Venus Foam: engineering analysis of a modular floating platform fleet in the Venus cloud layer

Abstract

A floating modular station in the cloud layer of Venus. Stays aloft through the difference in gas densities (Archimedean buoyancy in a compressible medium), not tethers or engines. The structure is a mass of identical inflatable cells, not a single hull: it grows by adding cells, and damage to one does not risk the whole. Document status: engineering-physics analysis of a floating infrastructure concept. Calculations are based on archival data from the Venera, Vega, Pioneer Venus, and Venus Express missions.