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> It's worth noting that Venus is still probably a better terraforming target than Mars [1]. This romantic notion of Mars has rooted itself deeply at this point
by generalizations 5y ago
> It's worth noting that Venus is still probably a better terraforming target than Mars [1]. This romantic notion of Mars has rooted itself deeply at this point (eg with Elon Musk) but Mars is basically a more distant and inconvenient Moon.
There's a distinction there worth pointing out. We can actually land on Mars, and if something goes wrong there are options (Apollo 13 style). If something goes wrong on Venus, you're falling through acid clouds and getting cooked. The vacuum of space is less perilous than the atmosphere of Venus.
On the other hand, as you mentioned, Venus has the raw materials and the magnetosphere for terraforming. Might be worth just dropping some hardy lichen on Venus to get the process started, because no one is going to go there as-is.
- fnord77 5y agoVenetian gravity is much closer to earth's too
- at_compile_time 5y ago> Might be worth just dropping some hardy lichen on Venus to get the process started, because no one is going to go there as-is. Hardy is an understatement. Life would need an entirely different chemistry to function at 730K.
- DuskStar 5y agoPresumsbly, you'd start in the upper atmosphere and work down. Airborne equivalents to algae?
- webnrrd2k 5y agoMaybe something similar to what lives at undersea hydrothermal vents? I know close to nothing about extremophiles, but I imagine that there is something, somewhere on earth, that's used to living in an environment that is closer to Venus's environment.
- ASalazarMX 5y agoIt's one thing to live near hydrothermal vents, and other to live inside them. IIRC no known creature survives above 120 Celsius.