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Numerous "screamin' demons" could orbit the equator of Venus and pump up gases. A vast bounty of CO2 would result and this could be used as is for working fluid in nuclear thermal rocket engines for ships leaving Venus orbit. The CO2 could also be decomposed to get carbon for graphite. Graphite fiber composites manufacturing requires some nitrogen and there is about 1% N2 in the Veneran "air." There is some hydrogen and sulfur to that could be used to make resins for binding graphite fibers. Imagine graphite composite space stations, colonies and ships. Graphite composites weigh half as much as aluminum, are lighter than magnesium and stronger that steel. See: Macrogalleria Going beyond we could even make C60 nanotubes for skyhooks above Venus. There would be plenty of oxygen for its many uses after CO2 decomposition and this could be used by LANTRs along with hydrogen from the ice moons of Jupiter. Hydrogen and Veneran C, O, N, S, Cl and Fl could be used to make all sorts of polymers (plastics).
The screamin' demon will not drag the space station at 7000 km. altitude down because of aerodynamic friction. It will be powered by jet atomic engines at mach 7 to keep pace and overcome friction at high altitude. It will be highly aerodynamic and coated with exotic high temperature materials. It could even have a cooling system that uses CO2 pumped up to radiators in the vacuum above.
Venus offers a vast amount of carbon for the solar system. It will be preferable to mine this carbon rather than terraform Venus for many centuries. |
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