more important then tides, the earths rotation is held in check by the moons gravity, without that the earth would spin unpredictably and radically.Originally Posted by elpolloloco
IBIS Specialist
more important then tides, the earths rotation is held in check by the moons gravity, without that the earth would spin unpredictably and radically.
These are the words you wish you wrote down.
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Maynard - The WCS Guy
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This is also why our rotation slows every year as the moon goes further away. Eventually we would stop spinning but the sun will explode first.
New advances in high tech building materials are around the corner especially as production methods of graphene advance it will likely become the plastic of this century. Its amazing properties will not only make life on Earth better but will greatly reduce the weight and thus cost of going to space. In addition this material may make a space elevator finally possible which would greatly lower costs. There is a lot of land and resources off world and so there is always going to be profit to be made in sending man out there to exploit it. The place where I see government stepping in is going to be some of the big issues like terraforming the planets and moons. In order to ensure the continued survival of mankind we first reach out into our solar system and then into the stars. In a long distant future when our star dies out the human race will live on spread thought the galaxy. While it may be many billions of years humans will know that there home was Earth and that our generation was the one that made the crucial steps to moving into the stars.
On another note I still think that land based terraforming is not enough and too limiting. I think that though the development of space based terraforming we can make places where humans would never imagine livable. If you start to address the issue as gravitational instead of climate you can see better possibilities with Venus. I am not aware of anyone else that shares this idea but if there is anyone else that has made claim to this please let me know.
Venus is much closer to earth's gravity and thus a human body would have less problems adapting to the gravitation force there. However there is currently no way to land there due to the climate which is caused by a run away green house effect. Solution, remove the sun. By blocking the sun out though the construction of a planetary shield in orbit around the planet the temps can lower and we can begin to take the climate under control. This shield could also double as a massive solar power plant and space station. This would greatly aid in the creation of the initial colonies. Once the planet cools we can take actions to thin the atmosphere and promote the natural creation of oxygen though the use of plant life as there currently is a massive amount of Co2 in the atmosphere. Over time we can create livable conditions with a breathable atmosphere. From there we know that the planet has had a rich volcanic history that should leave way to massive deposits of precious metals close to or even on the surface. The profitability of Venus is far greater than any of the other planets of the solar system. So while it may be hard that does not mean we should rule out a planet just b/c it does not appear we can colonize it.
IBIS Specialist
Well Zero I always believed the definition of plant terraforming was to also change the planets climate/atmosphere. Actually I would be lead to believe that the most important part of making a planet livable is changing a planets atmosphere. You need to someway add and keep oxygen on the planet and then water and then everything else will eventually fall into place.
The idea of terraforming is pretty hard, to add and then keep all of these earth like properties to an alien planet. For instance, the climate would always be warmer on venus and likewise, colder on mars. Idealy is to find a planet in the 'Goldilocks' zone that perhaps already has some water or oxygen and then start there.
As for venus? Well 1 way to slowly get ride of it's acidic atmosphere is to establish some sort of magnetic field to the planet. And even once we have done that the surface is very volcanic and adding water to the planet would probably make the planet erupt more. (by adding water you make the crust 'weaker' and easier to move, therefor more volcano's and earthquakes). The best planet would probably be Mars, Mars is a 'perfect' starter planet, it already has water, no atmosphere to remove and its closer to the asteroid belt which can be used to add water and a moon to the planet.
IBIS Master
I agree with Andrew, in that Mars is the better starter planet. Although it has no atmosphere, I believe that it would be easier to transport extra water, and CO2 there and establish a greenhouse. The atmosphere of Venus is made worse by its slow retrograde(backward) rotation. A day on venus is slightly longer than its rotation. 280ish days of day heats it up so much that when the darkside cools it cannot cool enough. The slow rate at which it revolves also makes it immpossible for a magnetic field to be strong enough to diflect the Solar winds. The Gamma rays cannot be blocked and would kill all plant life that we attepmted to start, given the solar blocker worked.
In all honesty I believe that the next stepping stone for mankind will be one of the moons of Jupiter. Europa has abundant liquid water to harvest and the Sun will only get larger as it approaches the end of its life cycle.
IBIS Master
even if we where to go further out into space we do need to solve the radiation issues further out, its all good getting out there wont be good if everyone who does turns to jelly
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That is why I was suggesting the giant planetary shield. Think in the future with better materials and technology we should be able to at low cost basically turn the entire planet into an enclosed climate controlled structure. Artificial light could simulate more earth like lighting or a means to rout the sunlight in such a manor could also work. The structure itself could also shield the planet in place of its poor magnetic field. Although it is mars that basically had no magnetic field and the problem with mars is that any atmosphere we create will be blow off due to solar winds and the low gravity. Ultimately we may need to somehow enclose mars as well in order to prevent the atmosphere from being removed.
I just like to imagine that if we truly are going to start to colonize we need to think of radical approaches to creating earth like conditions for large areas.
IBIS Master
Faster than light travel is another all important quest for science, pisses me off that its not talked about enough
IBIS Master
I believe they are scared of what will happen as you cross that barrier. The trouble I see with it is comunications will be obsolete. Radiowaves will only travel the speed of light. So if you traveled at 2x that speed your comunications would be delayed by a year.
IBIS Master
true but either way it only long term solution to deep space travel since our solar system wont last for ever, unless anyone is up for long term travel, which im not.
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