Venus

Named after the Roman Goddess of love for its brilliant glow, Venus holds no physical resemblance to its namesake. The planet is one of the harshest environments amongst our candidates. Although Venus is a near twin in shape and mass to Earth as well as being the closest planet, its atmosphere will make exploiting any bio-metal reserves difficult.

Nonetheless, its proximity and likelihood of containing bio-metal deposits keep it on the top half of the list.

Venus' atmosphere of carbon dioxide and thick cloud cover of highly concentrated sulfuric acid cause an intense greenhouse effect. Although not much light penetrates the dense atmosphere, what does make it through is reradiaded as infared light, resulting in the intense heat of the planet's surface, far exceeding that of any other planet or moon in the solar system.

The atmosphere is also extremely dense, the equivalent of about 1 kilometer below Earth's oceans. The severe pressure will require special structural engineering in order to avoid being crushed. While Venus' upper atmosphere is characterized by strong winds, its lower atmosphere is relatively calm. Regardless, we should be able to generate sufficent lightning power due to intense electrical activity on Venus.

Trace amounts of water vapor have been found in the environment and could be tapped in order to help sustain life on Venus' surface. For the most part, however, establishing a mining base on Venus will require importing all life-sustaining resources from other locales.

Position: Second planet from the Sun

Distance from Sun: .7 Astronomical Units

Distance from Earth: 42 Million Kilometers

Surface Gravity: 0.907

Surface Composition: Basaltic Rock and Molten Lava

Atmospheric Pressure: 92 Bar

Surface Temperature: 460 Celsius

Axis Rotation: 243

Sun Orbit Period: 224.7 Days

Diameter: 12,103.6 Kilometers