22 replies to this topic

[Logically Irrational]

The timeline already has a detailed description of the potential future terraforming of Mars, as well as a briefer mention of Venus, but I was wondering what the likelihood of other bodies being terraformed is. From what I've read, this could be the Moon, Mercury, Titan, Callisto, Europa, Ceres, Enceladus, and Ganymede.

Obviously, almost all of these would likely be more difficult than Mars or Venus, but in the far future, I think that humanity might try it. For certain bodies, namely Mercury, partial terraforming has been proposed (only changing the polar regions for example). There would be many issues though, particularly with the outer moons. Some of the issues would be finding a method of heating the moons sufficiently and, in the case of the Jovian moons, dealing with radiation.

What do members think? Will the technology of the far future solve these problems, and if so, will these bodies be terraformed?

Mars


Venus


The Moon

[Raklian]

Surreal seeing these Earth-like imitations

Not sure about the Moon. Its low gravity might be problematic as water needs more gravity to keep it in liquid form. It will look strange when we leap by tens of feet in a Earth-like landscape like the Apollo astronauts did.

[Guyverman1990]

I'm not sure that Mars will last long in a terraformed state, since it's further away from the sun than Earth and thus, much MUCH colder. Also, there is barely any tectonic activity like on Earth and that will be another factor

[Logically Irrational]

I'm not sure that Mars will last long in a terraformed state, since it's further away from the sun than Earth and thus, much MUCH colder. Also, there is barely any tectonic activity like on Earth and that will be another factor

Yeah, I imagine if humans terraform Mars, it will be an ongoing project. With the technology it would take to get to that point though, I can't imagine sustaining it would be too difficult. Mars would probably be easiest to maintain, compared to the likes of Venus or Europa.

[Guyverman1990]

I'm not sure that Mars will last long in a terraformed state, since it's further away from the sun than Earth and thus, much MUCH colder. Also, there is barely any tectonic activity like on Earth and that will be another factor

Yeah, I imagine if humans terraform Mars, it will be an ongoing project. With the technology it would take to get to that point though, I can't imagine sustaining it would be too difficult. Mars would probably be easiest to maintain, compared to the likes of Venus or Europa.

Personally, I think it would be much Easier for Venus to be Terraformed. Its only problem is the atmosphere and gravity to deal with.

[SG-1]

You guys are all wrong, Mars has life on it.

[eacao]

Our own moon cannot have an atmosphere sadly (of oxygen anyway). The reason why is that its gravity is too weak, the gaseous molecules reach escape velocity at room temperature and the atmosphere would bleed away. If you tried to heat europa to earth-life temperatures, the ground would melt out from under you. Mars really is the best bet, the idea presented on the timeline, of having superconducting rings stretching across the lines of latitude or longitude sounds plausible. Venus, I've thought that given enough energy, you might be able to ionize 90% of its atmosphere and send it out into space at escape velocity, which might even work to accelerate its rotation along its own axis or be able to move it into a cooler orbit. No idea how much energy it would take to do that though.

[Immortal]

Mars is the easier to terraform, what it needs is a thicker atmosphere.
What's killing our planet may save that one.

[xisnotx]

Terraforming is so off into the distant future that it's almost foolhardy to speculate.

Like, maybe in 10 generations.

I just really want to know the purpose, though. Just because?

[Immortal]

Because there will be so many humans on earth it will be horrible.
Mars is to us what America was back then, a new hope, a new world.

There are a lot of studies who show how terraforming mars can be done.
But they all speak with today's technology, and I really doubt it will be done like that.

Its 22th,23th century problem, we can only speculate for now.

But one day, humanity will spread through the stars.
After all, we are fragile on our small blue planet, one rock can kill us all.

[SG-1]

The technology of the far future could. I bet they would too. Terraforming planets in our own solar system might not happen though. When we are capable of terraforming a planet, we will most likely be able to survive somehow with minimal external help from something like a suit. We could manipulate our bodies to survive on that planet.

Why would we want to mess up something like a planet that doesn't need it? Mars and other planets and moons have been observed by people thousands of years ago. I think that a lot of people will want to preserve it the way it is.

Just my opinion, it would be a very controversial issue. Still, would be cool to see Mars look like Earth.

[mic of orion]

You guys are all wrong, Mars has life on it.

U sure???

I'd love to think there's life on mars, albeit microbial life.

[Immortal]

I hope when he says "life" he is not talking about little green men.
And maybe by the time we will terraform planets, we will hav "external help" if you see what I mean ...

[SG-1]

It was a joke did anyone click the link?

[Logically Irrational]

Haha, yeah, I did.

[eacao]

I'd just like to speculate on who would terraform Mars.

If it is in 300 years, I think the entire world may well be united, every last sovereign state and population centre will be working together. If it is (as the timeline predicts) in 100 years, I think the world will still be very fragmented (and maybe a little radioactive).
I think that if Mars is to be terraformed, it will be sometime during the 23rd century, probably right about 2250, and it will be done by a scientific institution. Also, when I say terraforming, I don't mean going all the way. A middle-zone is probably going to be the result where augmented humans and other species can live, but it will be a far cry from the Earth.

[Ru1138]

For those of you who are sad that a lack of magnetic field would make terraforming Mars impossible, I present to you this.

Edited by Ru1138, 02 April 2012 - 02:48 PM.

[Alric]

Since when did we need a reason to terraform mars? If we had the technology we would do it just because we could.

[EVanimations]

I'm not sure that Mars will last long in a terraformed state, since it's further away from the sun than Earth and thus, much MUCH colder. Also, there is barely any tectonic activity like on Earth and that will be another factor

Yeah, I imagine if humans terraform Mars, it will be an ongoing project. With the technology it would take to get to that point though, I can't imagine sustaining it would be too difficult. Mars would probably be easiest to maintain, compared to the likes of Venus or Europa.

If we put a rather large body into Mars' orbit, such as a large moon, the gravitational pulls may revive Mars' core heat. This would revive tectonic activity, the magnetic field, and many other things that would otherwise be problematic. From that point onward, inducing a greehouse effect would be top priority.

[MarcZ]

I'm not sure that Mars will last long in a terraformed state, since it's further away from the sun than Earth and thus, much MUCH colder. Also, there is barely any tectonic activity like on Earth and that will be another factor

Yeah, I imagine if humans terraform Mars, it will be an ongoing project. With the technology it would take to get to that point though, I can't imagine sustaining it would be too difficult. Mars would probably be easiest to maintain, compared to the likes of Venus or Europa.

If we put a rather large body into Mars' orbit, such as a large moon, the gravitational pulls may revive Mars' core heat. This would revive tectonic activity, the magnetic field, and many other things that would otherwise be problematic. From that point onward, inducing a greehouse effect would be top priority.

We should move Titan from Saturn to Mars.