Jorge R. Frank wrote:
"Alfred Montestruc" wrote in
oups.com:


Jorge R. Frank wrote:
"Alfred Montestruc" wrote in
oups.com:


Brad Guth wrote:
Roger Bagula,
Can I add a little something extra as to terraforming our moon?

The moon will lose an earthlike atmospheare if it is given one.
At
the
heat flux rate from the sun it sees the gas will leak off in a
relitivly short amount of time.

"Relatively short" only in a geological sense. The "half-life" of
a
lunar
atmosphere is measured in the thousands of years.

Which is the sort of time scale that you engage in when
terraforming.

It would take about that long to add the atmosphear.

Duh. This is a project for civilizations that think long-term.

Once that air is gone, it is gone, and
cannot be recovered.

For any civilization advanced enough to give the moon an
atmosphere
in the
first place, it would be child's play to replenish the atmosphere
by
the
fraction of a percent per year necessary to keep it there.


From where?

From whence they choose - remember, we are talking about a
civilization
capable of placing an earth-like atmosphere on the moon in the first
place.

Regardless the N2 is in short supply in terms of avalability of
atoms
in the solar system, and when they escape from an atmosphear, they
are
not recoverable in any practical manner.

Why do you need N2? Any inert buffer-gas will do.

N2 is not exactly inert.

It is very important to plant cycles and animal life. Much if not all
of the Nitrogen atoms that you use in your body (a lot that you cannot
live without) were chemically processed out of N2 by plants and
converted into organtic Nitrogen compounds.

If you want to "terraform" a planet, you need nitrogen. If just adding
an atmosphear for sh*&s and grins, no N2 is needed.