[OT} Terraforming

anyone have information on terraforming? I'm curious if anyone has any ideas
as to how long it takes to get from bare rock to usable soil, without direct
human intervention to break up the rock and add organics.

--Chris  DeBoe
Quixtar IBO#706882
http://www.quixtar.com

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy has some good information on Terraforming.

Andrew Martin Al.Bri@xtra.co.nz
http://members.xoom.com/AndrewMartin/
Online @ 33,600 Baud!
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> Laserlight wrote:

In a message dated 9/27/99 5:04:59 PM Central Daylight Time,
> laserlight@cwix.com writes:

<< anyone have information on terraforming? I'm curious if anyone has any
ideas as to how long it takes to get from bare rock to usable soil, without
direct human intervention to break up the rock and add organics.
> [quoted text omitted]

It depends upon air and water action against the rock, but on this planet it
took billions of years to create soil and organics. It will probably NEVER
happen on Venus, though there must be something like soil in that corrosive
atmosphere - its the organics that are missing. Terraforming involves
adding water and oxygen to a planet which otherwise would not have them in the
hopes of creating an environment that humans could live in without major
life-support. If you could replace the gas loss in the atmosphere due to

lower gravity you could conceivably terraform the moon.

> On Mon, 27 Sep 1999 Popeyesays@aol.com wrote:

> life-support. If you could replace the gas loss in the atmosphere due
lower gravity you could conceivably terraform the moon.

And europa and mars. Venus could conceivably be terraformed. The trick would
be locking those corrosives up into salts that are harmless.

> It depends upon air and water action against the rock, but
Terraforming involves adding
> water and oxygen to a planet which otherwise would not have

Actually what I mean is: Say humans land on a world with a respectable amount
of atmosphere and water, but no life. You can break up some rock and add
organics (compost) to get soil, but obviously you can't add enough organics to
get topsoil for the entire planet. Therefore you use....what? Algae? Lichen?
What breaks down the rock, and how long does it take?

G'day Laserlight,

> Actually what I mean is:

Its been a while, but as far as I can remember you want microbes (aerobic and
anaerobic bacteria), meiofauna (little itty bitty critters in the siol), worms
would be good too. Lichen is good on rock, but it probably be
best to do some wide scale pre-emptive smashing into smaller pieces
first. The presence of water by itself should have created sand banks etc as
it eroded the rock so you may already have a basis to work off. After that you
need plants as the roots break-up the soil and return some organics, and
legumes would be good as they have natural N fixation (assuming your on a
planet which has free N in the atmosphere). Now as to how long, depends on how
hard the rock is (how friable I think the term is) and how much
pre-emptive smashing you do so anything from a decade to millenia
(probably, as far as I remember).

Hope that helps

Beth

P.S. Giving the critters some top soil as a "base" to work from may also
increase the rate of the process.

> Ryan M Gill wrote:

> On Mon, 27 Sep 1999 Popeyesays@aol.com wrote:

There is an interesting artical on terraforming venus in the November Analog,
Page 38 "Diamond Ether, Nanotechnology -- and Venus"  by Stephen L.
Gillett, Ph.D

Among other things he suggests using nanites to transform the carbon in Venus'
atmosphere into a kind of "Diamond Ether" (it resembles "Silicon
Dioxide" -- a
hard crystalline solid.   Just replace the silicon atoms with carbon
atoms. If nanites could make this substance, several interesting uses like
"bean poles" are possible, which gives you a reason to colonize venus.)

> Donald Hosford wrote:

Unlike our planet, Venus has no electromagnetic field to protect it from the
solar radiation. The one question I would have is how you would keep your
future Venutians from ending up microwaved?

Later,

> Actually what I mean is:

Well, there's actually one problem with that- oxygen is VERY reactive.
Normally, it bonds to metals, rocks, and everything else until it's gone. The
only mechanisms we know of that result in free oxygen in an atmosphere are
organic (ie life). Therefore, if you find a lifeless world, it's likely to
have a reducing atmosphere (methane and so forth). An infusion of bacteria and
photosynthetic airborn microbes will start your terraforming process, but it's
going to take a LONG time....

We might want to start terraforming on Earth... Why? If some scientists are
right, the Earth's oceans are leaking into the mantle five times faster than
they are being replinished. This means that in a billion years Earth could be
as barren as Mars... This was the New Scientist and Space Daily a couple of
weeks ago.

> Well, there's actually one problem with that- oxygen is

I seem to recall that a methane atmosphere is unlikely (probably Stephen
Gillette's book, and no, Nyrath, you don't need to quote chapter and verse,
I'll look it up later), but in any event, who cares? I'm not looking to start
out with a shirtsleeves environment, just enough pressure that we don't have
to import comets for the volatiles. My question is, how long a time and what
are the basic steps? Any other sources than the ones already mentioned by the
listers

In a message dated 09/28/1999 8:02:40 PM Central Daylight Time,
> laserlight@cwix.com writes:

> (probably Stephen Gillette's book, and no, Nyrath, you don't

I just got this book last week, and I must thank Nyrath and Laserlight for
mentioning it often!  It has sparked me into some world-building.
Thanks guys!

Bill

> "Mark A. Siefert" wrote:

> Unlike our planet, Venus has no electromagnetic field to