Terra-forming Venus vs Mars

And from here, I will dive into my terra-forming plans. For Venus we shall look at 4 current shortcomings that the planet has to be Earth-like; Atmospheric pressure, Rotation (length of days), Chemical makeup, Temperature, Plate tectonics, Tides, and Magnetic field. Many of these are linked together and so a single solution can help multiple issues, so I shall organize my sections by solutions, rather than by issues. These solutions shall be Moon, Carbon, Nitrogen Fixers, SO2, and Hydrogen. Moon We shall start with the most extreme, yet beautiful solution. How to bring a significant moon to Venus? Our answer is to bring over Mercury, the little neighbor, and capture him as a moon. Here on Earth, we already have an extreme number of nuclear weapons, capable of releases vast amounts of energy in an instant. And we have the ability to produce these weapons at frightening rates, thousands per year if we want. Between just Russia and US during the cold war, 80,000 nuclear weapons were produced over about 25 years [1]. Over the course of 200 years, we could produce enough nuclear weapons to really get Mercury moving, to where it would be captured in just several thousand years (we could also continue to produce to help it go faster, but we need the time to do other things, so it is fine to take its time). By locking Mercury in an orbit at 814,000 km (distance to allow Mercury to have the same tidal force as the Moon to Earth), conservation of angular momentum [2] will put Venus spinning at a rate of 44.5 hours. And putting it just another 100,000 km out will drop the rotation to 38.6 hours. What will this do for Venus? Well, at 914k km, we'll still see 94.4% as strong tidal forces compared to Earth. The faster spin will allow the weather to calm, as it is driven by the uneven heating of the planet trying to balance out. This will allow the planet's night and day to be more even (once the atmosphere is dealt with). This will also crank the core into rotation, restoring the magnetic field that is needed to protect the atmosphere from the solar winds. Carbon This should come as no shock to people, but Venus has a ton of carbon, in the form of CO2, in the atmosphere. There are a ton of planets, fungi, and microbes that can take CO2 -> O2 while using the carbon for themselves. Once Hydrogen is added (will address how in a later section) there is enough O2 in the atmosphere (trapped as CO2) to leave 1 atm of pressure with 21% O2 and create over 375,000 billion billion tons of water [3] ( 28% of the water that is on Earth). This will provide all the needed carbon for organic life. For the moment, we will call all this O2 and will point out the benefits of the water when the Hydrogen is added later. Nitrogen Fixers Even though Nitrogen only makes up 3.5% of the atmosphere, to get down to 78% (as our N2 is) of 1 atm, we will need to remove 76% of that N2. Just like with the carbon, there are numerous bacteria that can do that for us [4]. This will help create fertilizer and reduce the weight of the atmosphere. SO2 Just like with the N2, there are countless chemical processes that we can use, some will even pull water out of it (every bit helps) [5]. This is really only needed to make it easier and safer for other work on the planet (protection from corrosion). Hydrogen After taking all that CO2 and getting vast amounts of O2 from it, we need to introduce H so that we can some life providing H2O. There are several places that we can get our needed hydrogen. First, by bringing in some basic alkali solutions, we can clean out the SO2 in the atmosphere and get some sulfite salts. The other simple solution is the solar wind [6]. This is a stream of charged particles being shot from the sun. Because Venus doesn't have a magnetic field (until Mercury arrives), the wind pounds directly against the atmosphere. This means that satellites can harvest this wind without having to go too far away from the planet. And we've had the technology to collect the solar wind since the 90's [7]. The next places would be harvesting hydrogen directly from Jupiter or CH4 directly from Uranus (incase we want a little more Carbon for life forms). We've had satellites that have been able to lower probes into the upper atmospheres since the 80's [8]. This will allow all that O2 that was created in the Carbon section to be turned into water (well, not ALL the O2, just the vast majority to bring down the atmospheric pressure). What will all this do for the planet? Apart from the vast reduction of atmospheric pressure, we will see an incredible drop in temperature. The drop will be tied to the removal of the greenhouse gases and closeness to the sun. Once the atmosphere matches ours in pressure and composition, the temperature will be more related to the light coming from the sun. A quick calculation shows that at 56 degrees from the equator (north or south) on Venus would be the same temp as the equator on Earth. We can calculate that the temperature from the poles to the equator will average about 30 F – 150 F. The poles of Venus will be about the same temp as our 70 degrees North (and South), which is just within the Arctic Circle. This will create 41 million square kilometers (a little more than 4 USAs) on Venus that falls within normal Earth temperatures, the rest will be warmer than Earth, but not so hot that life cannot exist. The last thing that this will help with will be re kicking up Venus' plate tectonics by wettening the crust. While it is now understood that Venus does have active tectonics [9], we know that increasing the moisture in the crust will make it more Earth-like. So going back over everything, we've dealt with both the pressure and the composition of the atmosphere, and made it like Earth (78% N2 and 21% O2 with the SO2 taken care of). We've upped the tectonic levels, introduced a moon with tidal forces, cranked up the speed of rotation, jump started the magnetic field, and dropped the temp so that much of the land is Earth-like and all of it is under water's boiling point. All of this with decades old technology and equipment that we already have. I will pre-guess some questions and concerns with the last of my space. If the temperature can melt soft metals, how will you do any of this? Simple, the atmosphere is so heavy, it is easy to float heavy equipment high in the atmosphere. With solar panels (the light is 92% more intense than on earth) powering them, they can work on the atmosphere automatically and high above the heat. Once they start going down a bit, bio-domes can be used. How far down does pressure and temp need to go for BDs? technically none, there are a lot of materials that can withstand that kind of temperature and many organisms that can withstand the pressure. As long as no pressure difference needs to be maintained, there is no risk of collapsing. How to power the BDs? While the atmosphere is too think for much light to penetrate, Geothermal and Nuclear will be the best options. A little nuclear fuel goes a long way. This energy will be used to keep the insides cooler so that the life can do its thing more efficiently. And out of space. [1] . http://www.nuclearfiles.org... [2] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [3] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [4] . http://bcs.whfreeman.com... [5] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [6] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [7] . http://articles.cnn.com... [8] . http://www.cgrer.uiowa.edu... [9] . http://www3.imperial.ac.uk...