Guillermo Söhnlein: Co-founder of OceanGate wants to send 1000 people to Venus by 2050

The co-founder of OceanGate, who created the Titan submersible, is leading efforts to send people to Venus. 

Guillermo Söhnlein, who is also the founder and chairman of Humans2Venus, said in an interview with Insider that he is aiming to host a colony of 1,000 humans on the hottest planet in the solar system - dubbed as "Earth's evil twin". 

Mr Söhnlein stated that new findings by Nasa suggested humans could potentially live in a small bit of the Venusian atmosphere, around 30 miles from the surface of the planet. 

Venus has a very toxic atmosphere which is filled with carbon dioxide. According to Nasa, the planet is permanently “shrouded in thick, yellowish clouds of sulfuric acid that trap heat, causing a runaway greenhouse effect.”

However, Mr Söhnlein argues this barrier can be overcome with innovation. 

On his website, Humans2Venus, he wrote: “When it came to imagining a permanent home for humanity away from Earth, one challenge always bothered me. 

“I am not an engineer or a scientist, but I have ultimate faith in the abilities of both. Therefore, I always figured that they would be able to overcome the myriad challenges facing us in the extreme environment of space: radiation, temperature, pressure, food, water, breathable air, etc. All of these could be overcome.”

According to the Inside interview, he saiys that if a space station could be designed to withstand the the sulfuric acid in the clouds, hundreds to thousands of people could someday live in the Venusian atmosphere. 

Mr Söhnlein says a floating colony could hold 1,000 people in the Venusian atmosphere by 2050 - but how this can happen remains unclear. 

The new venture comes less than two months after OceanGate co-founder, Stockton Rush, and four other passengers died when the company’s Titan submersible imploded at depths of more than 12,000ft. Mr Söhnlein co-founded OceanGate with Mr Rush in 2009 and handed over control of the company in 2013.

According to the interview, Mr Söhnlein collects companies that bring him nearer to his ultimate ambition: to push humanity beyond its natural boundaries on Earth.

"I think I've been driven to help make humanity a multi-planet species since I was 11 years old," he said. "I had this recurring dream of being the commander of the first Martian colony," he said.

He believes that humanity must push the limits of innovation, despite the Titan tragedy. He said: ""Forget OceanGate. Forget Titan. Forget Stockton. Humanity could be on the verge of a big breakthrough and not take advantage of it because we, as a species, are gonna get shut down and pushed back into the status quo," he said. 

The Titan’s implosion on 18 June remains under investigation by multiple maritime authorities, including the US Coast Guard as well as the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and the French Marine Casualties Investigation Board.