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How To Terraform Venus (Quickly)

50 videos recommended on HN
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4 HN users recommended this explainer4 months2021–2026 score 4
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Offered as a readable explainer whenever Venus terraforming or alternatives to Mars colonization come up.

Kurzgesagt lays out a speculative plan to terraform Venus, covering its hostile atmosphere and how it might be made Earth-like, with a sources page linked.

“There is a decent kurzgesagt video explaining what transforming a new planet would look like” (HN, 2021)

4 recommendations · 5 citations · Explainers

9 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@nerpderp82 Jul 2021 Recommends
on HN thread A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight (2016)
You might enjoy this video on terraforming Venus, [this video] I think we should consider the whole solar system our galactic ship while making sure to keep the current habitation quarters in top notch shape.
Explains how to terraform Venus
@Gigachad Sep 2021 Recommends
on HN thread Engineers are developing new ways to convert greenhouse gases to fuel
There is a decent kurzgesagt video explaining what transforming a new planet would look like [this video] Essentially it would be almost infinitely easier to reverse all climate change on earth than to make another planet livable but it is in theory possible.
Decent explainer on what terraforming a planet involves
@headcanon Jun 2022 Recommends
on HN thread MIT researchers propose Brazil-sized fleet of “space bubbles” to cool the Earth
Read more
There's a good video on this that talks about how a similar technique might be used to terraform Venus over hundreds of years [0] The main physics problem I see is that Langrange points are naturally unstable [1], so the bubbles would need to be constantly correcting their orbit. This problem would be compounded by solar radiation "blowing" the bubbles back to Earth. There are clever ways to mitigate this for other designs which are addressed in the video, but I don't see it addressed in the article. Edit: it looks like it is addressed somewhat in the source article linked in another comment, by placing the bubbles a bit further towards the sun than the L1 point to compensate for solar winds. Also, If a bubble does eventually become unstable, they may be cheap enough to destroy it and send another one up. However, the primary problem I see with this approach is that we are simply not politically ready as a species to attempt a global-scale engineering project like that. Some countries may find that climate change actually benefits them [2], or may even impact a geopolitical rival even worse. These countries may be inclined to send a few missiles toward L1 if thats the case. Edit: Additionally, even if this does succeed, countries may see this as an excuse to keep burning stuff despite the additional negative consequences of carbon emissions [3] [0]: [this video] [1]: [link] [2]: [link] [3]: [link] .
Good video on similar technique for terraforming Venus
@chasil Feb 2026 Recommends
on HN thread Where did all the starships go?
The Kurzgesagt video on teraforming Venus is interesting. It only takes a thousand years, assuming perfect execution. [this video]
Kurzgesagt explainer on how terraforming Venus could be done

Citations, criticism and jokes

@TrainedMonkey Jan 2022 Cites it
on HN thread How the Soviets put a lander on Venus
Kurzgesagt did a video on terraforming Venus [this video] My amateurish take on it - total effort to terraform Venus might be lower, however exploring/colonizing Mars is much easier.
Kurzgesagt video on terraforming Venus
@downrightmike Jul 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Mars Colonization Will Never Happen
It would only take a few hundred years to turn Venus into a pretty close Earth analog. It has issues to be dealt with, but would really have much more resources available that Mars. Even solar power would be more viable on Venus than Mars. Plus it would give us a good midway point to start planet harvesting Mercury if we wanted it. [this video]
Supports claim Venus can become Earth-like in centuries

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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