It seems like everyone wants to go to Mars nowadays.

The red planet has been all the buzz with organizations like NASA and SpaceX promising

to get us there in the next ten-ish years, but there are so many problems with living

on Mars.

Instead, some experts think we'd be better off heading for the scorching, toxic land

known as Venus!

Yes, really.

People have been talking about going to Mars since the 1950s and we obviously haven't

made it yet.

Many of the problems with this idea revolve around money and technology, but there's

more.

Since Mars has less than half the gravity than we have on Earth, we'd need to figure

out how to combat physical issues like muscle degeneration and vision problems.

And spacecrafts would need to be able to land safely on a planet with hardly any atmosphere

to slow them down.

Powerful solar storms bombard the surface with crazy high levels of radiation.

And it's freezing there, with temperatures dropping to almost negative 125 celsius.

Humans would need some serious protection if they really wanted to live on Mars.

We may need another option.

Venus.

You may be saying, “Blocko, Venus is like 425 degrees and the air is poisonous.

Plus, the atmospheric pressure would crush us!”

And you're correct!

You're so smart, but people have some pretty viable ideas for space colonies in Venus's

neck of the woods.

About 50 km above Venus's surface, there's an airspace with similar gravity, pressure,

and solar radiation protection to what we have here on Earth.

The temperature ranges from about 30-50C, creating a fairly livable atmosphere.

This all sounds pretty promising and NASA thinks so too.

In 2015, NASA announced their High Altitude Venus Operational Concept, aka HAVOC... which

I feel like isn't the most optimistic name for a space mission.

This project would send two astronauts to Venus's upper atmosphere, hovering in spaceships

above the clouds.

This initial trip would last 30 days and could lead to future colonization of Venus's airspace.

Floating cities!

How cool would that be?!

Humans wouldn't even need pressurized suits or radiation shields to go outside!

Sure, they'd still need oxygen and something to protect them against Venus's sulfuric

acid rain, but no more bulky astronauts suits?

Sounds good to me!

And the carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur in Venus's atmosphere could be

used to create breathable air, fertilizers for crops, and even water!

You may be wondering how these floating cities would be powered.

NASA has given some clues as to how this could work (and we've got some ideas too).

Firstly, the vehicles would be equipped with massive solar panels to take advantage of

the sun's energy.

Second, there's the possibility of using the carbon in the atmosphere to generate electricity

via graphene-powered superconductors or synthetic photosynthesis.

People living in these floating cities could also eventually begin to terraform and colonize

the surface of Venus with the right technology, but that'd take a while.

Some have proposed flooding the lower atmosphere with hydrogen to create an ocean that'd

cover 80% of the planet.

Others suggest striking the planet with large objects to speed up it's rotation, hopefully

warming the planet and changing its atmosphere.

These plans would be really difficult but personally, I think living in a floating city

sounds cooler anyway.

So what planet should we explore next?

Let us know in the comment section below!

Living on Mars or Venus seems like a cool idea, but if you're curious about how you

could live on a moon without a spacesuit, check out this video from our friends Seeker.

Saturn has 62 confirmed moons with more being discovered all the time, and 2 of these moons,

Titan and Enceladus could be habitable.

As always, MY NAME IS BLOCKO!

This has been Life Noggin.

Don't forget to keep on thinking!