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Space & Astronomy

OceanGate co-founder wants to build a floating colony on Venus

By T.K. Randall
July 30, 2023 · Comment icon 10 comments

Venus is not the most hospitable of destinations. Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Peter Rubin
As if visiting the Titanic wasn't risky enough, imagine living in a colony suspended in the clouds of another world.
OceanGate - the firm behind the ill-fated Titanic expedition that recently claimed the lives of its five passengers - was originally co-founded by Guillermo Sohnlein in 2009.

Unlike Stockton Rush who perished in the disaster, however, Sohnlein left the company in 2013 to pursue other projects - including one that is even more ambitious than OceanGate.

Named 'Humans2Venus', his latest endeavor aims to set up an entire colony in the atmosphere of Venus capable of housing up to 1,000 people within the next 25 years.

"Forget OceanGate. Forget Titan. Forget Stockton," he told Business Insider.
"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."

If the idea of living in the clouds of Venus sounds a little too ambitious, then that's because it is.

Living high up in the planet's atmosphere certainly makes more sense than living on the surface because of its extreme pressure and hellish conditions, but even so, nobody is even remotely close to building a colony in orbit around the Earth, let alone on another planet.

Whether the stated 25-year time frame will be sufficient to accomplish such a feat remains to be seen.

Source: LBC.co.uk | Comments (10)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 9 months ago
In theory it's possible. In reality I would want technology that is a lot more reliable than we posses today.
Comment icon #2 Posted by fred_mc 9 months ago
They have to watch out for the Russian army as well since Russia have declared the planet Venus as being Russian ;-) : https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/18/world/venus-russian-planet-scn-scli-intl/index.html
Comment icon #3 Posted by Portre 9 months ago
Am I the only one who remembers Biosphere 2? What is this supposed to mean: "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."? Who's gonna shut down our species? How? 
Comment icon #4 Posted by DJansen 9 months ago
No sir. You don't even get to play with Legos now.
Comment icon #5 Posted by pellinore 9 months ago
Not a great track record. According to NASA, Venus has a very toxic atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide and it’s permanently “shrouded in thick, yellowish clouds of sulfuric acid that trap heat, causing a runaway greenhouse effect.” It is believed by experts that it would be nearly impossible for humans to live on Venus, per Space.com. However, Mr Söhnlein has expressed that those hurdles can be overcome with innovation.  Co-founder of company involved in Titanic sub disaster sets his sights on Venus | The Independent (archive.ph)
Comment icon #6 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 9 months ago
[My emphasis.] This is why living in a floating city in the clouds does make a bit of sense. At high altitiude the temperatures are far lower, the sulphuric acid clouds are bellow you and the atmospheric pressure is survivable. Of course any failure in the technology and the inhbitants of the floating city would very quickly perish.
Comment icon #7 Posted by OpenMindedSceptic 9 months ago
The track record on getting stuff to float doesn't inspire confidence.
Comment icon #8 Posted by Jon the frog 9 months ago
What can go wrong ? A base on Mars make way more sense...
Comment icon #9 Posted by Shadowsfall 9 months ago
How do these people actually make money to survive on …..complete mystery to me….
Comment icon #10 Posted by Nicolette 8 months ago
I feel like him being labelled as the co-founder of ocean gate is a little unfair to be applying to the new venture if he hasnt been involved with them this decade.


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