The cloud seeding project on Venus was never going to be easy.
It being the hottest planet in the solar system with no clouds as such, only a dense, yellow layer of sulfuric acid that shrouds the planet permanently. This heavy layer is so thick that it traps the heat, which on average is around 464 degree Celsius. Yet scientists were convinced that a special form of cloud seeding could be used to cause enough high level cloud cover and associated rainfall to dilute the acid slowly over a long period to the point where only rain would fall. This would be an amazing breakthrough for future plans involving food production and colonisation. Whereas most within Earth’s international scientific community postulated that it would be a disastrous failure, the professor leading the team was quite adamant that it could be done.
To say that the mission was a failure is open to debate. The day that everything had been prepared on the second planet to begin the process of pellet scattering above the acidic layer, it was unanimously agreed that back on Earth it should be the professor who presses the button. This would send the first of many laser beams that would trigger the airborne distribution apparatus, setting the whole thing in motion.
With some fanfare, the button was pressed and dozens of technicians, supervisors and managers sat watching giant screens for some minor signs of change in the planet’s atmosphere.
Nothing happened for three days, then it snowed nonstop for a year!