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Venus vs Mars: which planet would you rather have terraformed?

Which planet should humanity terraform first?

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T

The Artisan

Member
so after several cool planetary news that's happened; the super blood moon eclipse, water on mars, and on the eve of the martian's release, I want to ask: what planet would you rather have terraformed, if any?

the most popular vote goes to mars, but it's got 40% the gravitational pull that earth has, which could lead to a loss in bone mass for humans. venus is much closer in that respect to earth, so i'd say venus.

as far as terraforming goes (obviously this is all hypothetical) I think the only argument against doing it at all is that the budget when it ever even exists could be used to solve other and actual problems of the world, and, if there does exist life on these planets, then the process of terraforming could kill them.

while most think it's more likely for there to be life on mars, there's a possibility that if life exists at all on venus, it'd be in its sky, not the surface.
http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/are-venus-clouds-a-haven-for-life-130516.htm
 
P

Patryn

Member
Venus is more comparable in size, but between the soupy atmosphere, sulferic acid clouds, and temperature of like 800+ degrees Farhrenheit, I'm not quite sure that would work.

Oh, and the air pressure is about 93 times greater.
 
O

Orbis Tabula

Member
I'd rather have Venus, if we're just asking which end result I'd prefer. But I think Mars is way more feasible, so it's where our efforts should be focused
 
A

Abounder

Banned
The Soviet Union was more interested in Venus if I recall correctly. So let the Russians take Venus and American and friends take Mars
 
I

Ithil

Member
surface-of-venus.jpg


Ideal for family vacations.
 
P

Patryn

Member
Maybe I wrote off Venus too early. Reading up, maybe Cloud Cities would be workable:

Wikipedia said:
Despite the harsh conditions on the surface, the atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50 km to 65 km above the surface of the planet is nearly the same as that of the Earth, making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar System, even more so than the surface of Mars. Due to the similarity in pressure and temperature and the fact that breathable air (21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen) is a lifting gas on Venus in the same way that helium is a lifting gas on Earth, the upper atmosphere has been proposed as a location for both exploration and colonization.[10]
Click to expand...
 
T

Two Words

Member
Veritigo_X said:
How do we stop the whole "anything that touches the surface, melts" thing with Venus? That seems like a bit of a hurdle.
Click to expand...
Mars has its own problems too. Namely, it can't hold onto its atmosphere or keep out radiation due to the fact that its core has cooled and is solid.
 
U

uncelestial

Member
Venus. Mars' average temperature is -67° F. Extreme heat (daytime during summer) there is 80° F. The extreme cold? -207° F.

Ain't nobody got time for that. I hate being cold so much.

Yes, having an atmosphere would balance a lot of this out, but honestly, that much farther out from the sun, you're fighting a losing battle.

I'd rather kick it on a lush Venusian beach with a margarita in my hand.
 
A

Air

Banned
Mars. When the sun starts entering its death phase it'll swallow up Venus and Earth. Mars has a better chance of surviving.
 
P

PdotMichael

Banned
Not that we would need to colonize other planes because we will hit our population peak soon.

But I would imagine that humanity would basically need to create humans specific for other planets through genetic modifications anyway.
 
P

Prez

Member
If we were able to solve Venus' greenhouse gas problem, we might as well fix Earth's instead. I don't think we'd ever have the means to do both.
 
S

Sephzilla

Member
Prez said:
If we were able to solve Venus' greenhouse gas problem, we might as well fix Earth's instead. I don't think we'd ever have the means to do both.
Click to expand...

That's a good point though. Being able to terraform Venus means we'd end up finding a solution to Earth as well
 
O

Ovid

Member
Why would you want to terraform a planet that is so close to the sun? That doesn't make any sense.

The answer is Mars.
 
P

Patryn

Member
uncelestial said:
Venus. Mars' average temperature is -67° F. Extreme heat (daytime during summer) there is 80° F. The extreme cold? -207° F.

Ain't nobody got time for that. I hate being cold so much.

Yes, having an atmosphere would balance a lot of this out, but honestly, that much farther out from the sun, you're fighting a losing battle.

I'd rather kick it on a lush Venusian beach with a margarita in my hand.
Click to expand...

And bake? Average temp on Venus is a scorching 862° F.
 
C

commedieu

Banned
Correct me if I'm wrong..

But nothing can live on mars due to the lack of a substantial magnetosphere.

Wouldn't we have to some how, get the core spinnin on mars to generate the field?
 
T

Toxi

Banned
Terraform Venus? The clouds are fucking sulfuric acid and the mean temperature is 462 degrees Celsius. How the flying fuck would we terraform that? We can't even fix our own planet's greenhouse effect.

Yeah, Mars is a horrible, inhospitable environment that we probably can't terraform, but at least it's not that bad.
 
G

gutshot

Member
Terraforming Venus would be a much, much larger undertaking than terraforming Mars. You are talking about having to build enormous sun shades that would block out much of the sunlight hitting Venus and also mining hydrogen from the gas giants and then bombarding Venus' surface with it to induce chemical reactions within the atmosphere that would result in liquid water covering the surface. Not to mention you'd want to come up with some way to accelerate the rotation of the planet, which would undoubtedly require an enormous amount of energy. It's just not feasible to do it any time soon. Maybe in the far, far future when technology has advanced a hundred-thousand-fold.

That is why most people are focused on terraforming Mars, despite its drawbacks. Yeah, in a hypothetical situation where money and technology is limitless, than Venus is a better planet to terraform. But since these hurdles exist, Mars is the only logical choice.
 
U

uncelestial

Member
Patryn said:
And bake? Average temp on Venus is a scorching 862° F.
Click to expand...
Yeah, because the atmospheric pressure is 90 times higher and no heat can escape the thick wall of gasses surrounding the planet.

But we're talking about a terraformed Venus, so, that's all quite irrelevant.

gutshot said:
Yeah, in a hypothetical situation where money and technology is limitless, than Venus is a better planet to terraform.
Click to expand...
We are! So basically your post was a long way to say that the answer is Venus. :)
 
Razorback

Razorback

Member
uncelestial said:
Yeah, because the atmospheric pressure is 90 times higher and no heat can escape the thick wall of gasses surrounding the planet.

But we're talking about a terraformed Venus, so, that's all quite irrelevant.

We are! So basically your post was a long way to say that the answer is Venus. :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, but the same goes for Mars. If it's terraformed then it's fine.
 
G

GYNGA

Member
commedieu said:
Correct me if I'm wrong..

But nothing can live on mars due to the lack of a substantial magnetosphere.

Wouldn't we have to some how, get the core spinnin on mars to generate the field?
Click to expand...
In theory we could hit Mars with a big rock. That would melt the core thus kickstarting the magnetic field
 
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