Hmm... Now that you mention it... Yes, I guess the atmosphere would get blown away without an EM shield. But I think that it would be a slow & steady process, and that the atmosphere could be periodically renewed enough to keep the conditions 'friendly'. The primary terraforming proves to be difficult, but once that has been done, later repairs shouldn't be too big a problem, right?
I'm more concerned about the influence of a planet's EM field on humans... Just like exposing someone to a very strong EM field changes their cell membrane's polarity and metabolism/physiology in general, I wonder what would happen if one was to live in an EM-poor enviroment...
--EDIT--
Damn... I just remembered something... Solar flares would destroy the ozone layer very quickly... That could be a big problem.
But how are we supposed to insert/inject a ferrite (sp?) core into a planet's center, and then make it revolve extremely quickly? I think that may be next to impossible to do... Guess we'll just have to wait & see.

Edited by - Chetnik on 7/28/2004 8:08:50 AM

@Chet

That would be the issue. What is the rate of attrition from the cosmic winds as compared to the rate of production? I would hazard a guess that man-made production would be rather small in general scale to create an atmosphere for a planet and that the cosmic winds would be more than enough to defeat our purpose.

Also, think of the waste in resource that this involves. We create oxygen, hydrogen, etc. simply to have the Sun blast it away? It doesn't sound like a very practical consideration.... as far as Mars is concerned.

Venus, on the other hand, has a very dense atmosphere and a very active EM field. It migh be more practical to think of terraforming Venus.... who knows?
And now Huygens will tell us a little more about Titan. That will be very interesting.

I wouldn't get my hopes up neither for Venus or Titan.
Venus has a relatively slow rotation, and it's current temp range is -200..450 deg. Centigrade. I don't think that anyone or anything can survive that, manpower or equipment. Sure, after the terraforming it might get a bit better, but the temp range would decrease some 150 deg. at the most.
On the other hand, Titan could prove 'too small' and too cold to be useful...

We're you born with a lack of aspiration Taw, or have all the years of pessimism and surliness sucked it from you? I personally think we need to be a little more like the japanese, to think in decades and centuries rather than just the next few years. Just because we won't see it in our lifetime doesn't mean we shouldn't build a base for future generations to work from.

chet-

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Not necessarilly. Gravity depends on the mass, not the electromagnetic fields. True, Earth's EM field helps keep the atmosphere 'appropriate' for us, but by making it 'layered' and keeping most of the oxygen low down, while 'pushing' hydrogen high. With an artificial atmosphere, we can produce a similar effect even w/o a strong EM core/fields.

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yeah, ill elaborate on the forementioned from what i know

smaller the molecule the faster they go around and around, i.e have more kinetic energy. thats why there's so little of hydrogen in the earth's atmosphere. because they can win over the gravity and electromagnetic field of earth. they diffuse into space.

mars, which is relatively smaller than earth, has less gravity and an insignificant electromagnetic field. this will mean a wider range of gases will diffuse into space, heck, maybe even oxygen. i'll need to do some calculations to work them out but can't be bothered now. anyways, strength of gravity is directly proportional to mass, and so is the strength of the electromagnetic field. mars doesn't have enough mass to sustain a fertile atmosphere (thats imho, what made mars devoid of life) and therefore, we'll need somekind of gravity generator to keep the gas molecules tied down to make mars fertile.

on the other hand, we could do what california minor's doing and set up terraforming stations all over the place spewing gases which would make the atmospehre fertile and at the same time, get stripped away by the sun or diffuse themselves. this would be a short term solution, and also a very large waste of resources.

now come to venus, its far too close to the sun. turtle rotation speed. >_< you'd need a year's worth of coffee to stay awake during a venus day. whats more, you know what happens when the planet faces away from the sun. during earth night the temperature falls quite significantly. imagine if this went on for a year. you get winter. living on venus, minus all that hazardous environment would be like living on the poles.

whats more, a year's worth of sun would definitely sizzle up most of the lifeforms we manage to get going, if any, on venus. we'd also have to think about how the bloody hell we're gonna get any type of equipment to survive in a sea of boiling sulphuric acid, which is essentially the atmosphere of venus. the russian venus probe that landed on the surface survived for like couple hours. as in the article, it'd take more than a thousand years to terraform with our tech. few hours aint gonna be enough.

and for titan? yeah, it's just too tiny. too far away. we'd need to make an artificial sun or pull it into the earth's trajectory to have some life on it.

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they were in california minor. if you played the storyline, you'd know.

trent: seen junko jane?
bar tender: she asked me to tell you to meet her on the terraforming platform on california minor

the conv went something like that.

but thats going off tangent from the topic.

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That's one example. That's not "everybody". Hmph!

going back on topic,

i started FL again, and while on california minor, i took to some news, and it turns out planetform is demanding more funding to complete the terraforming process on schedule. when is it due to be finished? in 2 generations. 150 years? say, 800AS right? that means, even far into the future, when we can just set up terraforming stations like it was building a house, it'd still take an assload of time.

In Bretonia vicinity, there's Planet Harris, there's Planet Ayre too. And others. The Samura are on a few as well iirc.

And in the opening story, it is pretty obvious that even the homeworlds needed some terraforming work before the colonists were able to settle in and flourish.

<Edit>

Which actually reminds me that I meant to ask a question before.

@Kimk, @All

So how shall we define terraforming? Is it to mean making a planet as habitable or as close to habitable as Earth? If that's the case, we would need to find candidate planets that are in much closer approximation to Earth's own spatial environment.... in terms of mass, composition of molten core and strength, duration and quality of sunlight it receives.

In which case, there are no terraforming candidates in our own system, so to speak.

Edited by - Indy11 on 7/29/2004 7:32:52 AM

Taw - "PlanetForm"? I don't remember them either.

*Shrugs* I'm getting old. *Holds out wrinkled hand* .

terra-forming

i.e. making like earth, in a nutshell.

so terraforming a hunk of rock would mean making the environment as close to earth's as possible.

also in that debate, they mentioned that we are venaforming our earth, this comes from venus-forming. venus being very hostile to lifeforms.

i'd say its possible to terraform mars, if we do something like what they did in the core, and then install pyramids of gas-spewers in the middle'o nowhere. then we might get a good electromagnetic field going, along with a breathable atmosphere.

most Freeports have those biodomes.. im sure those are from terraforming projects. Planets under gas nebulas are also under terraforming in FL.

argh i'm never gonna get paid, Goodbye a million credits

Esqy,

The thing is, while you're having us on, at the same token, it is too believable that you don't know.

Too crazy to be true in the now, but in time I'm sure terreforming might become real later on.