Questions tagged [terraforming]
Questions regarding the artificial creation of Earth-like conditions on another celestial body.
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Can I move Hyperion to Mars with fusion rockets?
I'm working on a SciFi story set roughly in 2100 that takes place both on the moon and Mars. One plot point hinges on terraforming Mars, the biggest stumbling block being its lack of water and ...
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What is the optimal planetary sunshade arrangement?
To cool a planet down, one may place a sunshade between the planet and the Sun.
On its own, this is not stable due to radiation pressure, so a simple scheme like a big circular piece of aluminium foil ...
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Could Mars be terraformed by redirecting an asteroid to hit it? [closed]
If so, what kind of asteroid would be best?
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How realistic are the required fluorine mining quantities for terraforming Mars compared to the real mining practices on Earth?
Energy balance calculations in the JGR article Radiative-convective model of warming Mars with artificial greenhouse gases suggest that the addition of 0.2 Pa of the best greenhouse gases mixture (15%...
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How can you warm up Mars?
Mars experience extreme temperatures. Highest temperature being 21 degree celsius.
So if we are to terraform mars one day then we first need to warm it up. So any ideas on how to warm up mars?
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What are the calculations for the time it would take to create a minus 50⁰ C liquid CO2 ocean on Venus by shielding it totally from the Sun?
Cooling down Venus will probably be by far the most efficient method to start terraforming the planet because then you wouldn't have to deal with the high temperatures and pressures at its surface.
I'...
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Would a system of geosynchronous magnetic field satelites around Mars protect it from solar wind?
My entire life I've been obsessed with space travel, for the passed few years I've liked the idea of terraforming. I've learned a lot lately and i think I'm ready to begin research for some ...
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Could a Dyson-Harrop Stellar Wind Power Satellite generate a magnetic shield for Mars?
One of the major difficulties in creating an artificial magnetic shield for Mars is in providing power to sustain current in a massive loop.
A Dyson-Harrop satellite is designed to generate energy ...
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How deep does impact heating penetrate?
Let's say I find a cold rocky body with no atmosphere, and I bombard its surface with breathable air, thus converting the gas's GPE into heat. This will warm the body somewhat (and might initiate ...
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Impact Venus with Comet Leonard?
do we have the means to slightly alter Comet Leonard's trajectory so it impacts Venus instead of 'grazing' it in December 2021??
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Would it be advantageous to uncover the subsurface ice in the only two regions on Mars where water can flow downhill in summertime?
The image above is a screenshot from a part of NASA's Treasure Map for Water Ice on Mars.
Within 'the only two regions' I mean the uppermost parts of the two coloured extensions to the north into the ...
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Would an increase of a planet's mass affect its trajectory?
If humans happened to colonize Mars some time in the future and increase its mass such that its gravity increases from 3.721 m/s2 to 9.8 m/s2, would it not fall into the Sun?
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What are the challenges in terraforming a portion of Mars as opposed to the entire planet?
To be clear, I'm not talking about creating human-livable conditions, just the minimum required to support microbial life and possibly begin the process of creating an environment to support more ...
aqua
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How much ice from the most suitable icy moon(let) could a spacecraft, launched with an SLS Block 2, transport to the upper atmosphere of Venus?
When starting to terraform Venus, working people there would have to live first in the upper atmosphere for a long, long time because there are the most Earth like conditions.
But the water there is ...
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Self-sustainable Hermetically Sealed System: Humans & Plants
Somewhat related to How many plants would be needed to produce oxygen enough for 20 humans?
Suppose a number of humans are closed in a large hermetically sealed room on Earth with a glass (or other ...
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Would knocking the moon off it’s tidal lock with Earth affect its orbit?
Lots of discussion about terraforming the moon involves smacking it with a comet such that it rotates with a 24 hour ish period. But I don’t know if this will affect its orbit in any way. Is it ...
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How long would a magnetic shield placed at the Mars L1 point take to replenish Mars's atmosphere?
This conference paper proposes placing a magnetic shield at the Mars L1 point to protect it's atmosphere. The paper reports the results of modeling the martian atmosphere at a variety of pressures (10,...
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On what calculations is Robert Zubrin's assertion that Mars could be warmed by 10 ⁰ C in 50 years with fluorocarbon gases based?
In this answer to the question "What would the full hypothetical Mars terraforming roadmap look like ?" there's a link to the article "Zubrin on Terraforming Mars" in Universe ...
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I think I have an idea of how to stop global warming, where can I share it? [closed]
It is quite simple space technology that will require a lot of funds and some physical and biological research, but I think it is realistic to create it because the idea is simple (build special space ...
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Can VLF be used to create a Mars barrier?
I just ran across some older articles in 2017 discussing how VLF radio waves created an artificial barrier to space weather. Basically how VLF improves Earth’s protection from solar radiation.
This ...
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Spinning 16 Psyche at Mars L1 to envelop Mars with a magnetosheath?
16 Psyche is theorized to be the remnant iron core of an early small protoplanet that might have had it's surface and mantle stripped away through violent asteroid impacts.
Some modeling of possible ...
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Terraforming Mars using a combination of aerogel and GM microbes?
Silica aerogel is a technology that's been proposed for colonisation of Mars. Basically, it's a very good insulator that's also transparent to visible light, and could be used to warm up parts of Mars ...
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How to calculate how deep a crater on the Moon has to be to have liquid perfluorodecalin on its floor?
Because the Moon has no atmosphere, one could be created by the sublimation or evaporation of a solid or a liquid respectively, within a deep crater if the gas would not flow over the rim.
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How to calculate the pressure at the floor of Ganges Cavus on Mars when it is filled to its edge with perfluorobutane?
Perfluorobutane is an inert, high-density colorless gas and has a high Global Warming Potential value of 4800.
At about the same temperature of -1.7 ⁰C, it has a density of 11.2 kg/m3, opposed to 2 kg/...
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Harvesting Venus' atmosphere to Terraform Mars
Since Mars has such a thin atmosphere, to terraform we would need massive amounts of Nitrogen. Would it make sense to import it from Venus?
Also since Venus' atmosphere is mostly CO2, and we can make ...
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Capturing Hydrogen from the solar wind for Space Colony / Terraforming
Could we capture hydrogen from the solar wind instead of importing it or getting it from local sources ie water on mars or the lunar ice? Would it be worth the time vs energy used to get it?
Basically ...
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Using Venus' Atmosphere to Cool the Earth [closed]
The Starfish Prime nuclear test on July 9, 1962 caused massive fluctuations and degradation of the Earth's magnetic field. This field is largely responsible for redirecting the Sun's solar radiation. ...
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To cool down Venus, from where would be the most economical way to bring the shadowing material into orbit around the planet?
Edit: With the help of comments below, I've changed the question somewhat.
Credit: NASA, Image processed from Mariner 10 images by R. Nunes http://www.astrosurf.com/nunes
It could seem that ...
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Venus without the greenhouse
What would have been the approximate surface temperatures and pressure on Venus if its atmospheric composition was like the Earth's that is ,being composed primarily of nitrogen and oxygen,rather ...
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Could not silica aerogel dramatically increase the atmospheric pressure on Mars?
In the NASA article Want to Colonize Mars ? Aerogel Could Help a study about the potential of aerogel as a building material on Mars is reviewed.
In an experiment 2-3 centimeters of silica aerogel ...
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Should there not be a sulfuric acid free zone in the atmosphere above the equator of Venus?
The circulation in the troposphere of Venus follows an almost purely zonal flow, with windspeeds of about 100 m/sec at 60-70 km altitude, which corresponds to the upper cloud deck. These winds quickly ...
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Could the sulfuric acid in the atmosphere of Venus be heated enough by concentrated sunlight to create water and oxygen?
The atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50 to 60 km above the surface of Venus is nearly the same as that of the Earth, making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar ...
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Sulphur Hexafluoride atmosphere for Ceres?
So, I have read that the escape velocity of Ceres is 514 m/s, and orbital velocity(for a low orbit) is 360 m/s...
Now, the RMS(Root Mean Square) velocity of Sulphur Hexafluoride at 72 $^o$F (23 $^o$C,...
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How will Mars terraforming missions really work, how do pioneers like SpaceX plan on conquering Mars? [duplicate]
We know Mars is now dead in the water (or space), it is now merely an oversized rock hurtling through space, with a bit of atmosphere.
I was reading up on terraforming the planet, and learned that ...
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Are there any possible methods for keeping surface water on Mars?
I've been reading this wikipedia article on terraforming Mars. One of the major issues with terraforming Mars is essential molecules and elements escaping the planet. There have been several ...
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How large of a mirror would be needed to warm Titan up?
How large of a mirror would be needed to warm Titan up to ~290K?
Paul Birch in his paper "Terroforming Mars Quickly" calculated a mirror size of:
Support Mirror: 2.5 x 10^7m radius 3x 105m wide
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Would a terraformed Martian athmosphere even persist? [duplicate]
So I saw a question here mentioning that omnipresent idea of terraforming mars by somehow giving it more atmosphere (here it was melting/evaporating the polar ice caps).
My problem with that is: ...
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Mathematical approaches to analysis of terraforming
The process of terraforming has been discussed at length in this site. I am wondering if there has been any mathematical analysis of how terraforming would take place in credible scientific ...
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Removing perchlorate from Mars surface soil
It's known that there's a lot of perchlorate contained in Mars' surface soil.
But could we take the toxic part out and make it become plantable?
If so, how might this be done in a practical way on ...
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Can the top soil of Mars be transformed to be arable, and how to do it?
Can Mars top soil be transformed to be arable, and how to do it?
It may be planted in the isolated space.
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Can it be realistic to build a artificial magnetic field around Mars? [duplicate]
I was wondering how realistic it is to build an artificial magnetic field around Mars using electromagnetism.
So my question is; what kind of current would be needed in a loop around Mars' equator to ...
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What would the full hypothetical Mars terraforming roadmap look like?
Most of all the articles about Mars terraforming focus on warming the atmosphere. 2nd most popular topic as far as I know is the magnetic field that Mars lacks. Some other sources speak about toxic ...
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Is there any moon in our solar system which we could terraform relatively fast? [duplicate]
I am just curious as to whether there is any moon in our solar system which could be terraformed or at least made into a livable moon for us. By fast i mean as fast as possible, given our current ...
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What reasons are there (other than oxygen) Tardigrades can't survive Mars?
If Cyanobacteria or Lichens can survive on Mars could other small organisms like the Tardigrade then survive & flourish among them?
Due to the thicker atmosphere to be found the bottom of the ...
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Could it be worthwhile to bring a small and simple greenhouse with biofilms along with one of the next missions to Mars?
Planetary protection rules could be a reason not to bring biofilms to Mars, but because several landers and satellites that crashed or landed on Mars were probably not sterilized these rules were ...
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What's the deepest a trench could theoretically be dug on Mars?
Given the physical characteristics of Mars (the crust's thickness, its composition, gravity, etc.) how deep a trench (that could be expected to continue to exist indefinitely, or rather, for periods ...
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How deep a valley or trench would be needed on Mars to provide the same atmospheric pressure as 6 km above sea level on Earth?
Atmospheric pressure increases the deeper you go & the highest growing plants on Earth have been found at a height of 6 km so how deep a trench would we need on Mars to provide similar air ...
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If I wanted to try to terraform Mars, who would have the authority to stop me?
Let’s say hypothetically I could fund a rocket ship and pack it with lots of biomaterial. Biomaterial that would hopefully survive the impact, reproduce and potentially alter the atmosphere of Mars.
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Where's the Nitrogen on Venus?
A lot of people tend to narrowly focus on only Oxygen, Hydrogen, and carbon when considering the suitability for life. But the organic processes that we rely on require more elements than just those ...
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Terraforming Mars - would Mars lose its water?
If we were to terraform Mars would Mars slowly lose its water i.e., some of the water would sink deep into the dry Martian crust or combine with other elements in the soil? Mars has been dry for ...
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