Terraforming Venus in 600 years for $60 billion

[Moontanman]

Why not just put a sunshade at Venus' lagrange point 1? A thin reflective mylar type sunshade would drop the temps very fast and result in a planet covered in frozen CO2!

[TheVat]

1 hour ago, Doctor Derp said:

3 questions

 

A  If a major manufacturing and robot self replicating hub were constructed on the moon. What alternative to petroleum based lubricants would it use.

B  What alternative to petroleum or organic derived plastics would it utilize.

C  Could hydrogen based combustion be utilized to generate thrust and fill the void left by lack of fossil fuel based alternatives. Is there a nuclear or thorium alternative which is viable.

C - of course.  Solar panels generate electricity which can crack water to make H.  Plenty of sunshine, hardly ever clouds over.  Lunar water ice was found at the poles, back in the 70s.

B - Probably dozens of alternative lubricants?  Boron hydride, silicone, lithium, etc.  As the wise frog said, a minor concern.  Sealed bearings, you don't need vast quantities.

I think space programs have been thinking beyond oil for many decades now.

56 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

Why not just put a sunshade at Venus' lagrange point 1? A thin reflective mylar type sunshade would drop the temps very fast and result in a planet covered in frozen CO2!

 

Count me out of any colony where your life depends on a thin sheet of material floating at a Lagrange point.  What could possibly go wrong, eh?

Ok, maybe the mylar shield is a temp.  Cool the ball, sequester all the frozen CO2 ice, then slowly bring the heat up again (scrolling in the shield) as you generate atmosphere that permits maximum IR radiation back to space.  Might get a sustainable terrestrial type clime at the higher latitudes?

Edited September 30, 2022 by TheVat
Mmphfglk

[Ken Fabian]

6 hours ago, Moontanman said:

Why not just put a sunshade at Venus' lagrange point 1? A thin reflective mylar type sunshade would drop the temps very fast and result in a planet covered in frozen CO2!

It takes active propulsion and navigation for such a thing to stay where it is put; sunlight pushes on things, the larger the exposed area the more it pushes. The lower the mass ie thinner, the more vulnerable. Probably to being eroded too. Lagrange "points" aren't truly stable either. Fun to speculate but I'm not convinced there is any need or even any benefit. It certainly isn't commercially viable to do much of anything suggested in this thread - most of which requires tech that doesn't exist and extraordinary financing - and there isn't a compelling case for colonising and terraforming for any "greater good", as a taxpayer funded program.

Going back to the original post - I don't see how complex robotic machinery could be made without a whole lot more materials, equipment, industrial processes than suggested, without a whole advanced industrial economy's worth. Some of important materials are not economically viable to produce without a large economy making sufficient demand, let alone make them from moon rock, which has not undergone the geothermal, hydrothermal processes that separate and concentrate them into ores. Nuclear powered robots making nuclear power plants for robots? Is there even any concentrated ore for thorium? Evidence of thorium is of trace amounts scattered about, probably leftover from meteorite impacts.

It may be fun speculation but that is all.