[extropy-chat] Nuclear terraforming

[Mike15007 at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/15/2005 9:58:04 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
wingcat at pacbell.net writes:

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).



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.
    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.
    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.
    Okay, what are the holes in this strategy? I  genuinely wish to be told 
when it looks like I'm smoking something :-)
 
Mike
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