What is the latest the U.S. knows about terraforming Mars or Venus?

Question

links please.

Answer 1

Venus is easier to terraform than Mars. It´s just a tad too hot. If Venus had formed at earths distance from the sun, Venus would be just like earth. Because it still has most of its primordial atmosphere. It has about the same amount of co2 and nitrogen as earth. The nitrogen is still in earths atmosphere while the co2 has been locked up in carbonate rock through chemical and biological processes (that requiers liquid water). Mars has lost its nitrogen along with its water because mars gravity is too weak and since both are necessary for life mars can never be terraformed. Even if we were to give mars a nice earthlike atmosphere (with a little more co2 to compensate for the greater distance to the sun) that atmosphere would immediately begin to drift off into space.

But since someone mentioned science fiction, hold on to your pantyhoses...

Suppose we had a means of space propulsion that was both really efficient and reliable. Then we could haul all of earths nuclear waste to mars, put it in a huge pile and start a nuclear meltdown. The smelt would eat itself through mars mantle and wouldn´t stop until it reached the core. There it would heat the core up and make mars geologically active again, something necessary if mars is to become a living planet. Then you haul every asteroid in the solarsystem, a couple of comets and maybe a couple of small moons to mars to increase its mass and supply it with all the water and atmospheric gasses it needs. Now you should getting a livable planet...

By comparison Venus is a much easier job. The only problem Venus has is that it is too hot (and there is very little water left). So then you build a sunblocker at Helio-Venutian L1 point that filters out 88% of the sunlight that would otherwise fall on the planet. You build the blocker out of solarpanels in a grating array. So the diameter of the blocker would have to be equal to that of Venus itself but you not only get all the electricity humanity will ever need as a byproduct, you get a whole new planet for humans to dwell on.

Answer 2

Mars' terraforming requires greenhouse gases, yes the ones we are trying to get rid of on Earth, to heat up the atmosphere. This would make it, in theory, habitable to human life. Venus, however, is a whole other animal. It has poisonous clouds and heavy volcanic activity. I advise human kind to stay away from there.

Answer 3

It's a pipe dream. We'd have to transport half our atmosphere to Mars and it would just leak away again anyways. The surface radiation on Mars is deadly because of no magnetic field. Forget Venus. It's just too hot.

Answer 4

I did work for NASA and have looked at many pictures of Mars and there are many dry river beads and giant canyons that appear to been cut by water. If it was hot enough on mars for water to run like that what was the temperature on Earth.

Answer 5

I found a planet that we could terraform with great difficulty, but it would be well worth the effort. It is called earth by its inhabitants.