(2019 Archived) Commercialization: The Gateway to a Phase-III Venusian Civilization

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 Venusian Cloud-Colonies or even Martian metropolises cannot remain in phase II forever; as if the colonists require a constant supply from the Earth, Governments might lose interest along with the general public, who are technically footing the bill, and funding will shut-down ^[51]. In such a scenario, the Venusian Cloud-Colonies could permanently be abandoned.

Instead, the Venusians must find their own ways of developing infrastructure, harvest a yield sufficient for their needs, and technically be in need of less-and-less supplies from the Earth.  Their pursuit of self-sufficiency and solo infrastructure development would be realized. But, phase III will only arrive once the Venusians obtain a surplus, which could be exported back to the Earth, mostly like bartering.

The Venusian cloud-colonies will have to be ‘self-sufficient via exports to the Earth’ ^[51]. But, while agriculture and related means of food-production could be implemented and worked to self-sufficiency, but shelter or rather infrastructure development will be more challenging; especially regarding extraction and production of relevant material. For Phase-II the best that could be done would be maintaining the colony – Phase-III requires trade, trade requires a market, and specifically a market of industry. But, how exactly would it have to be done? Surely, the Venusian atmosphere couldn’t provide the necessary resources for heavy industry, or even infrastructure for it! It is why, the Venusians would have to venture into the surface – it would have most of the alleged resources, with relation to all of Venus. But, what does the surface hold, and what can we get from it?

Our knowledge of the surface chemistry of Venus is rather vague, as not many landers managed to survive long-enough to get a perfectly accurate reading. Venera 8 found the presence of igneous rock, including (1) Graphite. By similar means Venera 9, Venera 10, Vega 1, and Vega 2 established the presence of (2) basaltrocks, on the Venusian surface ^[52]. They also found the Venusian surface to have traces of radioactive elements, including some isotopes of (3) Uranium, (4)Potassium and (5) Thorium. Furthermore, the highest elevations of Venusian terra have been found to be coated with a layer on semiconductingmaterial, likely (6) Pyrite (FeS₂) or (7) Magnetite (A magnetic Fe₃O₄) ^[52].

Okay, now that we know what the Venusian surface is made-of, what can we get from it? The Venusian surface is largely made-up of Basalt rocks, which would be our key resource. Other than that, Carbon could be extracted from Graphite, and the traces of radioactive material if extracted could be used for radioisotope power conversions and thereby, as an energy source ^[1]. So, what are these Basalt rocks made-up of and what can we extract from it? Basalt Rocks are composed of three main ingredients; Pyroxene, Plagioclase and Olivine. But what are they made of? :

1.      Pyroxene    : (Ca,Na)(Mg,Fe,Al)(Al,Si)₂O

2.      Plagioclase :  CaAl₂Si₂O  and  NaAlSi₃O

3.      Olivine        : (Mg,Fe)₃SiO₄

As could be seen, the components of Basalt have an essence of Haematite (Fe₂O₃), Alumina (Al₂O₃) and Silica (SiO₂). Along with the vast amount of Basalt in the surface, a vast amount of (8) Iron, (8) Aluminium, and (9) Silicon could be produced respectively. Furthermore; (10) Calcium, (11) Sodium, and (12) Magnesium could be processed in mass quantities from the Basalt rocks. Pyroxene, Plagioclase and Olivine could be processed into Haematite, Aluminium Oxide (Alumina) and Silicon Dioxide (Silica), with the remainder processed into other material.

There would be obviously much more things extractable from the Venusian surface. But for the time-being, the aforementioned twelve would be enough, and we would find much more after a few chapters. The big question now would be; how are we supposed to mine in the Venusian surface conditions? What constraints should we expect? Well, any machinery designed for the Venusian surface, it must obviously not degrade in the lead-meting temperatures, and not be crushed by the 92 bar atmospheric pressure. The machinery must have a strong thermal protection system, and the strength to withstand that pressure ^[1].

Moreover, the surface would never get a direct view of the sun, with luminous intensity at the surface being 2% of the intensity above the atmosphere, with a spectrum weighted to the red side ^[54]: The Venusian surface gets about the same light intensity as in an unusually reddish rainy day here on the Earth, most probably during sunset. The solar arrays would have to be specially designed to cope with these circumstances. Moreover, “the atmosphere near the surface will contain significant amounts of sulfur compounds, such as SO₃ [Sulfur Trioxide], which are corrosive” ^[54]; the machinery would have to be acid-resistant.

Well, based on the totality of what we’ve seen, and what I’ve learnt from a proposal of a Venusian surface-rover; we could see that any machinery designed for the Venusian surface, specifically designed for mining in particular, would have to be:

·         Heavy Thermal Protection Systems.

·         Strong Structure to deal with atmospheric pressure.

·         High Temperature solar cells, modified to the red spectrum.

·         Stirling Refrigeration systems ^[54].

·         Remotely controlled from cloud-tops.

·         Simple Discrete Components.

·         Acid Resistance.

·         Radio-isotopic power systems ^[54].

·         Easy to remotely control and manage.

·         Durability

·         Easy to repair remotely.

·         Energy Storage.

Now that we know how to get mining-related machinery, to be specifically designed for the Venusian surface, we face another problem: How on Venus are we supposed to get mined material up-to the cloud-city altitude?  With the Venusian surface is literally being 50-55 kilometres under the cloud-cities, how are we to bring mined-material up those 50-55 kilometres, against Venusian gravity? This would be the biggest challenge for the Venusians so far, and might seem impossible. But, we simply cannot underscore this over Venusian (cloud-top) hospitality to human colonization. No matter how hard it would be, Venusian hospitality would outweigh the cons of this challenge. We must try it somehow.

One proposal would be to use remote-controlled airships, controlled by the colonists from the cloud-tops, could hover near the surface and deploy nets. The nets would collect and bring the Venusian sands and boulders to the cloud-tops ^[8], where they will be refined and manufactured into various things. Still, doing so with solar power poses a problem: the temperature of the near-surface atmosphere might “significantly degrade the performance of solar array”, which would make it “very difficult to produce reasonable efficiency out of [the] solar cells [array]” ^[53]. Moreover, “the spectrum of light reaching the surface is mostly to the red side of the spectrum due to the very thick atmosphere”, which will make it challenging to the solar arrays, which most effectively work while utilizing light from the blue-end of the spectrum ^[53]. This would require the development of new solar arrays, which would make use of the reddish light that does reach the surface.

Another proposal would be to employ aero-bots to remotely fly-down near the surface and deploy nets or grabs, which would attach cables from the cloud-colonies to the Venusian surface. I suppose that the sands and boulders would be loaded into hoppers, which would literally ascend and descend in the Venusian atmosphere, and eventually be recovered from the cloud-colonies.The cables would “have balloons with lifting gas attached at intervals along the cable to reduce the tension in the whole cable” ^[8]. Doing so might sound difficult, but it would totally pay-off at the end, giving the cities a steady inflow of raw-material.

Bibliograpahy

Achinthya Nanayakkara (31.03.2025)

Originally written - 2019