Point of background: I won't say it can't be changed, but the Castles, as I pictured them to start with, are buoyant rather actively lifted, and as such, crashing one would involve breaching or otherwise venting its gas cells rather than cutting the power. Probably the cell structure has two layers; a lower one filled with breathable air (which is a lifting gas in Venus's atmosphere!) and an upper one containing helium. Both layers are also divided vertically into a series of cells that spiral outwards, like the chambers of a nautilus. Living spaces are built inside the breathable cells, while the 'ground' beneath them is made up of the Castle's industrial areas - power storage batteries, gene labs, etc. Below that are the docking and landing facilities, which are in turn just above the generators and cable anchor. The cable, in turn, goes all the way down to a heat sink on the actual surface, which soaks up heat, warms the cable itself, and can so be used to boil water for steam turbines.
Or maybe there's a wave strain that's been found that'll do it directly, doesn't matter. The ground-heated cable is where all the power's coming from.
The reason for the doubled lifting cells is that, while 'normal air' is a lifting gas on Venus - about as powerful as Hydrogen and Helium are on Earth, IIRC - those two elements are still lifting gases on Venus, powerful ones, which allow the use of smaller gas cells, which means less structural material, which is lighter and hence desirable no matter how much wave you use. Balloons, of course, have lower energy costs relative to active lift the longer they stay up, and the entire point is to build up energy stores, right?
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"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."
Or maybe there's a wave strain that's been found that'll do it directly, doesn't matter. The ground-heated cable is where all the power's coming from.
The reason for the doubled lifting cells is that, while 'normal air' is a lifting gas on Venus - about as powerful as Hydrogen and Helium are on Earth, IIRC - those two elements are still lifting gases on Venus, powerful ones, which allow the use of smaller gas cells, which means less structural material, which is lighter and hence desirable no matter how much wave you use. Balloons, of course, have lower energy costs relative to active lift the longer they stay up, and the entire point is to build up energy stores, right?
===============================================
"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."