Category Archives: Venus

Why the Moon?

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Jonathan Goff

In spite of my interest in the Asteroid Redirect Mission, I’m still a firm believer that the Moon has a major role to play in space settlement. While Mars and Venus (at the cloud level) may have atmospheres more conducive … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, International Space Collaboration, ISRU, Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development, NASA, NEOs, Space Development, Space Exploration, Space Settlement, Space Transportation, Venus | 14 Comments

Random Thought: Venus Really-Balloon Rockets

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Jonathan Goff

I haven’t run the numbers on this yet, but I was thinking about how to do reusable transportation on Venus recently. My previous Venusian Rocket Floaties blog post showed that existing upper stages, sealed off, could float at altitudes high … Continue reading →

Posted in Launch Vehicles, Space Transportation, Venus | 13 Comments

Venusian Acid-Cooked Turkeys, or Why I Still Read Blog Comments…

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

In a world where many blogs and websites are shutting down comment threads, I think we all need the occasional reminder of why we permit comments. Sure, you often learn something new from other people’s inputs, and sometimes get corrected … Continue reading →

Posted in Humor, Venus | 13 Comments

Venus ISRU: ISRU Development Phases

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

In the last post in this series, we discussed methods for gas phase processing once the easily condenseable atmospheric constituents had been condensed-out. Before continuing on to a discussion about various processes for creating chemical precursors, I thought it would … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Space Settlement, Venus | 19 Comments

Venus ISRU: Gas Phase Processes

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

In the last post, we talked about methods to condense out the five most readily condenseable constituents of the Venusian atmosphere (sulfuric acid, water, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen fluoride). In some ways the next steps of the gas … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Space Settlement, Venus | 14 Comments

Venus ISRU: Condenseables [Updated]

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

[Note: Karl caught an important oversight in the comments. With a concentration of 150ppm and a boiling point of only -10C, Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) should also be considered a condenseable. It’s dew point is likely pretty close to water’s. So … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Space Development, Space Settlement, Venus | 19 Comments

Random Thoughts: Inspiration Venus?

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

This morning, Grant Bonin (of the UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory) sent me a very interesting JBIS paper from about 6 years ago, discussing a manned-flyby/robotic-telepresence expedition to Venus. In light of the Venus ISRU series, I thought it worth doing … Continue reading →

Posted in Space Exploration, Venus | 6 Comments

Venus Terraforming Open Thread

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

There have been several comments in the other Venus posts about terraforming. I don’t have a lot of personal opinions or ideas on the topic, but would like to provide this open thread for people to comment to their hearts’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Thread, Venus | 16 Comments

Venusian Rocket Floaties

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

While doing research previous in preparation for the Venus ISRU series, one of the questions that I knew needed a good answer was “how do you actually send vehicles to/from a floating cloud colony?” Unlike the any other near-term manned … Continue reading →

Posted in Launch Vehicles, Space Transportation, Venus | 31 Comments

Venus ISRU: What Do We Have to Work With?

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

In the last mini blog-post, we talked about some of the benefits of atmospheric-feedstock ISRU. But that leads to the question, what materials are there in the Venusian atmosphere, particularly in and around the 50km zone? While chemical engineering may … Continue reading →

Posted in ISRU, Space Development, Space Settlement, Venus | 54 Comments