Terraforming of Venus

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wjfox
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Terraforming of Venus

Post by wjfox »

From the video description:

"Venus and Mars terraformed at the same time with an autonomous self-replicating industry, with units that can't individually self-replicate. The ASRI built a billion gigaliter-class supertankers, a sunshade for Venus, an EM shield for Mars, fusion-powered hydrogen factories on two ice moons and facilities on Mars and Venus. The Venusian sunshade liquified the CO2, some of which was exported to Mars, some converted into oxygen and the rest combined with imported hydrogen to make water. The supertankers use LH2 and LOx rockets, which generated a significant amount of water."


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funkervogt
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Re: Terraforming of Venus

Post by funkervogt »

Terraforming Venus will be impossible, unless MAYBE we invest thousands of years of sustained effort into transforming it.

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Venuss-atmosphere-so-dense





From the content I've posted, I've identified the following problems with Venus:

1) The dense atmosphere traps heat and creates crushing pressure at ground level. Ultimately, the atmosphere's thickness owes to the planet's lack of plate tectonic activity.

2) Venus' lack of plate tectonics owes to the fact that it is naturally hotter due to being closer to the Sun. The surface gets hotter, so the crust isn't as cool or as thick, so "cracks" in it heal faster and more completely. Continental plates can't form.

3) Venus' surface is covered with hard rocks. It's rare to even find sand, as you would on Mars. How are we supposed to build structures on that, and what medium are plants supposed to grow in?

Here are some solutions / responses I've thought of:

1) Using technology, we could siphon off most of Venus' atmosphere relatively quickly (hundreds to thousands of years) until it reaches an Earthlike density. The atmosphere is CO2 and H2SO4, and those elements will have some use for the space infrastructure we build. Venus will become something akin to an "oil well" that we pump valuable substances up from.

2) The thinning of Venus' atmosphere will cool down its crust, which will make it more habitable but also increase the odds of geological activity. Paradoxically, we might want to use drills and explosives to trigger volcanic eruptions and earthquakes since it will jump-start the planet's transformation into having a geologic cycle more conducive to supporting life in the long run.

3) Once the surface temperature is low enough, we could use machines to start crushing rock to at least make sand that could support root growth. Making enough to cover most of the surface will take a LONG time.
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funkervogt
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Re: Terraforming of Venus

Post by funkervogt »

wjfox wrote: Sat Apr 09, 2022 7:03 am From the video description:

"Venus and Mars terraformed at the same time with an autonomous self-replicating industry, with units that can't individually self-replicate. The ASRI built a billion gigaliter-class supertankers, a sunshade for Venus, an EM shield for Mars, fusion-powered hydrogen factories on two ice moons and facilities on Mars and Venus. The Venusian sunshade liquified the CO2, some of which was exported to Mars, some converted into oxygen and the rest combined with imported hydrogen to make water. The supertankers use LH2 and LOx rockets, which generated a significant amount of water."


Combining our ideas, maybe there could be a space elevator on Venus and one on Mars. Large, automated space ships that would make use of gravity slingshoting for 99% of their propulsion would go back and forth between the two planets, docking with the Venus elevator to suck in CO2 and H2SO4, and docking with the Mars elevator to disgorge it. Pumps or some other mechanism built into the elevators would move the gases up or down.
Nanotechandmorefuture
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Re: Terraforming of Venus

Post by Nanotechandmorefuture »

That's nice :) I wonder how terraforming other planets would look like. I fear Jupiter simply due to seeing a random well made video of a possible probe showing what could be on its gas interior. The huge tornado & storms that were previewed in that tik tok video truly horrified me. How the heck would someone be able to terraform that?
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