(2019 Archived) - An Address to Anti-Venusian Surfacism

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:

In our enquiry for an extraterrestrial home – a new haven for humanity – unlike a hundred pages ago, we found the Venusian cloud-tops rather than Venus-as-a-whole, to be a candidate (the other being the Martian surface). We found it to be quite ideally par with human likings – protection from meteorites and cosmic radiation, more solar energy, better travelling, calm weather, easy supply, abundances of resources, easy to commercialize, Earth-like gravity, pressure and temperature – what more would we have to ask for. That’s literally like everything Mars doesn’t have! path

Well, there would still be a fault in the Venusian system, which a nit-picky few might demand for – a true surface (If, a fan of PBS Space Time, you’d probably know this as surfacism). The  absurdity of how surfacism underscores the absence of Venu-atmospheric terra firma along with the floccinaucinihilipilification of all Venu-atmospheric benefits was just overwhelming. Having calmed-down over the months, I understood that surfacism is rather an unconscious instinct; a favouration than an ideology that people guard with the full power of their belief. I understood that a firm surface is rather symbolic as a foundation for civilization – well, sort-of.  It is slightly fair, considering that there were never Earth-civilizations which thrived over the heights of the cloud-tops, or under the depths of the ocean: Every civilization ever-to-thrive and every person ever-to-live; rose and fell on the Earth’s surface. It was same for the past, is same for the present, and likely same for the future. Other than the air, the Earth’s surface gives literally everything we need. Getting those 55km up in the atmosphere – that’s simply too unnecessarily challenging. That is, any floating civilization would have to incur an expense – a gargantuan expense – to implement an artificial surface to act as the foundation, which would be an unnecessary measure to take on natural terra firma.

However, do note that the artificial surfaces of the cloud-cities would be as stable; considering stability and functionality; it would technically be indistinguishable from natural terra firma. With good engineering and precautionary measures, any artificial surfaces would be no worse than the Earth’s. But, the seemingly humongous expenditure – that’s a different story. Presumably, this logic and stream-of-consciousness would have taken place with the surfacism that deems the Martian surface as ‘better’ than the Venusian cloud-cities. However, you and I are still likely to believe that the Venusian cloud-tops are truly better, and for a solid reason: The contrast between the Venusian cloud-tops and the Martian surface is quite very different from that between the Earth’s cloud-tops and the Earth’s surface. I mean, we’ve literally found 84 good reasons as to why the Venusian cloud-tops give a more hospitable home than Mars, and we cannot merely underscore one down-side over the collective effects of the 84 up-sides. Don’t believe me? Well, I’ve plotted a list of the alleged 84 up-sides just to be sure:

1.       Venusian gravity is Earth-like and physiologically sound

2.       Martian gravity is critically-low and physiologically unsound.

3.       The alleged artificial gravity for Mars, at present, would be costly and un-experimented.

4.       The cloud-city exterior has the ideal Earth-like pressure of 1 bar or something near that.

5.       The exterior of the Martian bases have a freakishly low pressure of 0.0168 bars – a vacuum to the first decimal place.

6.       Pressurized suits are unnecessary for outdoor activities and EVA of the cloud-cities.

7.       Pressurized suits are mandatory for outdoor activities and EVA of the Martian bases.

8.       The EVA suits of the Venusians would be quite flexible, comfortable and convenient to use.

9.       The EVA suits of the Martians would be quite rigid, uncomfortable, clumsy and inconvenient to use.

10.    The Venusian cloud-cities and habitats won’t explosively decompress when seriously compromised.

11.    The Martian bases and habitats might violently decompress when seriously compromised.

12.    There is ample time to repair a seriously compromised cloud-cities or Venusian habitats.

13.    There is little-to-no time to repair a seriously compromised Martian base or habitat.

14.    Dealing with the Earth-like cloud-top pressures wouldn’t incur a large significant expense.

15.    Dealing with the low Martian pressures bears a high price-tag.

16.    The cloud-top temperatures are Earth-like and hospitable.

17.    The Martian temperatures are un-survivably low.

18.    Venus offers a better sleep-cycle with a dampened chance of Sleep Deprivation.

19.    The Martians would require more-expensive heavy life-support and thermal protection to deal the low temperatures with other factors.

20.    The Venusians would require lighter and cheaper life-support and thermal protection for the ideal cloud-top temperatures and other factors.

21.    Martian temperatures vary seasonally and subject metallic structures to tear-and-wear.

22.    The cloud-top temperatures are always constant with no fear of metallic structures being thermally subjected to tear-and-wear.

23.    Dealing with the cloud-top temperatures bears a low cost.

24.    Dealing with Martian temperatures and temperature fluctuations would be requiring more maintenance expenditure.

25.    Cosmic radiation is a problem on Mars, with several undesirable consequences.

26.    Cosmic Radiation on Mars would lead to the Martians to live most of their lives metres underground, which can be psychologically agonizing.

27.    EVA and outdoor activities on Mars would be timed and limited by radiation hazards.

28.    Cosmic Radiation is neither a threat nor a hazard nor a general concern to Venusian life.

29.    UV is neither a hazard to Venus (nor Mars).

30.    218% more availability of UV on Venus than Mars, would make UV-based industry on Venus more profitable.

31.    Venus is a faster-moving target, and fast-moving targets are harder to be hit by a solar storm.

32.    Mars is a slower-moving target, and slow-moving targets are more prone to being hit by a solar storm.

33.    A geomagnetic storm on Mars wouldn’t be any less bad than that of Venus.

34.    The Martians are mostly on the mercy of Mars’ rotation, with a half of the planet facing the sun.

35.    The Venusians can modify their destiny with all of Venusian civilization staying-put in the night-side of Venus, until the geomagnetic storm passes.

36.    Venus has an Earth-equivalent atmosphere to protect cloud-civilization upon the cloud-tops, from meteorites.

37.    The Martian atmosphere offers little-to-no protection from meteorites.

38.    Micrometeorites can cause tear-and-wear over extended periods of time.

39.    The Venusians can survive an asteroid impact in-advance by fleeing from the alleged impact zone.

40.    The constantly fast-moving Venusian cloud-cities and cloud-archipelagos are a harder target for unsuspecting asteroids.

41.    The Martians are at the mercy of Mars’ rotation, which has almost no effectiveness in protecting Martian civilization from both unsuspecting and prior-noticed impacts.

42.    The Hohmann transfer orbit to Mars is longer than that to Venus.

43.    The Hohmann transfer orbit to Venus is more economically-sound and efficient, than the most efficient and economically-sound path to Mars.

44.    The launch windows of Venus open more frequently, meaning more missions could be done in unit time.

45.    The Martian launch windows open less frequently, meaning that fewer missions could be done in unit time.

46.    Less travel-time needed for Venus.

47.    More travel-time needed for Mars.

48.    Martian travellers are more prone to the risks of interplanetary travel.

49.    Venusian travellers are less prone to the risks of interplanetary travel.

50.    Everything we’ve seen so far told us that Venus is a better destination to start a colony.

51.    Venus receives 218% more solar energy than Mars.

52.    The Martians would have to survive underground in their bases for a long time, until the Duststorm passes and the dust settled.

53.    EVA and outdoor activities are un-conductible and left behind schedule.

54.    Solar Energy is unable to reach the Martian surface, potentially leaving the Martians without energy and relying on expensive back-ups.

55.    Abrasive properties of Martian dust could wear-off structures in prolonged exposure to Duststorms.

56.    Suddenly formed Duststorms could mess with the EDL procedure, and cause fatalities.

57.    The triboelectric effect during a Duststorms could give rise to strong electric fields that could cause damage.

58.    The damages of communication, transportation and related essential systems must be repaired after the storm passes.

59.    Irreversible destruction by Duststorms could have deadly consequences to Martian colonies.

60.    Atmospheric super-rotation in Venus is essential in circumnavigation and day-night cycle.

61.    Venusian weather is predictable and perpetual, meaning that they could be dealt with easily.

62.    The Venusian weather above cloud-tops is pretty calm, blue, and sunny and not dangerous.

63.    Airborne Martian dust or soil contains toxic compounds like Perchlorates.

64.    Airborne Martian dust or soil might contain toxic heavy metals like Hexavalent Chromium.

65.    Presence of Hazardous atmospheric gases and Organic compounds on Mars.

66.    Inhalation or Ingestion of Martian particulate matter is carcinogenous, and could harm the Martian’s health.

67.    Acidity of Martian soil could be harmful when introduced into habitats.

68.    Abrasion and Accumulation of Martian dust could disrupt systems.

69.    A simple acid-resistant coating is enough to deal with all Sulphuric acid issues.

70.    Sulfuric acid is quite industrially and sartorially useful for Venusian civilization – it’s free!

71.    Venusian supply would only require a buoyant Titanium sphere.

72.    Martian supply would be more complex with large parachutes and ballooned landing.

73.    Precautions needed for safe Martian supply is expensive.

74.    The Physiological difficulties which the Martians are burdened with, but the Venusians are free from, would create much more room for psychological effects and overall unhappiness (or even envy).

75.    Purification and Filtration of Martian soil is costly.

76.    Artificial lighting for Martian agriculture using low Martian sunlight makes the system inefficient.

77.    We have the ability to use safe and ideal Earth soil in Venusian agriculture.

78.    We have the ability to use natural sunlight in Venusian agriculture.

79.    The Venusian atmosphere houses an incredible 3 bars of Nitrogen.

80.    The Martian atmosphere houses a meagre 0.0004536 bars of Nitrogen.

81.    The Venusians would never run-out of Nitrogen as a buffer gas or derived fertilizer.

82.    The Martians might run-out of Nitrogen as a buffer gas or derived fertilizer.

83.    The Venusian atmosphere and surface has plenty of resources and allows for many mass-producibles (82-groups already!).

84.    20 of those 84-groups are broad, consisting of many individual types of resources and mass producibles. Another 9 are elements, which could be used in the mass-production of many of its compounds. Thereby, there are a theoretically infinite amount of mass-producibles.

Think of all these benefits and advantages. Could merely one factor outweigh the combined good of all the aforementioned 84 reasons? Considering that an artificial surface would be as good as the Earth’s surface (and much better than the Martian surface), and functionally and stability-wise indistinguishable from natural terra firma; wouldn’t you agree that the absence of true natural terra firma above the Venusian cloud-tops wouldn’t be a problem? If not yet convinced; just think of all the benefits and advantages of living above the Venusian cloud-tops that need to be sacrificed, merely for Mars having a natural surface. Do note that this would also be done against the will of 84 good acts of reasoning, which are unsupportive of Martian colonization. That absurdity is simply intolerable! Presumably, the expenditure for implementing an artificial surface seems to be similarly absurd, and this absurdity seemingly takes the cynosure of this issue – it’s like the nexus of this entire affair. It’s almost as if the absurdity of Venusian surfacism and the absurdity of artificial-surface construction cancel each-other out! That’s good logic – too bad that it has a flaw!

Let’s not forget that by sacrificing the benefits and advantages of colonizing the Venusian cloud-tops, the Martians would have to make-up with lots-of cold hard cash. The freakishly low pressures and temperatures – the Martians would have to deal with this by living under the influence of heavy life-support and thermal-insulatory systems: systems which need to be implemented by spending heavy sums of money. The fields of solar arrays needed to be constructed to gather the 35% less solar energy received – think of the overall efficiency of these systems and the hefty sums of money needed to install them. Think of how expensive it would be to extract atmospheric material from the vacuum to the first decimal place, for the maintenance of structures against dust abrasion, to recover civilization from Duststorms, and for the filtration of Martian soil from Perchlorates and most heavy metals for agriculture. Succinctly, dealing with those lost benefits would require a price to pay – costs that may far exceed those needed for the construction of artificial surfaces. Radically thinking, Venusian colonization could save humanity of billions, or even possibly trillions of dollars of investment, which could be invested elsewhere for more wore worthy causes. As for expenditure! :

Technically speaking, over the course of centuries in a Marsless universe, the compound effect of Venusian colonization could probably save-us from quadrillions and perhaps quintillions of dollars of potential accumulated expense in our own. Similarly, on a more human level, having an artificial surface over natural surface wouldn’t be of any concern, if the natural surface belongs to a planetified version of sorrow and torture. Simply, spending an confined-underground lifetime with the physiological and psychological incongruities of the cumbersome Martian circumstances – it isn’t simply worth having natural surface, over a much-better lifetime spent on artificial Venusian surfaces.

By now, any thoughts concerning Venusian surfacism and Venu-atmospheric colonization would have become ahōsi – it would have been stirred dissolved and into nothingness. Presuming so, I believe that this chapter achieved its purpose. But perhaps another consternating issue might have reincarnated in surfacism’s place – How are the cloud-cities to be mid-atmospherically constructed and what are the pioneering steps needed to be taken today for it?    

Bibliography

Achinthya Nanayakkara (31.03.2025)

Originally written - 2019