Terraforming Venus?
- Thread starter Bromo33333
- Start date
BRJN
SOC-12
What we clearly do not have is the scope of effort to make a noticeable dent. It will be a while, until the sexy (Mars, ironically) and easier tasks that need doing about the Solar System come to be routine.
However, I would start by dropping various extreme-o-phile bacteria in the Venusian atmosphere and see how they react, how long they survive, what conditions killed them. Finding something that can float in/above that soup, loves boiling-hot temps, eats sulfur, and excretes an anti-greenhouse gas would be a place to start conceiving a real plan.
However, I would start by dropping various extreme-o-phile bacteria in the Venusian atmosphere and see how they react, how long they survive, what conditions killed them. Finding something that can float in/above that soup, loves boiling-hot temps, eats sulfur, and excretes an anti-greenhouse gas would be a place to start conceiving a real plan.
Even if we could somehow give Venus a breathable atmosphere and some water, I'm not sure it would be desirable real estate due to it's rotation. Venus has a very slow retrograde rotation of 243 Earth days, which is longer than it's year of 224.7 Earth days. I understand this unusual circumstance gives it an apparent day of 116.75 Earth days, meaning the Sun rises in the west on Venus and sets in the east nearly four months later.
If Venus had an Earth-like atmosphere what would the temperature extremes be like? Super frigid at night and boiling hot at noon? Or would constant powerful winds/convection currents mitigate the extremes? If this were some other world with these conditions would there be lifeforms adapted to a four month day/summer and a four month night/winter?
And while there has been much speculation on how we might terraform the atmosphere I've never heard of any ideas on how we could get it to spin faster.
If Venus had an Earth-like atmosphere what would the temperature extremes be like? Super frigid at night and boiling hot at noon? Or would constant powerful winds/convection currents mitigate the extremes? If this were some other world with these conditions would there be lifeforms adapted to a four month day/summer and a four month night/winter?
And while there has been much speculation on how we might terraform the atmosphere I've never heard of any ideas on how we could get it to spin faster.
One way is to smack it with another planetoid. I think I heard somewhere that Venus' rotation is the result of getting hit with such an object some time after it had formed. Reversing that might require super-engineering where another sizeable planet is hurled at it.
Another concept is to simply mount lot of jets or rockets on the surface (assuming you've cooled it down and dealt with the minor H2SO4 issue that is the atmosphere,), and let them do their thing. Everytime you walk, jump, or otherwise push off the Earth, you are in fact changing its position, only ever so slightly, and there may be forces elsewhere that are pushing back with greater magnitude.
I think it would take the ability to haul comets to be able to terraform Venus. Could we do it now? Only if that was all we were doing. Eat. Sleep. Build ships to haul comets.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Build a bug sunshade in space between Venus and the Sun at the L1 point. The atmosphere will cooldown eventually - then seed with extremophile microbes that can alter the surface chemistry of the planet.
Then wait a few thousand years...
To increase its rotation you could move Mercury into orbit around Venus and transfer angular momentum once they are an established binary system in much the same way as the Earth/Moon system works.
Then wait a few thousand years...
To increase its rotation you could move Mercury into orbit around Venus and transfer angular momentum once they are an established binary system in much the same way as the Earth/Moon system works.
Bromo33333
SOC-9
The ideas of terraforming Venus were built around the idea of propting a big continuous precipitation of the chemicals in the atmosphere - called "the big rain" according to the article in the link.
I recall in the 1980's it was thought that terraforming Venus might be easier than mars because of the substractive nature. But one could land and presumably survive on Mars without a terraforming first step, so I think that people think Mars might indeed be a little easier in general, and settleable immediately.
I recall in the 1980's it was thought that terraforming Venus might be easier than mars because of the substractive nature. But one could land and presumably survive on Mars without a terraforming first step, so I think that people think Mars might indeed be a little easier in general, and settleable immediately.
Daidoji Dave
SOC-12
Tangent: colonizing Venus without terraforming is possible much sooner. Earth atmosphere is buoyant in Venus' atmosphere so all (well, "all") you'd need is a very large blimp resistant to sulfuric acid, filled with our atmo, and people could live on the inside bottom surface. Gravity would be only slightly below ours, and you'd get radiation shielding from the atmosphere. Temperature's a little hot but not like it is on the surface.
We nearly have the capacity to do that now, although "at a reasonable cost" may come later.
Also one example of resolving oddities in random system generation. Venus has a corrosive atmosphere in Traveller terms, but there's still a way for a mid-tech, pre-Jump civilization to establish colonies.
We nearly have the capacity to do that now, although "at a reasonable cost" may come later.
Also one example of resolving oddities in random system generation. Venus has a corrosive atmosphere in Traveller terms, but there's still a way for a mid-tech, pre-Jump civilization to establish colonies.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
It's probably a more worthwhile investment than Mars, since whatever you do, you want to make it more or less permanent.
Gravity is about optimal, so next stage would be to lower the temperature to balmy tropical.
Gravity is about optimal, so next stage would be to lower the temperature to balmy tropical.
Related: Could Venus Have Been Habitable?
https://phys.org/news/2019-09-venus-habitable.html
https://phys.org/news/2019-09-venus-habitable.html
The biggest problem with Mars, and our moon, is the lack of a magnetic field protecting anyone living there from cosmic rays and CMEs from the sun. One documentary suggested living in lava tubes below the surface.
The other documentary I saw said that the Martian core was solidified, and it would need to be restarted to get a magnetic field back. Well beyond our tech level.
There is a short sf story that brings that up. I think a scientist wrote it.
Basically a space station orbits above the clouds and seeds the Venusian atmosphere with reducing bacteria. There are some blocks they have to resolve, but it isn't with the science.
We can make Carbon sequestering photosynthetic life already — simply by selection pressure (pun intended) — the hard part is going to be getting them there alive and dispersed.
I remember another documentary on the same subject which rejected the idea of starting the core of Mars as really too hard. Instead it was recommended to put a large (~10 Tesla) magnetic field generator in the L1 orbit position. This is both strong enough to match the Earth's, and well within our current technology capacity.
Fascintating. I hadn't heard about that.
Settling on Less (for now)
Venus and Mars each have a similar feature that might be exploited: Extreme altitude differences.
Venus has extreme atmospheric pressure. The highest point is Maxwell Montes. It is 11 kilometres high, has the lowest pressure (only 44 atmospheres!) and a frigid temperature of only 380 °C. So how good do the efforts have to be before you could settle there? Could you live with a Type D (Dense, high) atmosphere?
The deepest point on Mars is Valles Marineris at with a depth of 7 km. I could not find data on condition, but similarly how much effort do you need to settle for E or F (Thin, low) (E or F depending on rule version)?
Venus and Mars each have a similar feature that might be exploited: Extreme altitude differences.
Venus has extreme atmospheric pressure. The highest point is Maxwell Montes. It is 11 kilometres high, has the lowest pressure (only 44 atmospheres!) and a frigid temperature of only 380 °C. So how good do the efforts have to be before you could settle there? Could you live with a Type D (Dense, high) atmosphere?
The deepest point on Mars is Valles Marineris at with a depth of 7 km. I could not find data on condition, but similarly how much effort do you need to settle for E or F (Thin, low) (E or F depending on rule version)?
