3 ms·

I think the technology would be to send a dumb robot to an S-type asteroid, to mine it for silica-associated metals, very slowly, using solar power. The Mg and

I think the technology would be to send a dumb robot to an S-type asteroid, to mine it for silica-associated metals, very slowly, using solar power. The Mg and Ca dust pellets would be wrapped in aluminum foil and thrown at Jupiter, or solar-sailed to it. Another dumb robot would catch the packets, add H2 pumped up from Jupiter's upper atmosphere or electrolyzed from water on Europa or Callisto, and throw the hydride packet at Venus, where it would crash into the planet completely unattended and react in the atmosphere. At no point do those miners support human habitats. They can also throw other raw materials at Earth-Moon L4 and L5, for station construction. After 1000 years of dumb robots throwing foil-wrapped-dust-balloons at each other, and at Venus, a ton at a time, Earth throws some algae and extremophile vent bacteria at Venus. Then, after another 1000 years, you maybe have a planet ready to be landed on without immediately being crushed and burned by the hellish sky. This is not mutually exclusive with building in-space colonies, or with terraforming other celestial bodies. And we can build vacuum-breathing space robots now. Building a space habitat that can support an Earth-life ecosystem indefinitely is currently beyond our means, if not our abilities. Space robots playing catch is easier.

jandrese 7y ago
Humans are really bad at maintaining big projects for any length of time, let alone thousands of years. This couldn't be a small project either. You'd better be slinging hundreds of tons at Venus every day if you want it to be done in just a thousand years.
- logfromblammo 7y ago
  Terrestrial Mg mining produces just shy of 1000 tons per day. To terraform Venus's atmosphere with MgH2 in 1000 years, the robots in the belt and near Jupiter would have to process roughly 3.6e17 g per day, which is hundreds of billions of tons, hundreds of millions of times more than the entire Earth mines in a day. You would need a lot of robots. The project would have to be an AI capable of the following: - Run for 1000 years without failure. - Build robots that can build robot-building robots. - Build robots that can build robots that mine S-type asteroids. - Build robots that can build robots that mine hydrogen from Jupiter or its moons to make MgH2 and CaH2. - Build robots that can build robots that patiently move bulk cargo around the solar system. - Build robots that can build robots that electrolyze water in Venus orbit. - Build robots that can build robots that defend and repair the project infrastructure. - Build robots that can build robots that build and operate orbital shades, lenses, and mirrors. - Fairly allocate the surplus by-products to human bidders. The project would be a significant source of cheap aluminum, iron, nickel, silicon, sodium, potassium, and oxygen, as well as as much magnesium and calcium as is needed for ecosystem life support in space. Enough Ca and Mg to make all the bones of a billion animals is an insignificant fraction, compared to the amount required for terraforming. The attention span of a human is already too short to spend 100 years moving tons of boring old rock to a rendezvous orbit. The goal has to be to set up a system that benefits humans to allow it to continue without interference, rather than one that requires cooperation.

jandrese 7y ago

Humans are really bad at maintaining big projects for any length of time, let alone thousands of years. This couldn't be a small project either. You'd better be slinging hundreds of tons at Venus every day if you want it to be done in just a thousand years.

logfromblammo 7y ago
Terrestrial Mg mining produces just shy of 1000 tons per day. To terraform Venus's atmosphere with MgH2 in 1000 years, the robots in the belt and near Jupiter would have to process roughly 3.6e17 g per day, which is hundreds of billions of tons, hundreds of millions of times more than the entire Earth mines in a day. You would need a lot of robots. The project would have to be an AI capable of the following: - Run for 1000 years without failure. - Build robots that can build robot-building robots. - Build robots that can build robots that mine S-type asteroids. - Build robots that can build robots that mine hydrogen from Jupiter or its moons to make MgH2 and CaH2. - Build robots that can build robots that patiently move bulk cargo around the solar system. - Build robots that can build robots that electrolyze water in Venus orbit. - Build robots that can build robots that defend and repair the project infrastructure. - Build robots that can build robots that build and operate orbital shades, lenses, and mirrors. - Fairly allocate the surplus by-products to human bidders. The project would be a significant source of cheap aluminum, iron, nickel, silicon, sodium, potassium, and oxygen, as well as as much magnesium and calcium as is needed for ecosystem life support in space. Enough Ca and Mg to make all the bones of a billion animals is an insignificant fraction, compared to the amount required for terraforming. The attention span of a human is already too short to spend 100 years moving tons of boring old rock to a rendezvous orbit. The goal has to be to set up a system that benefits humans to allow it to continue without interference, rather than one that requires cooperation.