/sci/ - Science & Math

>>10886664
so a couple other things about a tethered colony. If you tether your colony it has to deal with windspeeds about 210 km/h. This is about twice the speed of the world record for fastest airship. So how do you build a huge aerodynamic structure that can contend with these wind speeds. Landis has proposed lifting goddamn cities with giant balloons, can you do similar with a kite? I don't think you can make a similar sized structure that doesn't move with the wind
>>turbulence, or updrafts, or even worse downdraft.(cont)
is a much bigger problem for your kite. Turbulence shakes planes around because they'll move through some air moving up then suddenly move into some air going down. If you move with the air you don't have the problem of suddenly running into a mass of air moving in a different direction. A free colony at least has a chance of of moving away from a storm system.Although if one has to build propulsive colonies, the case for Venus colonization may well disappear entirely. A storm will come at your tethered colony at ~210 km/h and you will only have so much tether to avoid it.
>>10886674
anon, I don't think you understand that if you move with the wind the air speed is zero. Yes, the winds on venus move around at 210 km/h at this altitude, but if you move with them, then you measure a wind speed of zero. Sure gusts and turbulence might be a problem, but we can't really discuss much due to lack of data.
>>10886840
>> EASILY provide the power
Well then perhaps you can tell me how much? Kite electrical power generation still doesn't work that well on earth. You might need an extremely long tether to get a significant change in wind speed.