/sci/ - Science & Math

>>8733484
>>8730980
Venus' atmosphere contains a variety of elements, most importantly CHNOPS. CHNOPS are the among the most important elements necessary for life. Nitrogen is available directly from the atmosphere, carbon and oxygenare available in the form of CO2, sulfur and hydrogen are available as sulfuric acid. Phosphorous, we aren't quite sure what form it is in, but it is probably in the form of phosphoric acid. The venera and vega probes detected it with their x-ray spectrometers, even finding as much phosphorous as sulfur in the lower clouds below 52 km:
http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/venus2014/pdf/6005.pdf

In addition to CHNOPS we also get HF and HCl. From all this we can make a wide variety of organic materials including teflon, HDPE, PVC, kevlar, kapton, carbon fiber, epoxy, graphene, carbon nanotubes, and organic semiconductors. All useful things for making more balloons, habitats, vehicles, hydroponic farms, etc to grow our colony. Now here's where things get crazy, one of the things the venera and vega probes found in the atmosphere was iron. Further analysis has shown that this is likely to be in the form of a 1% solution of ferric chloride solvated in sulfuric acid:

https://phys.org/news/2016-04-dark-stripes-uv-images-venus.html
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103516306509

From carbon and iron we can make steel. From steel we can make all sorts of things including chemical reactors and those fancy metal balloons for getting back up from the surface. Interestingly ferric chloride also happens to be a catalyst used in the production of certain polymers. There's no telling what else could turn up in venus' atmosphere.