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flamboyant. a self sustaining moon colony would be audacious

Probably trolling, but I'll bite. People are starving because of corrupt and inept governments, not because of a fundament lack of money or food in the world. Look at the Sri Lankan governments disastrous policies as a prime example, borrowing billions to fund pointless white elephant projects, banning imported fertilizer on a whim and thus slashing the countries' agricultural output etc. You don't fix Sri Lankas problems with money or food; as long as they've got a government that acts like that, they will be poor, and there's no point suggesting that diverting money from things like scientific advancement, which will benefit everyone in the long run, would actually help.

I would not choose Sri Lanka as the examplar of inept government. A big problem in many superficially prosperous nations is how the surplus generated by hard working people is siphoned off and spirited away to secret offshore accounts. That is not well-meaning folly. It is corruption and theft, plain and simple.

I think it is like risking life and limb to climb a mountain: because it is there. Thank goodness that there a human activities that do not have to justified on crude utilitarian grounds.

Whataboutism is bullshit. Why are you wasting time posting on Slashdot when you could be out working a farm to feed people?

Where, exactly, do you think the money spent on these endeavors goes? Itâ(TM)s spent on salaries for people doing productive work, and those employees spend their money buying products and services that other people get paid for.

Moonshot projects like this are doing exactly what you want by putting money in peopleâ(TM)s pockets. Even the unemployed benefit from the tax dollars paid by workers because thatâ(TM)s how lifeline programs get funded.

NASA's Glenn Research Center has summarized the perceived difficulties in colonizing Venus as being merely from the assumption that a colony would need to be based on the surface of a planet:

However, viewed in a different way, the problem with Venus is merely that the ground level is too far below the one atmosphere level. At cloud-top level, Venus is the paradise planet.

Landis has proposed aerostat habitats followed by floating cities, based

However, viewed in a different way, the problem with Venus is merely that the ground level is too far below the one atmosphere level. At cloud-top level, Venus is the paradise planet.

However, viewed in a different way, the problem with Venus is merely that the ground level is too far below the one atmosphere level. At cloud-top level, Venus is the paradise planet.

Well, I mean it still has a CO2 atmosphere with sulphuric acid clouds even if the pressure and temperature and gravity level are comfortable for humans. So definitions of paradise may vary. As you point out, you need a sealed balloon habitat to actually live in. Still, you could, in theory have an outdoor pool and deck, wear just a bathing suit and a breathing mask with oxygen supply and sunbathe outdoors. Your sunscreen might also need have some sodium bicarbonate mixed in, in case some clouds roll through

An average person today has a much better life than in the past not because people became more generous, but because investment in science let us produce enough food (and other goods) to share. Considering that science is driven by curiosity and it takes about 100 years for it to become everyday products "curiosity" has proven to be quite a good drive for science so far.

Progress of science creates new jobs, which not only were unheard of but also unthinkable in the past, these jobs sustain families and creat

Can you explain why you're wasting time on Slashdot while there are people on our own planet who can't afford to buy food? Get ye to a field, FFS.

As far as I know, life depends on liquid water. From what I have read of the climate on Venus, the surface temperature is hot enough to melt lead. Maybe things are cooler higher up in the thick Venusian atmosphere, so liquid water could exist in clouds of droplets.

One thing that is notable about life on earth, is that it can survive is very extreme conditions. One of my favourite nature stories about stuff living deep underground. There are bacteria that digest the rock, and produce gelatinous material, which experts call "snotites". One of the main byproducts of the snotite bacteria is sulphuric acid. This bacterial pee drips into a pool below. The acidic strength is equivalent to battery acid. There are blind transparent shrimps who just love swimming about in the acid. I missed the bit about what the shrimps live on. Fermented biologists, I expect, but I admit that is baseless speculation on my part.

The point is that this fantastic ecosystem still requires liquid water. Perhaps a worthy topic of study would be if there are cloudy communities of living things on our own planet, who live out their lives in ephemeral droplets. It would be a good deal cheaper to investigate that, than to send a robot probe to Venus.

There are blind transparent shrimps who just love swimming about in the acid. I missed the bit about what the shrimps live on. Fermented biologists, I expect, but I admit that is baseless speculation on my part.

There are blind transparent shrimps who just love swimming about in the acid. I missed the bit about what the shrimps live on. Fermented biologists, I expect, but I admit that is baseless speculation on my part.

Most of these cave systems have a water source which brings dissolved minerals and gasses into the cave. Chemosynthetic microbes consume those to grow, and a whole food-web is built on top of them. So, something grazes on the bacteria, something eats the grazers, etc. The sulphuric acid production is usually due to microbes oxidising hydrogen sulphide gas for energy, seeing as it's a bit difficult to photosynthesise in a dark cave.

Perhaps a worthy topic of study would be if there are cloudy communities of living things on our own planet, who live out their lives in ephemeral droplets.

Perhaps a worthy topic of study would be if there are cloudy communities of living things on our own planet, who live out their lives in ephemeral droplets.

This isn't really my field, but I know there is some work on it already (n

Isn't that the outfit that launches from Mahia?

(not that I have ever been there but I could see it from the top of Te Mata Peak

Te Mayta, Te Mata. You see one launch site, you've seen 'em all.

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