^[51].

But they returned to establish true colonies. They set-up outposts and founded settlements, but they were still very dependent on their countries-of-origin; this is the context of a phase-II colonies i.e. ‘sufficient via imports from place-of-origin’. Some of these colonies will fail, but the ones that do succeed will proceed with establishing a permanent presence; they will head to phase-III ^[51].

As for phase-III in the context of North America: Tradesmen and labourers began to immigrate, and use the prevalent opportunities for themselves and their families. The colonies began to produce-to fulfil their requirements, and send their wealth back to their countries-of-origin. Phase-III colonies are ‘self-sufficient via exports to place-of-origin’ ^[51]. Such colonies, after a while will tend to obtain independence, especially when their origin-place begins to capitalize on them.

It is safe to say that phase I of Venusian colonization already begun, as we’ve managed to get a healthy understanding of Venusian cartography, atmosphere, topology and geology, through unmanned exploration. My opinion is that this phase began in 1961, when Venera 1 flew-by Venus ^[3].We’ve been exploring Venus ever since, although not-as-much after the 1980s. The manned HAVOC missions (which I’d describe a bit later) would also theoretically be part of this phase; including the mission with the one-year atmospheric stay, as this mission is short-lived and mostly based on exploration and experiment.

But, I believe that the manned HAVOC mission with one-year atmospheric stay would rather be the transition from phase I to phase-II. Similarly, the first few attempts of permanent residence would be part of this transaction, as well. There would be a larger crew of scientists and engineers, who would do the ground-work to stay permanently ^[51]: They will experiment available material, and develop methodologies of utilizing them, with the ultimate aim of attaining self-sufficiency.

The missions of permanent residence that follow will have a higher success rate with increased sustainability; they can live permanently in the Venusian atmosphere. I believe that the crew might be able to utilize available material from the Venusian atmosphere and produce essential resources. The crew might experiment with agriculture and horticulture; maintain and harvest communal farms, and perhaps grow meat from stem-cells. Nevertheless, they will still be quite heavily dependent on supplies from the Earth, including food and infrastructure. They are sufficient, yet still dependent on their place-of-origin i.e. the Earth for supplies. Thus, this system would technically be in-accordance with the criteria of a phase II colony^[1].

A perpetual system of cycling essential resources; Water, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Carbon, Sulfur etc, is essential for a self-sufficient biosphere – especially for a Phase-II extraterrestrial colony which is still trying to. The same is for the Venusian cloud-cities. But, a perpetual system will not run forever; there will always be something to disrupt it: Those essential recourses could be lost, and methodologies of generating those recourses are required to compensate for it^[1]. I would like to suggest a few of the alleged methodologies, for retrieving essential resources using the available material in the Venusian atmosphere in the consequent series of chapters.

Bibliography

Achinthya Nanayakkara (31.03.2025)

Originally written - 2019