There used to be a lot more science fiction about colonizing venus. That was until we actually sent probes there and decided that Mars is actually pretty nice.

The Surface

The surface is difficult. I imagine it would be a similar habitat that could survive under a kilometer of ocean inside a volcano. Very high pressure and very high temperature. We don't currently have any habitats that can even survive the pressure, 9.2 MPa. That's 90 times Earth atmosphere. The temperature is hot enough to melt lead, 462 °C. We would have to expend a lot of energy just to keep cool.

We'd have to bring everything for life. There is no water or molecular oxygen (though we might be able to scrub oxygen from the atmospheric $CO_2$).

One relatively neat thing for a base there is the Sun will set in the East. Venus rotates in the opposite direction on its axis than Earth. It wouldn't be totally obvious, since we achieve the same effect on Earth by confusing north and south. However, as boring as that is, it might be the neatest thing about living on the surface.

Alternative

It's far more likely we'd have floating habitats. It's certainly much nicer up there, where the planet isn't trying to kill you.

The atmosphere is dense enough that our normal breathing air could be stored in a massive bag and used as a lifting gas. A blimp that stores our breathing air is pretty cool. Once the floating habitat was set up we might make excursions to the surface. This method makes a lot of sense, it's what we do with the ocean.

So, exploring and colonizing Venus will almost certainly be from 50km up. Miners, or more likely miner robots, will make dives to the surface. But unless we terraform, humans or other fragile human like creatures, won't be living on the surface.

There used to be a lot more science fiction about colonizing venus. That was until we actually sent probes there, took one look and decided, "You know what? Mars is actually pretty nice."

The Surface

The surface is difficult. I imagine it would be a similar habitat that could survive under a kilometer of ocean inside a volcano. Very high pressure and very high temperature. We don't currently have any habitats that can even survive the pressure, 9.2 MPa. That's 90 times Earth atmosphere. The temperature is hot enough to melt lead, 462 °C. We would have to expend a lot of energy just to keep cool.

We'd have to bring everything for life. There is no water or molecular oxygen (though we might be able to scrub oxygen from the atmospheric $CO_2$).

One relatively neat thing for a base there is the Sun will set in the East. Venus rotates in the opposite direction on its axis than Earth. It wouldn't be totally obvious, since we achieve the same effect on Earth by confusing north and south. However, as boring as that is, it might be the neatest thing about living on the surface.

Alternative

It's far more likely we'd have floating habitats. It's certainly much nicer up there, where the planet isn't trying to kill you.

The atmosphere is dense enough that our normal breathing air could be stored in a massive bag and used as a lifting gas. A blimp that stores our breathing air is pretty cool. Once the floating habitat was set up we might make excursions to the surface. This method makes a lot of sense, it's what we do with the ocean.

So, exploring and colonizing Venus will almost certainly be from 50km up. Miners, or more likely miner robots, will make dives to the surface. But unless we terraform, humans or other fragile human like creatures, won't be living on the surface.