Terraforming of Venus

Artist's conception of a terraformed Venus. The cloud formations are depicted assuming the planet's rotation has not been accelerated.

The terraforming of Venus or the terraformation of Venus is the hypothetical process of engineering the global environment of the planet Venus in order to make it suitable for human habitation.[1][2][3] Adjustments to the existing environment of Venus to support human life would require at least three major changes to the planet's atmosphere:[3]

  1. Reducing Venus's surface temperature of 737 K (464 °C; 867 °F)[4]
  2. Eliminating most of the planet's dense 9.2 MPa (91 atm) carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide atmosphere via removal or conversion to some other form
  3. The addition of breathable oxygen to the atmosphere.

These three changes are closely interrelated because Venus's extreme temperature is due to the high pressure of its dense atmosphere and the greenhouse effect.

The most simple proposal is to "veil" the planet from the sun, thus dropping the temperature low enough to condense or solidify carbon dioxide which would then need to be removed or stored in some way.

  1. ^ Adelman, Saul (1982). "Can Venus Be Transformed into an Earth-Like Planet?". Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. 35: 3–8. Bibcode:1982JBIS...35....3A.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference EPE was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Landis2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Williams, David R. (15 April 2005). "Venus Fact Sheet". NASA. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2007.