Venus

Venus is a terrestrial planet located in the Solar System, the 2nd planet from the Sun. It is the third extraterrestrial body on which humanity established colonies. It possesses the densest atmosphere of any terrestrial body in the Solar System, in which humanity has established suspended "cloud cities" within its most habitable layers.

Geography

Venus' surface is the most uninhabitable terrestrial place in the Solar System; any human with a standard spacesuit would be killed in less than one second. Nonetheless, humanity has launched several research expeditions to the surface and learned much about its geography.
Around 80% of the surface is devoted to flat, volcanic plains. The latter 20% is made up of two "continents" of highland: Ishtar Terra (northern) and Aphrodite Terra (southern). Calderas litter Venus' surface, likely formed by slow lava flow outward from Venus' interior.
The Venusian surface is dominated by volcanoes, having more than 50 times the number of them that Earth does, despite being similar in size (even slightly smaller). Most of the surface was formed via these volcanoes, fueled by a superheated interior formed by energetic collisions in the planet's early history.

Climate

Venus has the densest atmosphere in the Solar System (50 times that of Earth's), composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide. This abundance of CO2 creates the strongest greenhouse gas effect in the system, consequently making Venus to hottest surface in the solar system, reaching temperatures of 867 °F / 464 °C.
Above this layer of supercritical CO2 exists miles of thick sulfuric acid clouds. The clouds are so thick that they block out all but 10% of sunlight from reaching the surface, dimming the surface by a great deal. These clouds can condense and rain their acid content; however, as the liquid falls through the atmosphere, the temperature becomes hot enough to vaporize them once again, never reaching the surface. This cloud layer also makes it impossible to see the surface of Venus from space.
Venus' atmospheric pressure is about 92 times that of Earth's at the surface, equivalent to a depth of almost a kilometer under the surface of Earth's oceans.
Despite the unbearable properties of this hellscape, just over 34 miles above the surface, there exists a layer of Venus' atmosphere where the temperature hovers around 81 °F and the pressure is about half that of Earth's, with only the top layer of the corrosive sulfuric acid clouds to worry about. Just 34 miles above the system's most inhospitable surface, you can find the system's most idyllic paradise (outside of a previous Earth)

History

Humanity's first successful manned mission to Venus reached the planet on June 10, 1996. It was a NASA expedition, and featured the use of the first-ever manually-pilotable spaceship to travel to another planet, that being the Cupid V. The crew of 12 astronauts landed on platforms suspended about 30 miles in the air by balloons of hydrogen and helium set up by unmanned drones from previous missions. The mission, Aphrodite 9, made Venus the third celestial body to be reached by humanity, after Earth's Moon and Mars. Venus' surface is unbearably hot and pressured to survive for even a few minutes in any protection that could then be devised by science, so the astronauts never technically "landed" on Venus.
The Aphrodite program continued throughout Aphrodite 14, until a fully self-sustainable base had been set up within Venus' upper atmosphere. Aphrodite 14 was also the first mission to actually put a human on the surface of Venus, with new protective spacesuit technology. The astronaut, Dr. Halley Brand, remained on the surface for 4 hours and 15 minutes until her suit's protective layer was mostly eaten away, at which point her crewmates up in the clouds sent a pod down to retrieve her. Aphrodite 14 reached the planet on June 8th, 2004, and concluded (with 24 astronauts still on the planet) on July 5th of that year, when Dr. Brand returned to Earth for testing.
The 2010s began what is historically known as the "Great Solar Migration". Extraterrestrial bodies originally used only for science and exploration started to become open to the general public: first it was the Moon, next Mars, and then Venus (and later a few moons of Jupiter and Saturn). Bases became cities, and most of the expansion on Venus spawned from what became Cloud Nine, the first big city on the planet (the "Jamestown" of Venus). Before it became a city, Cloud Nine was the main base created and used by the Aphrodite program, which was truly established by the Aphrodite 9 mission. It was affectionately called "Cloud Nine" by its astronauts because of that, and it eventually became the name of the subsequent city.
Venus' upper atmosphere was the most idyllic spot in the solar system other than Earth (at the time; most consider it to be the best in 2101), so demand was high. Corporations who funded the creation of residential areas suspended in the air were able to charge exorbitant amounts, meaning Venus became the favored extraterrestial immigration site of Earth's upper classes. This trend has carried on to 2101, as Venus is a huge tourist spot for the wealthier humans, and a permanent living paradise for the wealthiest. Like many tropical areas of Earth at one time, Venus' industries are mostly focused on leisure & pleasure, making tourists happy enough to return & tenants happy enough to never leave.

Included Locations

• Las Venus

Designations

Classification	Planet
Type	Terrestrial
Alternative names	Sol II
Adjective	Venusian

Location Data

Star	Sun
Moons	None
Star system	Solar System
Spiral arm	Orion Arm
Galaxy	Milky Way

Orbit & Rotation

Rotation period	116.75 standard days 116d 18h 00m 00s
Orbital period	224.7 standard days

Surface Characteristics

Surface gravity	0.9 g
Surface temperature	867 °F 464 °C

Atmosphere

Surface pressure	92 atm
Composition by volume	96.5% carbon dioxide 3.5% nitrogen 0.015% sulfur dioxide <1% other gases