Terraforming Venus #2

So, two weeks ago I focused on the issue of the heat on Venus and I made mention of the fact that the planet's rotation isn't really to my liking either. This post is going to focus on methods that could potentially change the rotational speed of Venus. I actually had this idea for a science fair project and I even got the project approved, but since it was my Senior year in high school I never followed through to actually do the project.

Venus is quite an oddball when it comes to rotation, at least compared with the other planets in our solar system. Sure Uranus kind of "rolls" around, tilted on it's side nearly 90 degrees, but Venus not only rotates slower than any of the major bodies of the solar system, it also rotates backwards. Just to be fair scientists say that its axis of rotation is tilted by more than 180 degrees, so it's still in reference to the spin we're all used to. This slow backwards rotation may have been caused by some massive collision in the past or by the gravitational influence of a neighboring planet early in the formation of the solar system. Whatever the cause it means that the planet is unlivable even if the runaway greenhouse affect is taken care of, because the surface of the planet will act more like Mercury, heating up on one side while chilling to the extreme on the other. So how can this problem be solved?

Mass Train
The first idea I had about this involved the use of a rail gun type system to create tracks all the way around the planet in a great circle that would carry massive blocks of metal (or just some really massive things) propelling them via the electromagnetic repulsion of two wires with opposing currents. This would be efficient for one thing, directing a large proportion of the electrical energy straight into the velocity of the blocks. The idea is that once the blocks reach a certain velocity the momentum will have to be conserved somehow and that means that the planet, though significantly more massive than the blocks (though not by too much), will have to start spinning faster in the direction opposing the fast moving mass train. Once the correct velocity is attained by the planet (which might take a very long time depending on the mass train's mass) the mass train would be propelled off the planet by rockets, while still moving at high speed. This would retain the respective momentums of the train and planet, and hopefully the planet could then be habitable.

Space Elevator Rockets
Another idea is to directly attach rockets that would force the planet to change its rotation just by the shear tangential forces. You can't mount the rockets on the surface because that would blow away the atmosphere (these are massive rockets) and they have to be balanced in some way so there have to be at least two (otherwise you might end up changing the planet's orbit instead). I propose that dozens of space elevators be constructed that anchor deep into the planet's crust, very deep, because we don't want parts of the planet breaking off. The rockets would be placed at the Venusian-Synchronous orbits at the tops of the space elevators. Once activated the rockets would provide enough thrust parallel to the planet's surface to change its rotational speed.

Cosmic Collisions
This option is both more difficult and easier than the others. It calls for taking existing massive objects in the solar system (comets, asteroids, small moons if they're available) and slamming them into the surface of Venus at incredibly high speeds. The easy part is altering the orbits of the material so they'll be set on a collision course with Venus. Gravity tractors or rockets could do the trick (unless you're dealing with something like a small moon, which would require something with a little more "oomph") and these could allow you to roughly direct your massive object towards Venus. One problem is getting the trajectory just right, hitting Venus at the correct angle and from the right direction is paramount. I'm sure that rockets on the object could sort it out, but then comes the next hurdle: avoiding destroying Venus, keeping the planet intact as much as possible. Small objects won't dent Venus too much but they won't change its rotational speed too much either. The larger the object the greater the damage it will do, but it makes the job generally easier by reducing the amount of objects needed. It would take a lot of time to bring in enough objects to adjust Venus' rotational speed, but at least it's an option that takes advantage of the given materials. Plus, as a side bonus, it means collisions are less likely on Earth because there are less objects to threaten Earth.

Of course the materials for all of these things would have to be incredibly sturdy, stronger than any current material made by man, but as I've said in previous posts, the scale of these projects are also currently beyond our technology, these are just options for the future.

The Origin of Ideas

It's been a while since my last post, but I've finally had a good idea for one. My sister suggested that I write about how distraught I was over the fact that an evolutionary biologist had the same idea about why fingers prune as I did almost a year ago. But I decided that a more interesting and less tortuous topic for the reader might be where such ideas come from.

I actually heard a story on NPR earlier today that mentioned how people usually get their best ideas when they are most relaxed, and I only just realized how that influenced my decision to write this post. I suppose I must be relaxed while typing but most of my ideas come in the shower, or as I lay awake at night not really trying but sort of trying to go to sleep. Of course the pruney finger thing came to me in the shower as I clawed at the wall. I thought it would make an interesting science fair experiment to test the force it took to pull on different wet surfaces with pruney versus normal hands, with a control of a dry surface. I forgot the idea, thinking it wasn't really a question for me to tackle because it wasn't in the field of science I was interested in studying, and I thought surely someone had already thought of it before me. So I concede that maybe I should have explored it and researched it more and I'm not that upset over it anymore, but more to the point, I now wonder, how many great ideas are lost because somebody thinks it's already been thought of? Inspiration can come from anywhere but it's wasted when the idea is forgotten. I should write down my ideas more often I suppose.

Many people claim dreams as their inspiration. I can't put myself in that group as every time I've ever been inspired I was either being hygienic, listening to music, watching a show, reading, writing, or thinking through the day's events. But I do find it interesting since I think that ideas are usually initially just subconscious thoughts. This may not be the nature of all ideas, such as small seemingly insignificant ones that happen all the time, but ideas about invention, innovation, stories, rhythms, what have you, those come from a culmination of events that burst out or seep into the primary thinking centers of the brain. Dreams are an extension of the subconscious mind and they are usually related to recent events, they probably help stimulate inspiration in some people because they focus so much information. Just writing about this has somewhat made me interested in studying the idea forming process, I wonder if ideas have ever been seen in an MRI scan? I'll leave this one to the psychologists and neurologists to answer, but it's good that I'm documenting it.

I suppose some people are more suited to inspiration in different forms, they have different processes at work that focus information in different ways. I would bet that there are both genetic factors and environmental factors that help determine those processes, but I wonder how related it is to the layout of the brain. I imagine that the more interconnected a brain's neurons between different sections, the more processing power it has and therefore the more idea prone, though I could be wrong, I'm merely spit-balling my ideas.

Oftentimes ideas will come from associations between certain thoughts I have. I believe that the more associations one can make between different things the more interconnected their thoughts will be. I already know that association is a technique used to memorize things so perhaps more associations would lead to more triggers and therefore more activity in the brain and then perhaps more inspiration. It's not something easy to research but I'm sure one day this will all be understood, and then we'll see whether or not my ideas on ideas were accurate.

Driving

Over the past two months I've been learning how to drive. I bought my first car a couple of weeks ago in preparation for getting my driver's license. These recent developments have led me to a new train of thought: What do I want to get out of driving? What features do I want in my car in the future? I've known for some time that I've wanted to make an electric car, which influenced my eventual decision to buy a Toyota Celica (a light, sporty, hatchback(I like hatchbacks)). But what else can I get in my car... I suppose I want my car to speak to me... What about flying capability? Why not, just because it's funny and awesome, plug in a flux capacitor and have a time traveling car(If time travel were possible, and exactly like it is in Back to the Future)? And then I thought, what if everyone actually had these as options...

Electric Car

This is the least absurd idea and actually more reasonable than most people think. I'm not positive of the statistics now with the new Volt and Leaf electric cars on the road, but back when I first started reading up on how to convert a car to electric almost a year ago I learned that most electric cars on the road were home built conversions. So sure, this really is an option for anyone willing to make the change, but one downside is that battery technology still isn't good enough to warrant a major change from gasoline, which is more energy dense.

Knight Rider

I didn't grow up when the crime fighting car was actively airing on television but I am aware, through the magic of pop culture, of the amazing awesomeness that was KITT. When I say I want a car that speaks to me, I don't mean metaphorically, I mean literally, and when I say literally I don't mean like certain cars from the 90s that my Dad described to me that would loudly warn you with a human recording if you left the door open. I want a car with at least a simple artificial intelligence that can make small talk maybe or even help with driving. It may be a challenge for me but I plan to make it a reality some day. But what if everyone had cars like that? I'm sure some people would find it disconcerting, if not a bit creepy. I understand that a car that can play chess with its driver and responds to the name HAL isn't for everyone, but I still think it would be cool. Not really an option for me at this point, but in the future I think my car will have so many voices it will sound like it has a Multiple-Personality Disorder.

Flight

The Jetsons, Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, and tons of other Sci-Fi films and shows use the concept of flying cars. Those concepts all had varying understandings of what flying a car meant. For the Jetsons it didn't seem to be much of an issue, I can't recall ever seeing one of those crafts crashing (though that may be from ignorance of the show) and I remember seeing very little traffic unlike in the Fifth Element (or even the new Star Wars Movies) where there seemed to be millions of cars flying every which way. I feel like Blade Runner falls in between those two representations and may in fact be the most accurate vision. I'm not exactly sure if I'd want to have a flying car, but I think it would be fun to try it out, as long as I was assured I wouldn't be killed. Firstly, all the Sci-Fis seem to avoid talking about the mechanism of flight and just accept that it's possible (which is actually close to science fantasy, but whatever). This is probably because it's insanely difficult to make something that heavy just hover in the air, and it's also the reason why only crazy engineers (like me) are messing around with the idea. But just supposing that some easy mechanism is discovered making flying cars a reality for everyone, what would negative effects might we see? Just think of all of the people you know who drive... now how many of them are bad drivers? Now ask yourself, would you really want those people in control of a vehicle that can not only go left, right, forwards, and backwards, but also adds in a third dimension of up and down? I think not. Now of course there would be some sort of test like we have for driving already, but I feel like it's all just a waste of time. By the time we have flying car technology we might have some sort of teleportation, or some other crazy means of transportation, who knows. So, I think we ought to avoid flying cars, even if just to prevent five story traffic jams.

1.21 Jiggowatts

Now this is of course not possible, but I like to play devil's advocate, and so I'm saying "what if?" What if we could travel through time, and not only that but all of our time machines were in our cars? Now I'm sure a TARDIS could transform itself into a car rather easily, but changing a car into a time machine would be a challenge. Assuming you have to bend space-time or create a wormhole to do it for you, the amount of energy required would be far greater than I know how to or am willing to calculate for the sake of this post. A power source of this magnitude, even if we have the technology to build such a generator at this point in time, would certainly be bigger than a bread box, and definitely would not fit in a car. Buuuut, forgetting this issue and any others that I don't feel like addressing at this time I ask, what if we all had time traveling cars? This of course brings back the point about bad drivers. You thought giving them control in three dimensions was bad, what about four? Imagine for just a minute you're a bad driver. You start your day driving to work or whatever it is you drive to in the morning and BAM! You didn't just get T-boned pulling out of the drive way, you got inter-dimensionally-spliced with yourself from tomorrow morning because you were late and hit the wrong button. But even good drivers can make mistakes, especially if their driving at 88 mph and they don't have the luck of Marty McFly. Not only is time travel a bad idea when considering how many time machines would clog up the Universe trying to get to every point in time everywhere, but then just the ones that are driving, crashing into something because they didn't see it until they were inside of it... quite disastrous if you ask me. Ironically though, even if it's less safe than a flying car, I would still want a time traveling one, just because.

James

Martian Solenoids

So my sisters and I were discussing ideas about life on some moons in the solar system when the conversation turned toward terraforming. My oldest sister asked, "What place in the solar system would be the easiest to terraform?" I have a certain fondness for the idea of terraforming and colonizing Venus, so that's what I suggested, maybe with a little tongue in cheek. My other sister then pointed out the atmospheric and rotational issues that you'd have to deal with in order to make Venus habitable... so I nonchalantly brushed these points off and said I'd go with Mars then, because it's day is just over 24 hours (we all figured that changing a planet's rotation might be a little too difficult).

We toyed briefly with the idea of melting the (dry) ice caps to warm up the planet with a nice carbon dioxide atmosphere; but of course there are problems to consider when colonizing Mars as well, namely the lack of magnetic filed and therefore lack of protection for any atmosphere one might be able to produce on the planet. So, what is one to do to terraform Mars? Abby suggested building individual colonies as the easiest solution to the colonization problem, but to really terraform the planet for major inhabitation we all agreed that an artificial magnetic field was necessary.

So how does one go about making a magnetic field strong enough to mimic a planet's? Why, giant solenoids of course! And so I figured that what needs to be done on Mars before any major attempts at atmospheric production are started is that one should drill down as near to Mars' core as possible (assuming the mantle and outer core are mostly solid by now) and construct a set of enormous solenoids to produce artificial magnetic fields.

We all laughed at the total absurdity of it all, but I truly believe in this solution. Once a protective magnetic field can be produced, an atmosphere on Mars wouldn't be so easily stripped off by the solar winds, and permanent colonies could arise anywhere on the planet. Not to mention that plant life could then thrive in the Martian habitat (assuming all their basic needs besides the carbon dioxide had already been met). This in fact would be necessary for oxygen production and thus animal inhabitation.

It was quite a fun discussion and I'm sure there are many more angles to explore, but I think the best part of it all is finding an ingenious (if absurd) solution to these far off problems.