Moontanman Posted October 7, 2013 Posted October 7, 2013 Building a clear shell around a small planet to hold in an atmosphere seems like a no brainer at first, lots of hydrocarbons in space to make a poly-carbonate shell small robots crawling around on the inside or outside to repair any holes.... "sunbathing on Mercury or jamming on Jupiter which do you prefer " Daedalus http://www.space.com/23063-terraforming-planets-shell-worlds.html?cmpid=545402 One day, humans could re-make a world in Earth's image. Engineering an inhospitable world into a livable one, a process known as terraforming, could be a successful way to colonize another world after a long, interstellar journey, said Ken Roy, an engineer and presenter at last week's Starship Congress in Dallas, Tex. Roy's terraforming vision hinges upon what he calls "shell worlds." Upon arrival at an ideal planet, humans would literally encase the alien world inside of a protective shell made from Kevlar, dirt and steel.
Daedalus Posted October 8, 2013 Posted October 8, 2013 Building a clear shell around a small planet to hold in an atmosphere seems like a no brainer at first, lots of hydrocarbons in space to make a poly-carbonate shell small robots crawling around on the inside or outside to repair any holes.... "sunbathing on Mercury or jamming on Jupiter which do you prefer " Daedalus http://www.space.com/23063-terraforming-planets-shell-worlds.html?cmpid=545402 I call dibs on Ganymede. Can you imagine the view? It would be awesome. 1
Unity+ Posted October 8, 2013 Posted October 8, 2013 Building a clear shell around a small planet to hold in an atmosphere seems like a no brainer at first, lots of hydrocarbons in space to make a poly-carbonate shell small robots crawling around on the inside or outside to repair any holes.... "sunbathing on Mercury or jamming on Jupiter which do you prefer " Daedalus http://www.space.com/23063-terraforming-planets-shell-worlds.html?cmpid=545402 Definitely loved this image: It is still interest though. However, this is going to be a while before we do this.
CaptainPanic Posted October 8, 2013 Posted October 8, 2013 I'd rather be on Mars. I think it would be nice to have a bit of gravity. If someone would be really serious about building a dome around a planet to contain an atmosphere, I would advise to start way smaller: a large asteroid (10 km diameter) would already be a huge project. It's nice to dream though. But I think that articles (and threads) like this are nothing more than dreams.
pantheory Posted October 10, 2013 Posted October 10, 2013 The idea seems too futuristic to me for the foreseeable future. Cear, limited sized surface domes and internal cities seem more realistic and practical to me.
Moontanman Posted October 10, 2013 Author Posted October 10, 2013 Definitely loved this image: It is still interest though. However, this is going to be a while before we do this. Just for a moment ignore the megatons of polycarbonate it would take to surround Ceres, evolution would take some interesting twists i bet... Butterflys the size of eagles... the possibilities...
Moontanman Posted February 4, 2015 Author Posted February 4, 2015 A new twist on this I thought of, how about GMO trees that grow into domes eventually connecting together and covering Ceres with a system of domes containing atmosphere generated by the GMO trees?
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