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Posted on 11/22/2004 11:23:47 AM PST by RockinRight
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Its not an easy read. I finished only first two so far.
Agree or not, the author presents a fascinating saga with conflicting characters with different visions of how or whether at all to terraform Mars, economy of a far away colony, independence from Earth, and countless "hard sci-fi" ideas.
I think its not a matter of should we, but when it will become feasible. Its inevitable otherwise.
How do you like 900 degree temps?
I heard somewhere that Venus' surface temperature is around 800 degrees.
"I am ready Captain Video" Ed Norton
I think I heard 800 degrees somewhere.
If you didn't think the first two an easy read, then don't bother with Blue Mars. It is, by far, the worst of the three. By that I mean: The first was great, the second very good, the third mediocre.
> How do you like 900 degree temps?
I don't. But there's no need to go that deep. Again... look at a chart of Venus atmospheric pressures and temperatures. Find out what the temperature is where the atmosphere is one atmosphere in pressure.
Here's a hint: at that altitude, you need a sheet of Visqueen to keep your breathing air separate from the outside CO2... and a nice sweater to stay warm.
And here's another hint: CO2 is 50% denser than the O2/N2 mix on Earth... and hydrogen is basically inert in it.
Put it all together.
Interesting ping
So you're proposing colonizing Venus by living in cities suspended in the atmosphere by balloons?
Sounds good to me.
> So you're proposing colonizing Venus by living in cities suspended in the atmosphere by balloons?
Bingo. Venus has an abundance of the raw materials for life... nitrogen and CO2 in the air, sulphuric acid for water and hydrogen in the clouds below, and obviously abundant solar energy. The high molecular weight of the atmosphere means that hydrogen blimps/dirigibles/balloons will have substantially greater lifting capability than on Earth, while being less explosive. The lower mass of Venus means getting from the 14 PSI region to orbit will be easier; propellants are avialble in the form of hydrogen and oxygen, as well as easily manufacturable hydrocarbons. "Cloud cities" made of plastic and carbon fiber could be replicationg operations, with one city makign another out of the natural resources available.
Metals and minerals would of course be an issue. But park a single small asteroid in orbit, and you're good to go. And metals and minerals, unlike air and water, do not evaporate, and can thus be reasonably effectively locked into a use cycle.
Colonizing Venus and colonizing Mars are not either/or operations. Do both.
Another note: while the day/night cycle on Venus is thousands of hours long, that only applies to the *ground.* Up in the sky, the winds will carry you along much, much faster. Exactly speed and day/night period depend on altitude and latitude, of course.
if the atmosphere bleeds off to space faster that it can be made where does that leave the people who went there?
but this is all talk about terraforming a planet in this solar system. I agree that it may be attempted as an expirement to study effects. But to seriously propose that it is possible to, more or less, make a breathable atmosphere on a world with a mass like that of Mars is pretty far-fetched!
Most models show that the atmosphere would bleed off over hundreds of millions of years.
Interesting concept for Venus. Tho' I'm not sure I'd want to focus my efforts on a place where man would always have to live in an artificial environment.
Not that I'm doing anything about it to begin with...
I read a really far-fetched idea last year:
Move Venus into the spot exactly opposite the sun from the Earth, so that it is never visible (always on the other side of the sun). This creates a climatic advantage as it is the exact same distance from the sun as the Earth.
Then-crash Mars into it. Most of Mars' minerals and water will evaporate into Venus, and the core will spit back out into orbit creating a moon.
The impact will increase Venus' rotational speed.
Oh, It's probably worth reading. Just don't expect it to be as good as the first two.
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I thought the gotcha with Mars was that it lacks sufficient mass to retain anything but a very thin atmosphere.