I suppose one could dream of some grand leverage or force to move Venus to an orbit opposite earth, but then, that may take some improvements in technology. I agree with the shade idea between the sun and Venus in combination with other ideas like elevating water from a moon of Jupiter called Europa (of course we may find life on Europa), or maybe Saturn’s moon Titan, or the Kuiper Belt to propel to Venus.…not to mention, taraforming Mars. Maybe this way we could first do something to change the chemistry of the problem. Then we could use incredibly huge fussion bombs from earth further breaking down CO2 and sulfur deoxide. Than make use of self-replicating lime producing nanobots to begin recovering from acid deposition.

Should we rocket a huge fussion bomb to Venus for a test? What’s to lose? Let’s get a real test! World knows we got plenty skill at making fussion bombs.

Furthermore, could more water from comets/Europa, etc. help cool Venus? I’m a can-do person. I believe that taraforming Mars may be the first effort, but we will taraform Venus if we need or want to.

http://www.drwarpenstein.com

Point of order: Venus’s atmosphere & temperature makes its SURFACE too hostile for colonization. The cloud deck at 50 km altitude is very nearly the most hospitable extra-terrestrial location in the solar system. Perhaps THE most hospitable. A thin coat of glass, or some other substance that protects from the sulfuric acid in the atmosphere is all you need. And a valve leak when the outside air pressure is the same as the inner pressure is much less disastrous than on Mars or the Moon.

Serendipitously enough, I was just reading a recent sf novella that uses exactly this trope for its backdrop: “The Sultan Of The Clouds” by Geoffrey Landis. Not the most original story, perhaps, but the Venusian cloud civilisation is a pretty slick bit of worldbuilding. :)

To ask a question: What would happen if we captured a carbonaceous asteroid, and spun out a giant sun shade between Venus and the sun? How much would that speed up its cooling down, if it was subject to eternal night? We could crash an ocean’s worth of water into it later, when the sun shade had done its work.

Later (much later) when the atmosphere had cooled and the oceans were liquid again the sun shade could be replaced with a difractor that reduced the amount of sunlight reaching Venus to something more Earth-normal, to keep it from becoming too hot again.

Of course, it may all be a moot point if the Super-AI nanobots consume Venus and build a Dyson bubble out of it.

Anyway, fine to talk about it, but the reality is that this one is not worthy of serious consideration. When you ask what for, how, how long and how much, the exercise becomes ludicrous. Maybe I’ve become too much the isolationist, as I thought the International Space Station was a waste of money and I’ve long argued that we should pull 90% of our military out of those 150 countries:

http://planetearthandhumanity.blogspot.com/2011/12/did-we-win-world-war-ii.html

As you might know, one of the chapters from my SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth is entitled, “The Venus Syndrome.” I have a couple of Huffiington Post articles on this very subject:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-takahashi/the-venus-sy…06120.html

the first one being almost four years ago when I got frustrated that compelling logic was not working on decision-makers, so, I thought, maybe fear can be more effective. I’m actually taking this concept to another level with an upcoming novel on the theme…then, who knows, maybe a best-seller and movie? A few stand alone postings did not make any ripple, but maybe that movie might become the difference maker. Otherwise, global warming will become yet another issue where this fatal flaw of our society–not being able to make a decision until it is too late–prevails. Unfortunately, this one could be fatal to Humanity on Planet Earth.

I was considering what the effects of more direct approachs than seeding the atmoshpere with algae would be. What would happen if liquid hydrogen was gradually introduced in a controlled manner with the right catalysts — could the CO2 be converted back into carbon and water? Or would you just get methanol? Is there something more appropriate that could be introduced to do this?

I know we can talk of 20,000 years as a long time, but not in the general lifetime of the Earth, assuming humanity doesn’t completely screw up our planet — despite our best efforts. All in all, options like the Moon and Mars of course pose more immediate options for colonisation, but I was wondering if Venus is a real opportunity that could prove more the attractive in the long term if we could tame her — A long shot though.