Is Venus a better candidate for human settlement than Mars?

For one thing, Venus is a lot closer than Mars. At its closest approach, Venus is 25 million miles from Earth. On Mars’s closest approach, it is twice that distance away.

Venus also already has a thick atmosphere, which might be easier to terraform than trying to create a thick atmosphere on Mars.

Carl Sagan once proposed seeding Venus’s thick clouds with photosynthetic bacteria that would eat up some of the carbon dioxide.

Some scientists have proposed "bombarding" Venus's clouds with hydrogen and iron aerosols to create water, which would rain down to the surface and further diminish the atmosphere.

There’s also the problem of heat. Venus’ days last nearly a full Earth year, and that slow rotation — plus the thick atmosphere — means that Venus’s global average temperature measures a searing 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

Other scientists have suggested establishing floating cities in Venus’ clouds, where the atmospheric pressure is similar to Earth’s.