Why Don't We Terra Form Venus. Its Way Cheaper?

Can I also point out that the lack of liquid water on Venus has frozen the planet's tectonic plates in place - this means that every umpteen million years the entire planet experiences a massive resurfacing event that sees magma being painted all over the place. If you start mucking about with terraforming you might restart any plate subduction, whereupon it'll be wall-to-wall volcanoes in a lot of unexpected places.

If we succeeded in transforming Venus's 800-degree Fahrenheit greenhouse effect, and atmospheric pressure so great that the probe we sent there was crushed within seconds, into something livable for humans.... we're probably just going to look back past the time and expenses and wonder why we didn't just tweak Earth's atmosphere a little and be done with it.

Originally posted by foxhoundone
Has anybody thought along the lines off adapted humanoids ? There lungs bio engineered to breath "the soup" off dangerous inviroments.

I've always thought this in a way. We pursue life as we know it, in worlds that are not like ours. Who is to say that species didn't evolve, adapt, grow with, etc. the environment. I have thought this of other worlds as well, such as an article I read waiting for a haircut in a magazine about life on Jupiter. If there was life in Jupiter it would most likely looking like a jellyfish swimming through the dense gas atmosphere. So why not Venus?

As far as tera forming a planet, I saw a video on how they wanted to go to build the ISS, then go to the moon, build a base, and then a rocket on that base to launch to the mars, and only stay for a few days. This guy from NASA who was inspired by the moon landings and became in the position to where he made up a new budget and plan to visit mars, for a much longer time, and launch directly from Earth, sending everything there ahead of time. Even that plan was over a billion, in theory. Venus can't yet support human life even with our life support suits and systems.

Terraforming Venus would be extremely difficult, but there are some ideas: en.wikipedia.org...

One thing people tend to forget is that Venus has an incredibly long day - 116.75 Earth days.

Compared to the hell on Venus, Mars is a paradise.

Hopefully people recognise that the popular image of terra-forming (i.e doing it using machinery over short periods of time) is just sci-fi.

Long term maniuplation of a planets atmoshpere is possible but we are talking over millions of years as it probably would require the application of bio-technology or manipulation of the organic resources available at the destination.

Transporting mass to other planets is just too cost prohibitive ( The curiosity rover is running on 110 Watts of powwer due to the weight restrictions on the radioactive fuel source) so the idea of transporting machinery or tools to make machinery on another planet is probably fancifull whislt impulse is required to move mass through space.

Originally posted by samkent
Venus has no magnetosphere.
Solar flares would be far more dangerous to humans on Venus.

Now that surprises me,its our magnetosphere that stops the sun from striping away our atmosphere..........

To terraforming mars we would need to somehow heat the core of the planet so it would create polls like earth otherwise the oxygen and basically all greenhouse gasses would be stripped away without magnet poles. There is a possibility that we could start a fusion reaction at the center to start the process basically a forced meltdown. That is all theoretical. As it is now Mars is a cold planet the core is solid that would have to be changed for there to be any chance of terraforming it.

Does anyone know what the core of Venus is like?

I don’t think we have a chance at terraforming Venus the atmosphere if far too dense the surface temperature is 476C, 872F while the pressure is at 93 bars it would be more pressure than most submarines could withstand couple that with clouds made of sulfuric acid and Winds move at up to 60 times the speed of the planet's rotation, while Earth's fastest winds are only 10% to 20% rotation speed it resembles a description of hell. I think the idea of ever being able to terraforming Venus is far beyond human technology and the risks would be far too great.


I dont think we have solid evidence of venuses core all our topiraphical data is from radar.

you guys are missing the easiest way to terraform venus!

MEGA MAID

I find it amusing that people keep speaking of pressure. Earth's pressure is fourteen lbs per sq in. If your internal pressure is less, it will crush you. Also, once a life form such as algae is present in the atmosphere and begins the conversion process of the atmosphere, chemical change begins, including the breakdown of acids etc.
This is turn will lower the pressure of the atmo as heavier elements begin to settle out.
As the pressure lowers, the speeds of the storms lower, etc. etc. etc.

By the way, why has the sun not stripped the atmo off Venus as they say it did Mars?
It's way closer to the sun and has no magnetic protection.'

Don't say gravity, that's the wrong answer.

Just a note

reply to post by winterkill

If your internal pressure is less, it will crush you.

What do you mean "internal pressure"? Yes an improperly engineered sealed structure would be crushed.

This is turn will lower the pressure of the atmo as heavier elements begin to settle out.

The atmosphere of Venus is 96% CO2. What "heavier elements" are you talking about? Where would they "settle" to?

Don't say gravity, that's the wrong answer.

Gravity. What's the "right" answer?

I vote to shoot all of the nuke waste, garbage off of Manhattan, and Piers Morgan at Venus. It'd be like a huge incinerator for our garbage planet.

..... or we can spend money and effort on terraforming our own planet. We have PLENTY of good areas here if one wanted to terraform. Take Wyoming for example...

Originally posted by winterkill
Also, once a life form such as algae is present in the atmosphere and begins the conversion process of the atmosphere, chemical change begins, including the breakdown of acids etc.

But how much algae would it take? Hundreds, thousands or millions of tons worth?

By the way, why has the sun not stripped the atmo off Venus as they say it did Mars?
It's way closer to the sun and has no magnetic protection.'

Don't say gravity, that's the wrong answer.

The Sun is slowly stripping away Venus' atmosphere. Venus does have a magnetosphere, it's just a weak one. And it is gravity that's keeping most of it in place, at least for the heavier elements.

Venus: Magnetic field and core
The weak magnetosphere around Venus means the solar wind is interacting directly with the outer atmosphere of the planet. Here, ions of hydrogen and oxygen are being created by the dissociation of neutral molecules from ultraviolet radiation. The solar wind then supplies energy that gives some of these ions sufficient velocity to escape the planet's gravity field. This erosion process results in a steady loss of low-mass hydrogen, helium, and oxygen ions, while higher-mass molecules, such as carbon dioxide, are more likely to be retained. Atmospheric erosion by the solar wind most probably led to the loss of most of the planet's water during the first billion years after it formed. The erosion has increased the ratio of higher-mass deuterium to lower-mass hydrogen in the upper atmosphere by a multiple of 150 times the ratio in the lower atmosphere.

reply to post by winterkill


The reason we keep mentioning pressure is it matters. Do you understand how much pressure 93 bars is? You should look it up.

Bar is a measure of pressure. 1bar = approx 14.5 psi, this equates to the average atmospheric pressure at sea level.

If you ever take up scuba diving you will realize just what that means. I don’t think we will ever be able to build submarines that fly.

Originally posted by jra

Originally posted by winterkill
Also, once a life form such as algae is present in the atmosphere and begins the conversion process of the atmosphere, chemical change begins, including the breakdown of acids etc.

But how much algae would it take? Hundreds, thousands or millions of tons worth?

Who cares?
I've said it before and I'll say it again: If you balk at big numbers, terraforming is not for you.

FWIW, I don't believe that any government or organization will ever have the resources or the long-range foresight to invest in planetary terraforming. I still find it a fun & fascinating mental exercise.

reply to post by 12 stranded dna


Are the Venetians Blind? I mean from being so close to the Sun and all?

I've though about Venus too, as a potential Habitable planet. But there is that Rotation problem...The Day is longer than it's year. Seems just spinning it up, might offer some benefits...I know "Just" spinning it up...like it's a simple thing to do.
Since it's rotation is opposite of the Earth, and slower...How would one go about increasing the speed?

Originally posted by spacedoubt
reply to post by 12 stranded dna

 

Are the Venetians Blind? I mean from being so close to the Sun and all?

I've though about Venus too, as a potential Habitable planet. But there is that Rotation problem...The Day is longer than it's year. Seems just spinning it up, might offer some benefits...I know "Just" spinning it up...like it's a simple thing to do.
Since it's rotation is opposite of the Earth, and slower...How would one go about increasing the speed?

Venetians blind... GROOOOOOAN...

How would we spin it up?? NUKE IT. Im American..

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Since it's rotation is opposite of the Earth, and slower...How would one go about increasing the speed?

I've thought about that myself as well. Perhaps using the planet Mercury. If one could shift its orbit so that hit Venus with a glancing blow, causing it to rotate more (in theory) and if it's done right, Mercury could also become a permanent Moon of Venus.

I don't know if it would actually work and it's obviously impossible for us to do, but maybe one day... in the very distant future.

reply to post by jra

I would submit that the capability of moving Mercury would make the rest of the project trivial.