Like many British schoolboys of its time (1950-64), I was much influenced by “The Eagle”, which Wikipedia ignorantly describes as a “comic”. It was in fact a lavishly produced boys popular science/adventure magazine, much of it glossy full colour spreads only seen in up-market adult publications at that time. The front and inner page featured square-jawed hero “Dan Dare – Pilot of the Future” – and his chubby bumbling bat-man, Digby. Many of DD’s adventures featured his arch-enemy “The Mekon” – a green-skinned Venusian tyrant with a spindly body and a massive head – who sat on a small levitating platform flanked by glaring “Treen” stormtroopers wielding ray guns.
Like most schoolboys, I was deeply fascinated by the possibility of life on other planets and, at that time, the most promising candidate for harbouring extra-terrestrial life was NOT Mars but VENUS..!!! Not only is Venus our closest planet, it is also similar in size and density (Mars is puny in comparison, having just 10% of Earth’s mass) and the fact that it is permanently cloaked by thick clouds enhanced its mystery.
At the time it was widely speculated – even by many leading scientists – that Venus could be a densely-forested tropical planet. Many alleged UFO contact accounts from the 1950’s speak of meeting with “Venusians”, most famously George Adamski who, in a sequel to his best-selling “Flying Saucers Have Landed” (1953), claimed to have been taken aboard a “Venusian” mother ship where he met, not green Treens but “tall blond Venusians”. Meetings with such “tall blond Venusians” featured in several other 1950’s UFO books, but I don’t recall ever reading of any Martian UFO-nauts.
Sadly, all these exciting Venusian speculations were dashed in the early 1960’s when the first fly-by probes indicated that Venus was not a tropical paradise but was hot as hell – even hotter than our Sun-hugging innermost planet of Mercury..! And the atmospheric pressure at the surface was a bone-crushing 100x that of Earth..! After this was confirmed by a number of later probes (mostly Soviet), including a lander which managed to take a few photos before succumbing to the enormous heat and pressure, Venus was quickly given up as a candidate for harbouring any kind of life. The focus of the search for extraterrestrial life shifted back to Mars and has remained there ever since. None of the space-faring nations – or commercial space ventures – are interested in Venus these days, and space probes are rarely sent there.
BUT – let us speculate that Venus is just as it was once believed to be – a lush tropical planet – one which would almost certainly harbour life. Who knows, maybe our Venusian overlords told the Russians and Americans to hide the truth about their planet from the public? Daft as it sounds, this is a more likely conspiracy than the apparently widely-believed “Moon landings hoax”.
Lets further assume that, after initial exploratory missions, Elon Musk IV decides to establish a Venusian colony and send several thousand colonists there. How would these colonists be housed? Would they live in individual houses, as we tend to do on Earth..? Most unlikely if, as might be expected of a tropical planet, Venus is teeming with climatological threats – torrential downpours, floods, hurricanes, twisters, etc. Not only that but also some very dangerous creatures – spiders, snakes, dinosaurs, etc., and maybe even hostile humanoids.
The logical form of habitat – not just for security but also to conserve resources – would be for the colonists to live in a SINGLE ENCLOSED STRUCTURE – an Oasis-City in effect. And the most practical design for any enclosed city – whether it be on Venus or Mars, or indeed on Earth – would be a PYRAMID..!
If enclosed 3-D cities would be the safest and most eco-friendly form of habitat to build on another planet, why are we NOT building them here on Earth..?
