[extropy-chat] Nuclear terraforming

[Adrian Tymes]

The suggestion was made in part as a productive use of existing
nuclear weapons.  Although, perhaps nuclear warheads could be
reprocessed into fuel for reactors (the reverse of reprocessing
nuclear fuel into warheads - and easier, because you're diluting
the material instead of concentrating it).

As to Mike's idea of sunshade and oscillators - the problem is
that constructing things that large wouldn't be as quick as
simply launching a rocket with existing warheads to Venus.
Although, even the combined power of every nuclear weapon
currently on Earth probably wouldn't be enough to significantly
alter Venus's spin anyway.  (Or would it?)

There's also the problem of making the radiator fins out of
something that can transfer heat well but also stand up to
sulfuric acid and intense weather.  Glass is the usual container
for sulfuric acid in labs, but glass is often not the strongest
structural material.  (And if you just have a glass coating, the
weather could crack it, letting the acid at what's underneath.)
Remember also that a lightweight substance would make the whole
mission easier to perform - easier to ship to Venus.

There's also the problem of radiating heat in space: vacuum makes
a good insulator.

A Venus-diameter sunshade at the Venus-Sun L1 point would
probably be easier to build - and therefore faster to get into
place.  I wonder if this faster-ness would offset the slower
speed of removing Venus's heat.  If the Sun were completely
blocked off, how long would it take Venus to radiate enough heat
that the atmospheric temperature would drop to something near
Earth normal?  (Overlooking, for now, the problems of Venus's
geology and atmospheric composition and pressure, some of which
problems look like they might go away by themselves if the
temperature were reduced.)

--- "Henrique Moraes Machado (oplnk)" <hemm at openlink.com.br> wrote:

> 
> Since we're on this wondering thing, I'd suggest using the nuclear
> power to 
> redirect a big rock to hit Venus. So there would be no radiation to
> clean.
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Joseph Bloch" <transhumanist at goldenfuture.net>
> To: "ExI chat list" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 1:02 AM
> Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Nuclear terraforming
> 
> 
> > I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work.
> > The different between nuclear winter and greenhouse effect is a
> fine line, 
> > and has to do with albedo and suchlike. You'd probably do much
> better 
> > cooling Venus with a scheme to get rid of the cloud cover, so more
> heat 
> > was radiated into space, rather than being reflected back to the
> surface.
> > Such is my layman's understanding...
> > Joseph
> 
> > Adrian Tymes wrote:
> >>But speaking of applying nuclear weapons to vast surfaces...I
> >>wonder - has anyone looked into the feasability of, say,
> >>initiating nuclear winter on Venus so as to rapidly chill the
> >>planet, so that much of the sulfuric acid comes out of the
> >>atmosphere (which might then allow establishment of more
> >>permanent temperature-control mechanisms, infeasable to deploy
> >>right now mainly because of the immense temperature, pressure,
> >>and acid rains at Venus's surface)?  Most of the radioactive
> >>fallout could probably be localized, and even if the atmosphere
> >>were magically converted to Earth-temperature oxygen-nitrogen
> >>overnight, the soil will probably need cleaning before people can
> >>live there as it is anyway (again, due to the sulfuric acid
> >>rains).
> 
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