How Quickly Could Venus Be Terraformed?

[timewerx]

Did you notice how the starring actress in the film Passengers said that she was going to spend a month on the homestead planet and then return after centuries had elapsed here on Earth? It would be like a trip using a time machine!

Yup, I think she left no one on Earth anyways but a few friends and one best friend. Not a lot of people to miss. But for me, I wouldn't want to "time travel" to the future with no means of going back in time!

In real life, technology would actually catch up to it literally.... Before such ship arrives in its destination in 120 years, a faster-than-light propulsion would have been invented by then and catch up to the ship.

My plan for such interstellar voyage is to have the entire propulsion system replaceable in transit -- Similar to the configuration of Galaxy-Class starship in Star Trek where the engineering/propulsion and habitat section could undock and fly independently.

Let's say during the voyage, a much more advanced and much faster propulsion was invented back on Earth, the new propulsion system would be flown and delivered to the starship in transit and replace its current propulsion system would enable it to reach its destination a lot sooner. The older but slower propulsion would either be delivered back to Earth or destroyed completely by flying it on a collision course to a nearby star.

 

[Radrook]

Yup, I think she left no one on Earth anyways but a few friends and one best friend. Not a lot of people to miss. But for me, I wouldn't want to "time travel" to the future with no means of going back in time!

In real life, technology would actually catch up to it literally.... Before such ship arrives in its destination in 120 years, a faster-than-light propulsion would have been invented by then and catch up to the ship.

My plan for such interstellar voyage is to have the entire propulsion system replaceable in transit -- Similar to the configuration of Galaxy-Class starship in Star Trek where the engineering/propulsion and habitat section could undock and fly independently.

Let's say during the voyage, a much more advanced and much faster propulsion was invented back on Earth, the new propulsion system would be flown and delivered to the starship in transit and replace its current propulsion system would enable it to reach its destination a lot sooner. The older but slower propulsion would either be delivered back to Earth or destroyed completely by flying it on a collision course to a nearby star.

That is a logical assumption and demands that they plan ahead on a very grand scale and invest a lot of money. But once proven feasible it could become routine. I read a sci-fi short story in which something similar happened.

BTW
Returning home and finding both Venus and Mars totally terraformed would also be a pleasant surprise!

 

[Radrook]

From a purely atheistic practical viewpoint establishing colonies closer to our Sun which is scheduled to bloat into a red giant and swallow up the inner planets in the process seems counter productive in the long run.

From a Christian viewpoint, we were provided with the Earth and efforts to go beyond it to places that the creator patently made hostile to human life seems presumptuous and ultimately against God's will.

 

[Radrook]

Plus, if we had the capability of terraforming the disaster of an atomosphere of venus we could also reverse the damage we've done to our own atmosphere.

What leads you to believe that we aren't capable of reversing the damage already done to the biosphere? A complete cessation of the abuse would allow the Earth to heal itself.

 

[Radrook]

The surface gravity on Venus is only 0.903 times the Earth's surface gravity. It is the atmospheric pressure that is 92 times the Earth's atmospheric pressure.

That is almost a one-to-one correspondence in gravity which means that we would not have to worry about the bone loss which living on low-gravity planets like Mars inevitably inflicts on humans who attempt it.

 

[Blackmarch]

Since Venus is the only planet in our solar system that provides adequate gravity it's surface would be ideal for permanent colonization since such things as bone loss and blindness due to microgravity effects would be avoided. However we have the atmospheric pressure which is 100 times greater than Earth's at sea level and the corrosive sulfuric acid laden clouds and temperatures extremes capable of melting lead problems that prevent it. What would be the quickest way to transform Venus into an Earthlike habitat if indeed we ever decide to try it?

First we'd need a significantly sized mirror for a significant incoming solar energy reduction. Then drop a ton of large ice comets into it.
then wait for a thousand or two years for thevplanet to cool enough that it could be seeded with microorganisms that use carbon dioxide and sulfur and then wait another couple thousand years... Perhaps in thevmeantime harvest various gasses/materials from it as well.

 

[Radrook]

First we'd need a significantly sized mirror for a significant incoming solar energy reduction. Then drop a ton of large ice comets into it.
then wait for a thousand or two years for thevplanet to cool enough that it could be seeded with microorganisms that use carbon dioxide and sulfur and then wait another couple thousand years... Perhaps in the meantime harvest various gasses/materials from it as well.

True, those are some of the methods that have been hypothetically proposed and would indeed take enormous amount of time and effort to accomplish. Not within the foreseeable future I'm afraid. But as the saying goes a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Such a step is indeed within our capability and it involves setting up observation stations in the Venusian atmosphere at the elevation where temperatures are Earthlike and where the acid isn't as concentrated. Those stations can be gradually expanded until we have established a considerable presence there. Then after that is accomplished we might start to perhaps to make gradual tentative attempts at modification of the surface.

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