Venus is a true dichotomy.
In one sense, it is a vision of hell with extremely high surface temperatures, crushing
atmopsheric pressure, about what you’d feel if you were 1 kilometer deep in the ocean,
and a thoroughly unbreathable atmosphere made up of carbon dioxide and sulphuric acid.
But at the same time, Venus boasts the most earth-like environment in the solar system.
High in its clouds there exists a layer with comparable temperatures and pressure to earth,
see my video on terraforming Venus in the end screen of this video for more on that.
This contrasts hugely with Mars, which is usually seen as the obvious choice in the
solar system for colonization.
Mars too has a mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere, but there is far less atmospheric pressure
and Mars is bitterly cold.
Mars will kill you if you do not have a pressurized space suit with radiation shielding.
Surprisingly, in the sweet spot in Venus’ atmosphere, if your suit failed you would
not immediately die due to the atmospheric pressures being equal, and you wouldn’t
have to worry about radiation given that the upper layers of the Venusian atmosphere would
provide protection.
Exposure to certain parts of Venus’ atmosphere would not be absolutely deadly to a human.
But here’s where things get weird again.
While Mars bears many differences to earth, it sort of looks like earth.
Those dusty plains that stretch across the planet aren’t all that different from the
dry deserts of earth, and the former presence of liquid water on the surface of Mars provide
a landscape and geology that seem equally familiar.
The surface of Venus, on the other hand, looks very little like earth, other than maybe a
solidified volcanic flow.
This is a world of yellow hues and no direct sunlight, despite the intense heat.
But even at the surface of Venus, there are variations and one such variation between
high and low ground brings with it a truly alien aspect to this planet.
This is metallic snow, and results from the high temperatures at the low ground evaporating
metallic compounds, thought to be based on Bismuth and lead.
These compounds get carried to higher ground, such as the highest point on Venus, Maxwell
Montes, and precipitate out, essentially as snow.
We see this snow as higher reflectivity material at the high points of Venus.
I wonder what that would look like up close, perhaps some day we will get a closer look
with a robotic probe.
But someday, it may go further than that and human eyes may someday see the snows of Venus.
This is because Maxwell Montes is tall at 36,000 feet.
In contrast, Mt.
Everest here on Earth is just over 29,000 feet.
But look at how different Everest is from what most of us are used to.
It’s hard to breathe up there, and it’s quite cold, and those two factors have killed
several hundred climbers over the years.
But it is survivable, many have climbed that mountain and lived.
It would be even more survivable if one wore an environmental suit such as a space suit
used in the far harsher environment of space.
But Maxwell Montes might provide the opposite effect.
Humans might someday be able to make a landing at this spot, the coolest on Venus.
While I would be skeptical that the astronauts could step out and make metal snowballs in
their space suits, they might be able to make a landing in a spacecraft and look out the
windows.
The pressure at this point is an estimated 44 atmospheres, that’s not a big deal, the
pressure in the Marianas trench here on earth is about 1100 atmospheres, and the temperatures
at this altitude is around 750 degrees fahrenheit, hot, but maybe not hot enough to prevent a
landing with the right spacecraft.
It’s been done before remotely, the Russians had several spacecraft landings on Venus and
while the probes didn’t last long, they did get pictures from areas on Venus with
significantly worse conditions.
You’d need special materials of course and lots and lots of planning, design and care,
the corrosive nature of that atmosphere can’t be understated.
But never say never, and I think it would be interesting if the future of mountain climbing
in the solar system includes Maxwell Montes.
Instead of climbing, we would descend upon it more in the grain of deep ocean exploration.
Because of its height, Mt.
Everest was one of the last mountains on earth ever successfully climbed.
It wasn’t until 1953 that Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited it and lived to
tell the tale, in contrast Maxwell Montes might be the first place on Venus’ surface
visited by humans and that would be specifically because of its height.
Venus is an alien world indeed.
Thanks for listening!
I am futurist and science fiction author John Michael Godier currently reciting this outtro
for the 174th time on this channel.
I made it up on the spot while recording my very first video and constitutes the only
time in my life I’ve ever gotten anything right the first time and be sure to check
out my books at your favorite online book retailer and subscribe to my channel for regular,
in depth explorations into the interesting, weird and unknown aspects of this amazing
universe in which we live.