Terraforming Venus

Power density at the distance of Earth's orbit is about 1.4 kW/M^2. at the
distance of Venus's orbit, it is about 2.6 kW/M^2. So it is a little less
than double.

That is not the biggest factor in Venus' 700 degree surface temperature
however. The greenhouse gasses in the Venusian atmosphere (mostly CO2) are
much more of the total.

My favorite scheme for terraforming mars involves "petrifying" the Venusian
atmosphere. Come up with a way to seperate the CO2 into Carbon and Oxygen,
then turn the carbon into something solid - diamonds or buckytubes come to
mind (may as well make a profit), although coal would be fine. The Oxygen
would be released into the atmosphere. Since there is a LOT of CO2, most of
the liberated Oxygen would have to be combined with imported hydrogen mined
from space (or otherwise imported) to give liquid water.

There is a surface pressure of 90 Bar. The content of the atmosphere is
96.5% CO2, and 3.5% Nitrogen. Thus there is 3 times the Nitrogen on Venus as
on Earth. Once disassociated, and combined with Hydrogen, there is enough
Oxygen to bury the surface in 100 Meters of water. The excess nitrogen could
make er...fertilizer...or something else.

This link is pessamistic, http://world.std.com/~reinhold/Venus.terraform.txt
but I see such a ready source of carbon, in a form that would be readily
manipulated on the molecular level - as a usable natural resource.

After a lot of the CO2 was processed like this, and the atmosphere was
raised to about 20% Oxygen at 1 Bar (same as earth) the temperature might
drop to something livable in the upper latitudes.

Lots of problems left, including the 117 day long "days". There are books on
this subject, but I can't find a referance at the moment.

http://powerweb.grc.nasa.gov/pvsee/p...ne_STAIF01.pdf


"Gene P." wrote in message
...

I was thiking about terraforming Mars, and how most such schemes call for
big solar mirrors to heat the surface a bit.

Venus has the reverse problem... WAY too hot. How much sunlight would
have to be blocked to break the greenhouse loop and reduce temperatures
into the earthlike range?

Gene Pharr
Slidell LA

--
Alcore Nilth - The Mad Alchemist of Gevbeck

Power density at the distance of Earth's orbit is about 1.4 kW/M^2. at the
distance of Venus's orbit, it is about 2.6 kW/M^2. So it is a little less
than double.

That is not the biggest factor in Venus' 700 degree surface temperature
however. The greenhouse gasses in the Venusian atmosphere (mostly CO2) are
much more of the total.

My favorite scheme for terraforming Venus involves "petrifying" the Venusian
atmosphere. Come up with an economical way to seperate the CO2 into
Carbon and Oxygen, then turn the carbon into something solid - diamonds
or buckytubes come to mind (may as well make a profit), although coal
would be fine. The Oxygen would be released into the atmosphere. Since
there is a LOT of CO2, most of the liberated Oxygen would have to be
combined with imported hydrogen mined from space (or otherwise
imported) to give liquid water.

There is a surface pressure of 90 Bar. The content of the atmosphere is
96.5% CO2, and 3.5% Nitrogen. Thus there is 3 times the Nitrogen on Venus as
on Earth. Once disassociated, and combined with Hydrogen, there is enough
Oxygen to bury the surface in 100 Meters of water. The excess nitrogen could
make er...fertilizer...or something else.

This link is pessamistic, http://world.std.com/~reinhold/Venus.terraform.txt
but I see such a ready source of carbon, in a form that would be readily
manipulated on the molecular level - as a usable natural resource.

After a lot of the CO2 was processed like this, and the atmosphere was
raised to about 20% Oxygen at 1 Bar (same as earth) the temperature might
drop to something livable in the upper latitudes.

Lots of problems left, including the 117 day long "days". There are books on
this subject, but I can't find a referance at the moment.

http://powerweb.grc.nasa.gov/pvsee/p...ne_STAIF01.pdf


"Gene P." wrote in message
...

I was thiking about terraforming Mars, and how most such schemes call for
big solar mirrors to heat the surface a bit.

Venus has the reverse problem... WAY too hot. How much sunlight would
have to be blocked to break the greenhouse loop and reduce temperatures
into the earthlike range?

Gene Pharr
Slidell LA

--
Alcore Nilth - The Mad Alchemist of Gevbeck

On Sat, 04 Sep 2004 20:56:59 -0800, Ron Webb wrote:

Lots of problems left, including the 117 day long "days". There are books on
this subject, but I can't find a referance at the moment.

This is probably the biggest problem. AFAIK we do not have plant or
animal life that can live with days that long, and the human psyche
is not up to it, either.

I am still of the opinion that the most livable places in the solar
system are those where the length of a day is at most 50 hours, any
more than that and life gets upset.

Building greenhouses on Mars or even asteroids is probably the easiest
way into space. Lots of sunlight, in intervals short enough. We know
how to build greenhouses and a cubic kilometer of ice and carbon should
be enough mass to compensate for a slightly unbalanced biosystem, for
a very long time...

--
http://www.offshoreexecutive.com/ Offshore The Boss!

Lots of problems left, including the 117 day long "days".

This is probably the biggest problem. AFAIK we do not have plant or
animal life that can live with days that long, and the human psyche
is not up to it, either.

I wonder why you feel that way. I live in Fairbanks, Alaska, and routinely
travel north to places like Barrow. People live just fine with no dark for 3
months or so in the summer, and no light for that long in the winter. I'm
one of 'em!