Which planet will be the best for terraforming? – Videos

There is a reason why Venus is often called the planet of hell. Its surface temperature is 864 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to melt the lead. Its air is a suffocating stew of sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide that creates an uncontrollable greenhouse gas problem, and its atmosphere is 90 times thicker than that of the Earth, which would literally crush you. Even with this, Venus is still a potential candidate for terraforming, which is a process that turns a hospitable planet into a planet that could support life.

As we continue to saturate resources on Earth, people like Elon Musk believe we need to start turning to other planets to call them home. And that raises the question, which planet is best to terraform Venus or Mars? To put Venus in perspective, it is a terrestrial planet of similar size, mass and gravity to the Earth. It's also pretty close, we could get there in 5 months against the 9 months that it would take to reach Mars. And while the atmosphere of Venus is a hellish landscape, it gives us something to work. At 50 km above the surface, the atmosphere of Venus is rather terrestrial, with atmospheric pressure similar to ours.

So, an idea is to build floating colonies that would be side by side in the clouds. Known as HAVOC – Operational Concept of Venus at High Altitude – NASA scientists proposed to send astronauts inside an "aeroshell" that would enter the area. atmosphere of Venus at 4,500 km / h. The shell would fall to reveal a folded airship, which is just like a floating airship. The airships would then use Venus's carbon dioxide atmosphere to float. Another idea suggests cooling the planet with a giant sun blocker. A sunshade mirror would be placed between the Sun and Venus, cooling the atmosphere and blocking the planet against the solar wind.

Terraformer Venus is a complicated task, so how does Mars stack? For starters, the red planet is super cold, minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and a very thin and unbreathable atmosphere made up of 95% carbon dioxide. Yet its size, structure, and water presence are similar to the Earth. To modernize this planet, one method proposes to import huge quantities of ammonia or hydrocarbons to create a livable atmosphere.

Another idea proposed by Elon Musk is to melt the polar caps of Mars by dropping thermonuclear bombs. Carbon dioxide would be released and this would thicken the Martian atmosphere. At this point, it may be possible for liquid water to flow to the surface, which could trigger a greenhouse effect on Mars. In the end, these are pretty farfetched plans and it will probably take thousands of years and incredible resources to terraform these two planets.