Venus Terraforming Blimp

Completed 2021-09-06. Available releases:

A blimp, or perhaps a zeppelin, floats through the lower cloud layers of Venus in the process of being terraformed. The autonomous, nuclear-powered blimp splits carbon dioxide into diamond flakes, which are dropped, and oxygen, which is compressed and stored, to be combined with imported hydrogen once Venus cools to a temperature supportive of liquid water. It also fills and supports the blimp itself, as oxygen is a lifting gas in this atmosphere. The yellow haze of sulfuric acid obscures the sky throughout. Below, one of Venus's many lone volcanoes pokes upward, surrounded by an inhospitable wasteland of lava flows.

I actually started this painting probably one, maybe even two, years ago. After a long break, I came back and finished it. It's just acrylic on canvas. A space elevator was initially planned for the mountain, but was ultimately omitted because it wouldn't really add anything, and the terraforming is in quite early stages. I'm dissatisfied with the blimp; its plain and featureless shape is a product of engineering simplicity in the face of such a hostile environment; it seems unnecessary, almost insulting, to the landscape.

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