Mining Venus, the Saudi Arabia of the inner solar system

A new entry in this series, which will be part 3.

The previous post was here.

The small delta-V requirements for a high Venusian orbit is rather low. The significance of this is in the energy requirements, as energy is most highly correlated with delta-V. This is according to the basic laws of motion, in which energy is related to velocity SQUARED. This makes energy an exponential function, as opposed to mass, which is linear.

In other words, we can transport large amounts of mass due to the low energy requirements due to the low delta-V it takes to get from high Venus orbit to high Earth orbit. Consequently, large propellant depots could be constructed, which would facilitate larger masses to be moved between the planets, including Mars.

If Elon Musk is interested in settling Mars, here's a golden opportunity to make that happen. You could construct space Arks, which would be necessarily HUGE in order to accomodate large numbers of people. His Starships could be tasked with getting his passengers to and from the Arks, which would only need a small amount of delta-V to get from high Earth orbit to high Mars orbit. The Arks would be tasked with dealing with the problems of a long journey through interplanetary space. They could be made so that they could resist the high radioactivity while spun up to provide artificial gravity. It would be like traveling the planets in a large ocean liner.

Arks could be lifted off the moon. The moon has a low delta-V requirement, which would also aid in moving large amounts of mass necessary for the construction of the Arks.

Venus has a lot of sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide. These can be mined from the upper atmosphere, which would save energy from having to dive deep into the gravity well. That concept was covered in the previous posts on the subject.

Sulfuric acid can be made into water by taking out the sulfur. Carbon dioxide and water can make oxygen and methane. These can power the Starships.

There is so much carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid on Venus that you'll never run out. Besides, there is plenty of other materials in the atmosphere of Venus that it could be a treasure trove for space mining.



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