Last Updated: July 31, 2023, 16:27 IST
The ambitious project is being taken under a venture named Humans2Venus. (Image Credits: Twitter)
NASA research suggests there is a slice of the Venusian atmosphere, around 30 miles from the surface, where humans may conceivably exist.
Despite the Titan submarine accident, OceanGate Expeditions’ co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein is not giving up. The CEO of OceanGate, who co-founded the company, is now leading plans to transport humans to Venus. In a recent interview with the Insider, Söhnlein said he is convinced that his new organisation, Humans2Venus, would be able to host a floating colony of 1,000 inhabitants on the hottest planet in the solar system by 2050.
Söhnlein now serves as the chairman of Humans2Venus. The concept involves constructing a floating settlement on Earth’s twin that can endure sulphuric acid storms, one of the many problems that render Venus uninhabitable.
“Forget OceanGate. Forget Titan. Forget Stockton. Humanity could be on the verge of a big breakthrough and not take advantage of it because we, as a species, are gonna get shut down and pushed back into the status quo,” Söhnlein told Insider.
The Titan submarine tragedy has not tempered Söhnlein’s ambition, and he believes that humanity must continue to push the boundaries of creativity. “It’s aspirational, but I think it’s also very doable by 2050,” Söhnlein added.
Söhnlein’s ambitious project is based on NASA research that suggests there is a slice of Venusian atmosphere around 30 miles from the surface where humans may conceivably exist. Söhnlein, on the other hand, has not provided any details about how the proposed colony would deal with the hurricane-force winds that are also a feature of Venus.
Is it possible for people to live on Venus?
Research by the American space agency NASA indicates that there is a thin layer in Venus’s atmosphere, around 30 miles above the surface, where humans may conceivably survive. With this understanding, Söhnlein anticipates establishing a floating colony adapted to endure the harsh conditions of Venus’ atmosphere.
However, Söhnlein’s concept raises serious concerns about how such a space station, which might house up to 1,000 colonists, would withstand the hurricane-force winds that reach speeds of 224 miles per hour on Venus.
Söhnlein highlighted the planet’s gravity as the reason for choosing Venus as the destination for this unprecedented endeavour.
Venus, sometimes referred to be Earth’s “sister planet” due to their similar size and mass, presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Söhnlein’s vision.
