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Terraforming (B) would require more resources, probably by several orders of magnitude. It would be badass, though.
by feoren 2y ago
Terraforming (B) would require more resources, probably by several orders of magnitude. It would be badass, though.
- notTooFarGone 2y agoI think you vastly underestimate the amount of radiation and how hard it would be to build a colony that is protected enough and is "self sustaining". Nice kurzgesagt video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqKGREZs6-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqKGREZs6-w If we manage to terraform mostly using robots and bacteria that would be so much easier.
- dTal 2y agoAnd I think you vastly underestimate how big a planet is. "Put the correct mixture of gases in the atmosphere"? Where from? At least if you're building small enclaves on a planet surface, you can repurpose mass that's already there.
- indoordin0saur 2y agoIn terms of the physical weight/volume of resources terraforming probably would be order of magnitudes more. But if terraforming involves mostly releasing frozen and underground stores of gasses, well that's potentially cheaper than building giant vacuum-sealed dome cities. And as a result you get the whole surface as a habitat (in the long run).