Venus

The second closest planet to Sol. Venus is a desolate desertscape under a perpetual sulphuric acid cloud layer. With an average surface temperature of 462 °C, a surface pressure of 9.2 megapascals (92 bar), and many active volcanoes producing lava flows that can reach kilometres in length, it would seem a thoroughly uninhabitable and desolate place. But what of above the clouds of acid? Up here majestic cities that resemble bubbles from a distance, glitter in the bright sunlight, generally drifting with the winds near the poles these cities enjoy near-continual daylight and fairly moderate conditions temperature and pressure-wise. Early on, when humanity was just beginning to take the first steps toward conquering space, interest in space was rapidly growing once again after a long period of neglect. At the time, Venus, with its mild temperature and pressures above the clouds, Earth-like gravity, its bright sunlight and atmosphere thick enough to protect from the radiation of space, seemed far more interesting and appealing to generations newly discovering the excitement and wonder of space travel. Even the inhospitality of the surface only added to folk's fascination with the strange world, many viewed it as an exciting adventure, living among the clouds while exploring a hostile and varied surface.
In the long-run, Mars proved to be far more interesting to most folk, even before the fossils were discovered and terraforming begun.
That said, some small groups stayed, or came, and established prosperous, if small colonies amongst the cloud tops. To this day Venus remains fascinating to many and is a popular place to visit.

Geography

Venus' surface is almost entirely volcanic, with only a rare few non-volcanic surface rocks, or small granite pieces beneath the largest of the plateaus. In general, the Venusian landscape can be divided between large low-altitude flat regions, and large high-altitude plateaus with crisscrossing mountain ranges, perhaps in the distant past Venus possessed an ocean that formed this otherwise unusual difference in terrain, today however the planet is a dry, desolate desert with little to no water. The planet has a number of very intact craters, somewhat surprising considering the volcanic nature of much of the surface. Venus does not totally lack tectonic plates, but rather has a strange form of plates that are highly deformable, forming unusual geology unlike any other planet in the Sol system.

Natural Resources

Venus has the usually resources you might expect on a rocky world of this size. The only significant mining however, is by the local colonies, who find sending robot miners to the surface more expedient and convenient in many cases than mining asteroids. Care is taken with this mining, as it was discovered quickly that Venus, despite its hostile conditions, does in fact have microbial life, and disturbing the larger microbe colonies is avoided.

Type

Planet

Location under

The Sol System