How Do We Colonize Mercury?

While most people wouldn’t suspect it, the closest planet to our Sun is actually a potential candidate for settlement...

Mercury’s very low axial tilt (0.034°) means that its polar regions are permanently shaded and cold enough to contain water ice. In the northern region, a number of craters were observed by NASA’s MESSENGER probe in 2012 which confirmed the existence of water ice and organic molecules. Scientists believe that Mercury’s southern pole may also have ice, and claim that an estimated 100 billion to 1 trillion tons of water ice could exist at both poles, which could be up to 20 meters thick in places.

In these regions, a colony could be built using a process called “paraterraforming” – a concept invented by British mathematician Richard Taylor in 1992. In a paper titled “Paraterraforming – The Worldhouse Concept”, Taylor described how a pressurized enclosure could be placed over the usable area of a planet to create a self-contained atmosphere. Over time, the ecology inside this dome could be altered to meet human needs.

In the case of Mercury, this would include pumping in a breathable atmosphere, and then melting the ice to create water vapor and natural irrigation. Eventually, the region inside the dome would become a livable habitat, complete with its own water cycle and carbon cycle. Alternately, the water could be evaporated, and oxygen gas created by subjecting it to solar radiation (a process known as photolysis).

Another possibility would be to build underground. For years, NASA has been toying with the idea of building colonies in stable, underground lava tubes that are known to exist on the Moon. And geological data obtained by the MESSENGER probe during flybys it conducted between 2008 and 2012 led to speculation that stable lava tubes might exist on Mercury as well.

I think Venus would be s better candidate.

I read a breakdown from some scientist addressing every suggested challenge to colonizing Venus, as compared to Mars and the Moon. He went step by step, detailing the advantages that Venus offered, from water to energy to building materials. He also went through all the acid/atmospheric pressure concerns.

The core of his theory was that using nearly present day technology, we could colonize with floating/elevated settlements above the dense portion of the atmosphere that contains the biggest threats. those dangerous regions also offer great value in chemicals and minerals to exploit via robotics. I believe he suggested that the sulfuric acid was much less of a problem than people imagine, and can be very useful for a variety of purposes.

I'm not a scientist, so I can't accurately relate the details from his analysis , but I found it really interesting. Oh and his assessment of the Moon..close, but fairly useless compared to Venus. Mars was too far for the benefits it offers near term. After writing all this, I found a somewhat similar breakdown at this link, with lots of similarly interesting details:

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-we-thinking-about-a-Mars-colony-when-a-Venus-colony-would-be-more-technically-feasible

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