Here is Practical Explanation about Next Life, Purpose of Human Life,

[sdelsolray]

Nah, it's just a simple matter of engineering. I suppose Venus' atmosphere might have to be frozen first, perhaps by blocking all the sunlight from reaching it. Then the frozen gasses could be cut into big cubes and flung into orbit, where they can then be transported to Mars orbit. 

You are missing an important requirement.  Even assuming your transport a portion of Venus' atmosphere to Mars and deploy it, how are you going to make Mars generate a magnetic field sufficient to stop the solar wind from simply stripping that atmosphere from Mars' surface and pushing it into space?

[Unbeliever]

Good question! I suppose the atmosphere would have to be replenished periodically. It's gravity would be too little, as well.

Out of time - gotta go.

[trdsf]

You are missing an important requirement.  Even assuming your transport a portion of Venus' atmosphere to Mars and deploy it, how are you going to make Mars generate a magnetic field sufficient to stop the solar wind from simply stripping that atmosphere from Mars' surface and pushing it into space?

Well, obviously, we'll have to drill down and install a molten core... good thing there are a lot of iron-nickel asteroids.

[Cavebear]

You are missing an important requirement.  Even assuming your transport a portion of Venus' atmosphere to Mars and deploy it, how are you going to make Mars generate a magnetic field sufficient to stop the solar wind from simply stripping that atmosphere from Mars' surface and pushing it into space?

That's what I meant earlier about Mars not keeping an atmosphere.  I suppose we would have to arrange for a lot of the asteroid belt to land on it and up the mass.

[Baruch]

If we all worked at it real hard, do you suppose we could get it to happen sooner?  I would mind being free of all the crazy theists and it sure would eliminate the overpopulation problem for a few centuries while we learn to terraform venus or mars.

Terraforming nuts.  Megalomaniac much?  Is that you, Elon Musk?

[Baruch]

Mars gravity is not really good for us and Mars can't really hold an atmosphere.  Venus is the right gravity and might be easier in some ways.  But doing both is fine by me if we can afford it.

I will assume terraforming Venus would include adjusting the rotation.  If we can do one we can do both.  LOL!

Obama's trillion dollar platinum coin ... mint a bunch of those, and you can afford anything you want ;-)

[Baruch]

That's what I meant earlier about Mars not keeping an atmosphere.  I suppose we would have to arrange for a lot of the asteroid belt to land on it and up the mass.

How about bringing asteroids to Earth, and do double duty as WMD?

[Cavebear]

How about bringing asteroids to Earth, and do double duty as WMD?

That is always a possibility.  So are mere huge pipes manufactured elsewhere.  One sci-fi book called them "Rods Of God".  While I can't calculate the effect myself, it was claimed to be about a kiloton explosion...

Depends of the pipe...

[Unbeliever]

Well, obviously, we'll have to drill down and install a molten core... good thing there are a lot of iron-nickel asteroids.

That's going to be the case no matter what method of terraforming is used, I think. The planet just isn't very suitable the way it is - that's why terraforming it is necessary if we want to inhabit it.

[Unbeliever]

That's what I meant earlier about Mars not keeping an atmosphere.  I suppose we would have to arrange for a lot of the asteroid belt to land on it and up the mass.

That might screw up its orbit, though.

[Cavebear]

That might screw up its orbit, though.

If we got to that ability, I'm sure we could land matter equally enough.  And here's a thought, we COULD make the rotation equal to our own and solve that day difference. 

[sdelsolray]

Well, obviously, we'll have to drill down and install a molten core... good thing there are a lot of iron-nickel asteroids.

Mars already has an iron-nickel core.  It doesn't need more iron and nickel.  The core would need to be heated up to a molten state so that it could rock and roll enough to generate a magnetic field.  Sufficient energy production and energy transmission for this task would likely require the entire economic output of human civilization for thousands of years...perhaps millions of years.

[Baruch]

Mars already has an iron-nickel core.  It doesn't need more iron and nickel.  The core would need to be heated up to a molten state so that it could rock and roll enough to generate a magnetic field.  Sufficient energy production and energy transmission for this task would likely require the entire economic output of human civilization for thousands of years...perhaps millions of years.

With fiat dollars, the Fed, the BoE and the BIS ... anything is affordable ;-)

[trdsf]

That might screw up its orbit, though.

Not necessarily.  There's no reason an Earth-mass planet couldn't orbit at that distance.

The much bigger problem will be the eccentricity of Mars' orbit, which, while not extreme like a comet's or Pluto's or any number of NEOs, is still quite large, relatively speaking.  Earth's perihelion and aphelion are only about three million miles apart; Mars' are 26 million miles apart.  Assuming enough atmosphere can be given it to allow for a meaningful greenhouse effect at its average distance, those extremes still might mean unacceptably cold winters and hot summers -- keeping in mind that the seasons are each about twice as long since the year is nearly twice as long.  This would especially be the case in the southern hemisphere, which has summer at perihelion and winter at aphelion -- respectively, the nearest and furthest points from the sun.

The eccentricity is not something that can be corrected; it's part of a natural cycle driven by perturbations from the other planets.

Ultimately, it may mean that only the northern hemisphere is a realistic target for both terraforming and colonization in the longest term.

[Unbeliever]

We seem to be the victims of planetary chauvinism, but we can do without planets. It would be easier to start from scratch and build our own habitats in orbit around either sun or planets. All that terraforming is just too damned hard - and too time-consuming (likely centuries) and expensive. We could build some very nice living arrangements without all that hassle. Though that wouldn't be exactly cheap, either, it wouldn't cost what it would to make Mars or Venus into habitable places to live.


These habitats might look something like this:











They might look a bit like the Ringworld, but likely not as big.