Which planet do you think would be the easiest to terraform and move to?

[Taverner]

Poll question: Which planet do you think would be the easiest to terraform and move to?

Granted, we are talking centuries and perhaps a millennium or two before the technology

But three sciences we are actively working on - Nanotechnology, The Genome Project and Climate Change Studies - will give us some foundation in this goal




I vote for the Moon first, just due to proximity. It will be easier to experiment on the Moon as well. Problem is: there's not enough gravity to keep an atmosphere. HOWEVER, this is where nanotechnology can come into play - as an artificial layer of atmosphere to keep the oxygen, C02 and Nitrogen in.

[pokerfan]

1. Mars

Mars has the advantage of already having an atmosphere albeit thin and mostly CO2. Still, it gives you something to work with. Mars also has a ~24 hour day compared to the moon's 27 day 'day' which is helpful for growing things.

http://www.nss.org/settlement/mars/zubrin-colonize.html">The Case for Colonizing Mars by Robert Zubrin

In contrast to the Moon, Mars is rich in carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen, all in biologically readily accessible forms such as carbon dioxide gas, nitrogen gas, and water ice and permafrost. Carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen are only present on the Moon in parts per million quantities, much like gold in seawater. Oxygen is abundant on the Moon, but only in tightly bound oxides such as silicon dioxide (SiO2), ferrous oxide (Fe2O3), magnesium oxide (MgO), and aluminum oxide (Al2O3), which require very high energy processes to reduce..

[Taverner]

2. Mars would definitely be cool

If we can find a way to go really fast...it would be possible even today to start (using algae) for results 1K+ years from now

[Taverner]

3. Let me add though...

With the moon, we have the luxury of bringing stuff from Earth to there...

Say an Iceberg or twenty once we bring the temp up

[pokerfan]

5. On Mars you can live off the land

Even making rocket fuel from the atmosphere: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-situ_resource_utilization#Mars

In terms of delta-vee Mars really isn't that much further away, especially when you consider that one can aerobrake on arrival, which isn't an option on the Moon. Once you escaped the Earth's gravity well, you're pretty much halfway to anywhere in the solar system:



(The red vines represent one way free delta vee rides via aerobraking. Delta vee distances are in kilometers/second.)

[mix]

12. What he said. ^^^ nt

[Dr. Strange]

4. I vote for Delaware.

[flvegan]

13. Delaware can never host a civilization. Never.

[Taverner]

21. Hey - remember Zappa on 'every country needs a beer'?

Dogfish Head!!!!!

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. According to the show I watched the other day, we would start out on the Moon's southern pole as

it's a) nearby and b) in constant sun so they could use solar power to do the things they needed to do.

[kentauros]

7. How does nanotech keep an atmosphere down on a low-gravity world?

Unless you're saying it's really just a big artificial shell that's anchored to the ground by space-elevators... :P

Personally, I'd rather we build a Dyson Sphere, once we figure out how to make gravity generators :D

[Taverner]

9. Program the nanobots, quadrillions and quadrillions of them...

to act as they need to keep the atmosphere in. Say if they were programed to float around and reflect the sun back.

[kentauros]

11. I still don't see how that defies a lack of gravity.

Are you saying it would act like a solid shield, because that's the only option I can see working. Otherwise, the nanobots are going to float off into space with the air ;) And there are other factors involved than a lack of gravity. Seems like the Moon also doesn't have a strong magnetic field, so no protection from gamma rays either. Your nanotech is going to have to be hardened against strong radiation. Atomic drift anyone? :)

[Taverner]

23. No - I'm just trying to reign in the atmosphere

Gravity? Well, hey - enjoy the floating!

----------------------

There is also the idea of boring holes into the Moon, force rotate the moon (for said gravity) and live in an upside down world - e.g. under the moon you would be upside down on Earth...

This is hard to explain without pictures...but think that big whirly thing in 2001 Space Odyssey and have us live under the surface of the moon 50 meters down, and because the moon has been forced to spin, you get gravity.

Of course, if you do this - what affect will it have on Earth?

[kentauros]

26. You mean "hollow it out" ;)

The only problem with that is you'd only be able to populate the equator because the spin would move all the atmosphere there and away from the poles.

As for the Earth, unless you're also speeding up the Moon's orbit, too, it shouldn't have any unwanted effects from just increasing its spin. Now, I don't know enough about the geology of the Moon to know whether giving it enough spin to make an interior one-gee of gravity would also cause more Moonquakes or problems with the extreme heating and cooling on the outside. You might do better to just grab an iron asteroid, bore holes into it, fill them with water and then heat it with big mirrors until it blows up like an iron balloon. You could make a pretty large space-station with that :D

[MilesColtrane]

30. The nanobots have teensy tiny raquets with which they deftly...

volley the oxygen and nitrogen molecules back toward the surface.

Picture a quadrillion Jimmy Connnors whacking away and screaming at the chair umpire.

[Taverner]

22. No - we find a way to keep an atmosphere without using gravity

[Swede]

24. Actually it has no gravity because it has no magnetic field.

The solar winds carry it away.

[Dr Morbius]

28. I'm sorry, that's incorrect.

The moon does indeed have gravity. It has no atmosphere because it lacks a magnetic field, but it still has gravity. If it did not, we'd have no tides.

I figure the moon will be criss-crossed with ultrathin plastic domes, and much of it will be hollowed-out.

[Swede]

29. Yeah,brainfart on my part.

:shrug: I meant Mars has no atmosphere because of the lack of a magnetic field.

[backscatter712]

31. There's the radiation issue on the moon.

No atmosphere, and no magnetic field - every time there's a solar flare, people standing on the surface of the moon could get hit with a lethal dose of hard radiation.

I'd say the vast majority of lunar colonies will be underground - digging underground and putting at least six feet of dirt over your head is the easiest way to protect yourself from radiation.

[Bossy Monkey]

8. That's nanu-nanu-technology. I vote Ork! n/t

[Renew Deal]

10. Venus will be a nice place to go for winter vacation

I hear the weather is always warm!

[backscatter712]

14. Maybe improve Venus's climate by putting space mirrors in Venus's L1 Lagrange Point.

Block some of the sunlight, and see if Venus's surface temperature can be brought down to something survivable by humans. Of course, there's still the 90 atm CO2 + sulfuric acid atmosphere - that won't be easy to deal with...

Alternatively, build cloud cities on Venus. Screw the surface - at about 50 km up, the atmospheric pressure is Earth-like, the temperature is Earth-like, all you need is an oxygen mask, protection from the acid rain, and a buoyant platform to stand on.

[Taverner]

15. This is where genetic engineering comes in - create an airborne yeast or bacteria

That eats sulfur, and shits oxygen

[Renew Deal]

18. Paging Monsanto!

:evilgrin:

[Taverner]

19. Hey, its about time we actually HAVE better living through chemistry!

[pokerfan]

25. We just need MegaMaid

to Hoover up most of that Venusian atmosphere and dump it on Mars. Three livable planets!

[pitohui]

16. the moon by far you named that tune in just one note

we don't have to worry abt the atmosphere leaking away because we live on human time scales not geological time scales, once we got an atmosphere up and running it'll be there for the petty tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands that our species is likely to survive...and if we go further, we'll eventually get the tech to allow us to keep that atmosphere, we don't have to solve life, the universe, and everything after only 10K years of civilization, leave something for the next guy to accomplish!

second to be terra formed will be various and sundry asteroids

why put up w. gravity and its discontents if you don't have to?

in the future people will live a long time and they won't want to live 400 years w. joint pain, low grav will suit them to a tee

mars & venus will be left closer to what they are...perhaps changed a little to allow for cool hiking vacations or something but we're gonna leave planets behind as a place to live, they don't make much sense...planets are large, have gravity (which is unsafe and causes pain to long lived organisms plus wrinkles and titty droop), expensive to get lift-off (that stupid gravity again), and once they have an atmosphere they have this bullshit called weather -- look at all the trouble weather has caused on earth, i'm not moving to outer space to fight more fucking fires, hurricanes, and tornadoes, if i go to outer space i want WEATHER UNDER CONTROL and decent safe living conditions...that means artificial...moon and asteroids...the asteroids alone could support hundreds of billions of humans if properly terra formed

nobody is gonna wanna live in a gravity "slum," people will pity the fool who still lives on earth!

[Gold Metal Flake]

17. Unfortunately, neither Mars now Venus has protection from solar wind.

Venus is lost. It's oxygen was burned away by the gradually increasing heat of the sun eons ago. It is a perpetually overheated hell now.
Mars would be the only possibility with sufficient man-made protection from radiation and the lack of a dense atmosphere. Mars will not hold on to a thick atmosphere, though. No radiation belts, not a strong enough magnetic field. The solar winds blow it away.

Let's stay here.

[Taverner]

20. That's why we need bio engineered algae that can give it an atmosphere

Including generating an Ozone layer

That tech will come from how (and if) we solve the climate problem.

[Gold Metal Flake]

27. It just won't stay.

But who knows what humans might come up with. We got, what, another 4 billion years before the sun depletes it's fuel? Would be cool to snatch Venus from God's angry stare.