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<DIV>In a message dated 12/15/2005 9:58:04 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
wingcat@pacbell.net writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>But
speaking of applying nuclear weapons to vast surfaces...I<BR>wonder - has
anyone looked into the feasability of, say,<BR>initiating nuclear winter on
Venus so as to rapidly chill the<BR>planet, so that much of the sulfuric acid
comes out of the<BR>atmosphere (which might then allow establishment of
more<BR>permanent temperature-control mechanisms, infeasable to
deploy<BR>right now mainly because of the immense temperature,
pressure,<BR>and acid rains at Venus's surface)? Most of the
radioactive<BR>fallout could probably be localized, and even if the
atmosphere<BR>were magically converted to Earth-temperature
oxygen-nitrogen<BR>overnight, the soil will probably need cleaning before
people can<BR>live there as it is anyway (again, due to the sulfuric
acid<BR>rains).<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV> I think it would be easier, more practical, and
less problematic, to use a gigantic dynamically-stabilized sunshade at the L1
position between Sol and Venus, and lower immense "radiator fins" into Venus'
atmosphere from a dynamically-supported orbital ring, to suck the heat out of
the lower atmosphere more quickly and cool the place without leaving lotsa nasty
isotopes at all.</DIV>
<DIV> Giving Venus an Earth-like day-night cycle will be
trickier. The best way I can think of to do it - quickest without requiring a
lot of energy or hitting Venus with something *big* - is a bunch of
dynamically-stabilized giant reflectors at L4, L5, and maybe L2 as well, in
conjunction with the aformentioned sunshade at L1. The reflectors could each
"oscillate" in tune with each other, and the sunshade could perhaps be varied
periodically, to simulate day and night around Venus.</DIV>
<DIV> Hey, no one ever said terraforming a world that
wasn't already mostly there would be easy. I came up with this strategy a few
years ago as one that didn't involve hitting Venus with anything *really big,*
or otherwise affecting its rotation, among other things.</DIV>
<DIV> Okay, what are the holes in this strategy? I
genuinely wish to be told when it looks like I'm smoking something :-)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Mike</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>