On 5/5/06, Tony Christney <tchristney@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Cloud City?
Not habitable on the surface, but still has "human" settlements.
Amusingly enough, this was being examined in RL by some NASA scientists
a few years ago (I don't know what the status of this research is right
now, though). I had attended a convention a couple years ago where
Geoffrey Landis presented what he and a team of others at the NASA John
Glenn Research Center have been working on (long-term) about floating
cities in the Venusian atmosphere. It was loosely tied to the Moon-Mars
Initiative George Bush put forth a few years ago (except focusing on
Venus, not Mars ;-) ). I don't remember the details, but at a certain
altitude the temperature is within human tolerances and nowhere nearly
as corrosive as lower down. These floating habitats would supply
themselves with natural resources mined by corrosive-resistent remote
flyers and robots sent down to the surface. They had worked out ways
using contemporary technology to extract water from the atomosphere, so
all they had to do was grow their own food (well, first they have to
get us there ;-) ).
Just a little food for thought that floating colonies aren't totally in the realm of SF :-)
Mk