New Mars Forums

Official discussion forum of The Mars Society and MarsNews.com

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Announcement: As a reader of NewMars forum, we have opportunities for you to assist with technical discussions in several initiatives underway. NewMars needs volunteers with appropriate education, skills, talent, motivation and generosity of spirit as a highly valued member. Write to newmarsmember * gmail.com to tell us about your ability's to help contribute to NewMars and become a registered member.

#1 2021-07-17 19:27:32

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

Thinking about this reference that got me think about venus and what is needed to terraform the planet venus

th

An initiative to visualize a Dawn/Dusk Polar Orbit SPS system is in need of all kinds of assistance. Computing the energy that might be harvested from a cylinder in LEO would be helpful.  The sum of that number can be compared to the needs for energy on Earth.

Well its not quite the same vision... We have a couple topics for venus and other aspects of cooling or ringed world but they did not fit what I was thinking about

A solar paneled cylinder shaped shade with window slits that rotates around the planet would allow sun light to still reach the surface but the size of each blind would limit the thermal run away that we see now. The energy would be beamed to equipment that is in the air of the planet to run machines until we can set them on the planets surface.

The blind can be curved to the shape of the planet below and not a straight length if that makes any aspect to deployment easier.

This equipment starts high in the atmosphere capturing and making an oxygen filled one for human life

Offline

#2 2021-07-17 20:28:10

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

The aspects of a slowly moving craft that uses the drag of the atmosphere to gather the means for fuel to maintain the slowed descent inward until the ship is making more fuel as it needs to maintain altitude while settling in to the terraforming of venus.

The beamed power is highest while the atmosphere is not blocking or diffusing the beam from the solar arrays.

Each blind is able to send power towards the ship below that is entering into the atmosphere since the antenna can be directed towards that moving unmanned ship.

The blind could be stationary or moving since there will be many of these in orbit to collect the suns energy long before the unmanned ship is sent which will harness the energy to terraform the planet below as it cools.

Offline

#3 2021-07-17 20:40:51

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

The diameter of Venus is 12,100 km. and the geo synchronous is at what distance?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit
https://www.quora.com/Is-geostationary- … e-on-Venus

so if reference is right we do not want geo synchronous as that just to far to control so we should solar for what would be a good distance and orbiting speed to keep the units circling correctly around the planet as we assemble the arrays. so how wide do we want the units since we are looking at a very long end to end distance to block the light reaching the entire planet below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Venus

Offline

#4 2021-07-19 20:32:18

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

Hi Spacenut,  I hope that I have not misunderstood your thinking.

I regret to hear that you have car struggles.  We usually want our cars to serve us,
not the other way around.

I have read your posts and am interested.  I have had various attempts, maybe
somewhat similar.

I think we all know that Venus is a hard nut, but if the challenge were overcome,
quite a prize.

I read an article that said that their is simply not enough water for life in the
Venus atmosphere.  So, that perhaps eliminates an impediment to our potential ability
to reform the planet to our desires.

It is a vast task, far beyond Earth>Moon>Mars>Asteroids.

Still if we could obtain the materials, for the task perhaps from Mercury, then I
believe that some amazing things could be done, if the Human Race is up for it.

I have a concept that might lead to concepts that your visiion may be drifting towards.
Here, however, I need counsul.  I am assured that my mind is not playing tricks on me,
as I have a notion of a "Ring Engine" that might make it possible to have the energy
to terraform Venus.  I desire review and resonse from anyone who may wish to give their
opinion on this.

Isaac Arthur has some videos about ring things say around Neptune.  So, my thinking is
not completly lonely or necessarily my brain child.

So, lets say that we do get our materials, perhaps from Mercury or the Moon, or even
Venus itself.

If we made a ring of matter around Venus, and attached habitats, and solar energy devices
to it, then we could have trains and trollys, to go from one habitat or machine to another.

But for a long time I have wondered how a ring would react to being oculted by the planet
Venus for part of the time and being if full sunlight the other time.  I presume that
this ring will for the most part orbit Venus at a speed native to the altitude above the
planet.  That is in balance for the most part.

Oddly I see the likelyhood that matter will condense in to shadow of Venus, and expand in
the sunlight.  This will mean that from both sunlite portions of the ring, expansion will
push matter into the shaddow, where it will shrink (I used condensation, but shrink it is).

So, then as I think, matter should migrate into the shadows, by thermal processes, but the
ring should accelerate, as the shrunk and more dense portion of the ring, passes into the
sunlight.  The acceleration should then be in the direction of spin that originally existed.

So, if not handled correctly the ring may spin apart eventually.  Centrifugal build up
would oppose gravitational pull and the tensile strength of the ring.

And so to prevent this skyhooks depending from the ring into the atmospehre of Venus might
scoop out the atmosphere, to fill up still more habitats. This might continue until only
>1 Bar of atmosphere remained.  After that, perhaps further conditioning would yeild
a terraformed world.  If I am correct about the ring engine, then at that point perhaps it
would have to leave Venus, perhaps to another location.

Perhaps I have a bitter lesson to learn.  Don't know yet smile

This has bothered me from time to time, so I would like opinions/answers.  Just to get
my bearings on my thinking process.

Done.


Done.

Offline

#5 2021-07-22 20:58:51

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

To describe it better, a ring around Venus would be in the gravity well of Venus, and the gravity well of the sun.  Technically in many gravity wells, but those two are the
ones that matter.

Suppose you had a train track on that ring, with a train on it.  Imagine that it can cling to the rails.  If you traveled the train at a speed and or direction different
than the rotation of the ring around Venus, then you should be able to change the
spin in some cases.  Say you kept the train traveling up the suns gravity well?

Well it could either speed up the ring or slow it down, depending on which direction
it was going relative to the spin of the ring.  And that is not an impossible method.

But I was previously working on the notion that the ring itself would expand while being in front of the planet Venus because of extra heat, and would contract while being shaded from the sun by Venus.  If I understand, then mass should be
projected up the sun's gravity well, and then that concentrated mass can fall down
the sun's gravity well due to the spin of the ring.

With this method or the "Train Method" you could reduce the spin if necessary.

But the preference may be to suck up the atmosphere of Venus, and get a quick
reward, by filling up new habitats that have been constructed.  Perhaps from  Mercury, maybe the Moon, or Asteroids, or even Venus itself.

So, if accomplished, room for gazillions of people in the habitats so filled.

You make land, and you make Venus more like Earth.

Done.

The ring could host and enormous amount of mass as rotating habitats and solar
power plants could be attached to it.

Another method could be to have actuators that inch-worm segments or the ring
up the sun's gravity well by using electricity generated by ???Solar???

Last edited by Void (2021-07-22 21:01:26)


Done.

Offline

#6 2021-07-24 11:24:13

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

I also have a notion of 3 other ways to spin a ring around Venus.

Solar wind, Solar Photon, and I think possibly induction motor:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_motor

So, I am thinking that the atmosphere of Venus might be used like a stator, where
you may be able to induce a magnatic field to act upon to develop thrust for the
spin of the ring.  Our ISS technically orbits inside the Earths atmosphere.  It is
just very thin up that high.

If the induction method were available, it might also double as a magnetic field
that may reject the solar wind to a degree where an Oxygen/Ozone layer may develop
to block UV, and that would likely reduce the production of Sulfuric Acid.  At the
base of the cloud deck Sulfuric Acid decomposes to Sulfur Oxides and water vapor.

That is interesting but not essential.

I see Venus as a source of raw materials, eventually.  The idea is to get atmospheric
substance into orbit, and eventually perhape even mine the surface..

Something I have been thinking about is what if you reducted the air pressure from 93
bar to 1 bar or so.  I anticipate two things.  More volcanic eruption due to lessened
pressurses helping to "Fizz" the lava, and also if the surface cools down, it may drop
down into the "Lower Layers", and so allow more lava to emerge.  Most likely the
the atmosphere of Venus will keep building back up.  I don't see that as a problem,
if you consider it to be a resource.

Done.


Done.

Offline

#7 2021-07-24 16:42:37

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

Sorry that I had not gotten back to this in a while void. You have some very interesting posts for the scale of cloaking the planet with an energy absorbing and energy using counter rotation engine.

I am thinking that we have not the ability for first start of a full diameter blind shade but also as you indicate we will have to spin such that we counter the gravity well of the planet.

I would start at a polar location to create a hub for the other parts to attach to. That metal dish or bowl would be the start to connecting the solar panels strings that would fold out towards the equator.

You tracks around the equator for the engine would serve as the connecting location if working from each of the poles.

Offline

#8 2021-07-24 20:46:34

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

I do have some ideas, some similar to yours, but it is important that I do not further
hijack your topic.  Please do own it.

Done.


Done.

Offline

#9 2021-07-25 08:41:54

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

The issue for cooling venus is that its a planet of scale simular to earth a place where we can make practice of some of these thoughts.

Earth's own run away is starting to take place and by the looks or the ice at our poles we need to figure out that shading of them to slow that rising temperature as its only 1 degree from freezing of water to melting is all that it takes.

So making use of reflective surface for earth is possible for covering that ice but thats not possible for venus.

As you noted at what altitude above venus can we create and still not need fuels for station keeping from the gravity well from below.

Offline

#10 2021-07-27 06:50:56

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

I largely agree.

However, the poles being relatively white and reflective, to shade the Earth as a method to cool the Earth, the efforts are more needed for surfaces that absorb light at a rate greater than snow/ice.

This is one such, although I don't think they understand their solution to the degree that I think it can be understood.

https://pleistocenepark.ru/

Evergreen trees will tend to absorb sunlight all year around, with the exception that
after a snow storm, they are somewhat more reflective.  But wind and sunlight will restore the light absorption.

Their understanding is that grasslands trampled by animals will conduct winter cold into the permafrost, supporting the continued, necessary cold of it.

But I also as I said above regard evergreen trees as solar collectors.  Other trees that shed their leaf's are said to be a net coolant of the Earth, by some.

But I also speculate that with trees mostly gone, wind will tend to push powder
snow which is what usually happens at high latitudes, into low spots.  This will expose the uplands, to further cooling, and yet will preserve pockets of wetlands, that may have more marshes, ponds and trees.

There is a high probability that humans entering the Mammoth Steppe, upset the balance and allowed evergreen trees and tundra to overtake grasslands with permafrost under them. 

So, how should a "Naturalist" react???  smile  It is funny.  The tree huggers would be wrong.  Just planting a tree is not necessarily a good thing to do to the Earth.  It
makes feel good news for the ignorant.  Politics possibly having some fun with it.

You did mention Earth along with Venus.

For Venus, all of our concepts, in my opinion must be very advanced and of a scale
that we have not yet demonstrated as socially possible.  Still to dream is not always wrong.

Many have dreamed.  Here is evidence:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Venus

You can put shades in the L1, maybe.

You can do rings, as I have suggested.

You could do an anti Dyson Sphere, and risk a Kessler Syndrome.

Shelling Venus is another level up in challenge, in my opinion.

For my money, I would seek to make a shell in the atmosphere of Venus, a floating shell.  There can be many versions.  Still if of a heat rejecting nature, that would generally keep what is above it more like Earth, then it might be possible to produce effects desired.  But that has many clauses, related to intended results, and actual abilities of future humans.   The descriptions would take pages of posting.

As you must know, I also want to provide systematic heat rejection with Heliostat and related devices to assist in making the Earth support the people it has and will have.  I am not at all shy about providing nutrients into the Oceans where the conversion of CO2 into Oxygen and organic matter is not optimized.

I have a growing contempt for popular religious political environmentalism thinking.

------
Per your topic.....

We first need more information about the nature of Venus, I feel, and also a time map of intentional expansions of human effects into the solar system.

But a good topic.

done.

Last edited by Void (2021-07-27 07:13:45)


Done.

Offline

#11 2021-07-27 19:55:56

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

The massive west coast fires are helping with the absorption problem but its not how we should be going about the reduction....

City sprawl of buildings and tarred roads are also a contributor since they retain that heat longer....

Offline

#12 2021-07-28 19:30:25

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

Agreed, forest fires, promoted by stimulation of evergreen tree growth, is in my
opinion wrong.

If we do believe that the deserts and tundra are greening because of a rise in CO2,
then we can consider that it is not only the greenhouse effect of CO2 that may
warm the Earth, but the greater abundance of evergreen plant tissues.  And of course
this could lead to more fires.

I will connect to some articles on it, which I fear have shown that some people do not
have a complete vision of what may be happening if the level of CO2 is rising.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/20 … ning-earth
Quote:

From a quarter to half of Earth’s vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on April 25.

I guess one article is enough for now.  Some people celebrate that CO2 is being "Sequestered".
But we need to consider Albedo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo

Greenhouse Gas Effects, AND albedo effects need to be considered.
And then per the https://pleistocenepark.ru/ people, you also have to consider the insulating effects of packed and unpacked snow.

I could easily ignore greenhouse gasses, and instead venture the guess that humans entering the Mammoth Steppe and killing off
the megafauna, set off a chain reaction where, in general, evergreen trees have been marching north, and ice has been in retreat.

It may be a possible truth.  Now, in this case we may suggest that indeed rising CO2 has more greatly facilitated the march of
the trees.  We can do that even ignoring any greenhouse effect notions.

I believe that in general the evergreen trees are relatively successful against a lack of water.  So, adding CO2 to the
atmosphere helps them to say hydrated, as they do not have to loose as much water to get the CO2 they need.

The Mammoths are gone.  There are some notions of "De-extinction" for them, and I am not much against it.  But we need a
solution now that is compatible with human existence.

There are some possible treatments available, to cool the Earth, it seems to me.

1) Do what the so called "Greens" are doing and try to manipulate people to be less of a burden.  In the end these are the
same types of people who give genocide.  Don't mistake it.  These are the same people who judge who is worthy to live and
who is not.  They do give alarms but are useless to solve the problem, as in general they are the same people who have tried
to edit the bulk human genome, to create a "SuperMan" race.  They must not be trusted.

2) The repair people.  These are the people who hear the alarms, and try to find a solution(s).

3) The insulation people, otherwise defined as the Pleistocene Park people.  The recognize that it is possible that megafauna
can pack the snow and so reduce winter insulation for the permafrost.

4) Albedo people.  We have considered Albedo for terraforming Mars, so why not Earth.  If it may be true that humans already
terraformed the Earth and caused the end of the ice age, then we may consider this tool.

We know that the Russians want a Seaway in the Arctic, so there will be limits to their participation.  But, I think using
the Albedo method, we can perhaps stabilize the situation so that they can have their Seaway, and yet we all prosper.  This
would by it's nature satisfy the insulation issue for snow, or at least improve the situation.

And this is not to say that we cannot be concerned about rising CO2 greenhouse effects.  I simply am addressing a tool that
could be used to the benefit of the human race, by my reckoning.

A wonderful factor is that it should take only 3 main countries to implement the treatment.  Russia, Canada, and the USA.
However there may be others, such as Scandinavia.

I guess I would claim that some places in the North are "OverTreed".  Some where part of the previous Biome, the "Mammoth
Steppe", and some were under ice caps.  But we can ignore this and think to do what may work.  We do not want anther ice age
but we do want a stable productive planet.

So, I am aware that in the mid zones of the Prairie Provinces of Canada, as defined by longitude or North/South visualizations
are the "Parklands" or temperate Savanah.  Humans do rather well in Savanah.

Perhaps this could help:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view … ajaxserp=0

I am not sure that we want aspen and grasslands, as Moose are killed by paracites that White tailed deer carry.

But, some formulation makes sense to me.  It needs a lot of thought.

The point is that for Russia, Canada, and the USA, at least in the snow belts, it should be considered to convert perhaps 50%
of the forest lands occupied primarily by evergreen trees into grasslands.

Per Albedo, we should be able to measure a number for evergreen trees, and snow covered grassland, and wet or dry grasslands.
These should be four different numbers.  I anticipate that the one with the least heat rejection into outer space is the
evergreen lands.

I think I have a fabulous imagining about possible futures for Venus.  But the above has delayed my communications.

Sorry about the bad spellings, I recon are in the above.  Thumb in your eye about that even some times.  smile

I don't much like talk people sometimes.  I believe that playing with people instead of objects can lead to many things.
Most of them are kind.  But those who crave power, may use words to do very immoral things.

I'm done for now.

Last edited by Void (2021-07-28 19:43:13)


Done.

Offline

#13 2021-07-28 19:49:22

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

Yes co2 caused greening but for deserts its about creating farmable land and that means pumping in water to places that have low available water levels.


If lowering the greened area is all that can be done then making reflective tree cones would be a means to cover what is absorbing the energy... another is to do greater levels of forestry harvesting to changing the absorbing energy via lighter colors.

California as well as the entire west coast needs rain, how do we stimulate it to rain....

Offline

#14 2021-07-29 04:58:50

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

Here are quite a few "ice age Earth Maps":
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ic … BasicHover

This one is a gif, it seems:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view … ajaxserp=0

That is some fun.

------

OK, once and for all can it be understood that there is no "Natural" state for our planet per amount of ice.  It changes.

The greenhouse effect, the amount of reflective ice, the distributions of various types of vegetation, and clouds all
work to cause the situation.

Humans, we believe influence some of this.  So, if we are going to exist and so influence the Earth, we might address
vegetation distributions, while indeed it would be nice to also have some control over greenhouse gasses.

per the maps from 10,000 or so years ago, we can choose appropriate instead of a certain natural.  It is natural for the
Earth to be inconvenient at times.

So, in art there are those who want an untouched world, a "Wild" world.  There are those who like groomed gardens.

I think those who crave "Natural" are nuts, as there is no on instance of it.

Where possible the northern forests should be partially replaced with grasslands which will be more productive, and could
help to feed people.  This would also address heating that is related to Albedo.

The crazies will go nuts about this of course.  Growing and harvesting animals for food?  Well, when the human race has
stopped eating farm animals, we can worry about it if we want to.  As the north may become "Parklands" by human and robot
manipulations, the trees cut down should be used to manufacture usful items, and so to keep that "Carbon" out of circulation
for a while.

As the parklands would be more agriculturally productive, it would be needed to keep the amount of Wolfs, and other
predators from increasing too much.  That is because the Parklands would feed people, and that would take pressure off
of farmlands.

So, this could be beneficial to feed people, and to cool the climate.

Done.

Last edited by Void (2021-07-29 05:28:01)


Done.

Offline

#15 2021-07-29 05:37:33

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

Spacenut,

I have copied some of these posts, #12 and #14 to:
"Index» Terraformation» Terraforming Earth", Posts #23 & #24.

And of course you may do as you like about that, but perhaps my next post here
can be more directly about Venus.

Done.

Last edited by Void (2021-07-29 05:40:55)


Done.

Offline

#16 2021-07-29 05:42:56

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

OK, to terraform Venus.

I suggested an orbital ring that would have various ways to maintain it's spin, while skyhooks could depend from it and suck up atmosphere into it.  This ring may have
a magnetic field generated from it.  That field will pulse in such a way that the
solar wind can be prevented from taking Oxygen away from the atmosphere.  In
fact at the same time that magnetic field would be an inductive ring engine.

It can be hoped, that if Oxygen generated from radiation splitting molecules in
the atmosphere is kept in a layer, then an Ozone layer may develop.  If so,
it may be possible to reduce the amount of acid in the atmosphere of Venus.

Sulfuric Acid forms from radiation bombarding Sulfur compounds and H20.
But at the base of the cloud deck, Sulfuric Acid decays back into Sulfur compounds
and H20.   It appears that at this time the Sulfuric Acid forming process dominates
the thermal decay process.  We can hope that a planetary magnetic field could make the thermal decay process more dominant.

If so, then it becomes much more likely that humans could establish shelters of
worth in the atmosphere of Venus.

I suggest to go to a floating "Ring World" in the atmosphere of Venus.

The atmospheric ring would work with the orbital ring magnetically.

It would also attempt to sequester all of the water in the atmosphere into itself,
and so more greatly prohibiting the formation of Sulfuric acid.

Probabbly at first the energy would be nuclear, but may very well be wind.  The
ring will spin due to superrotation, but also the atmopheric ring would be manetically
linked to the orbital ring.

Natural light on the atmospheric ring might possibly allow agriculture, inside of
greenhouses.  I don't think that it would be very intense.  I believe I recently read
that the surface of Venus only recieves 10% of the light.  If so, that is 20% of
what Earth gets.  But on the atmospheric ring, lighting should be better as it would
not be at the base of the cloud deck, but higher in it.

So, with the 2 ring motor which would comprise the orbital ring, and the atmospheric
ring, the atmospheric ring would be a sort of "Stator", (Although it will superrotate).
The orbital ring will be the "Rotor or Armature".

Skyhooks could harvest atmosphere to the orbital ring.
But also they might catch sub-orbital rockets.

Where to get all the materials for the two rings?  Well I guess from Venus itself, or
some rocky object.

It is a notion that is very far advanced from what we can now do.

-----

Eventually the atmospheric ring could perhaps become a multi-floored shell.  But
that would be very far advanced beyone what I put into this post.  However if it
were done, then the atmosphere above it might be breathable.

Done.

Last edited by Void (2021-07-29 06:06:48)


Done.

Offline

#17 2021-07-29 08:05:47

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,352

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

Interesting idea of an orbital ring around Venus.  A low mass foil mirror structure would experience sunlight pressure on one side that would destabilise its orbit, resulting in an increasingly elliptical orbit.  However, a ring structure would have a centre of mass that would naturally align with the centre of the planet.  Any net force that pushed the ring centre of mass away from the centre of the planet would be resisted by gravitational force, provided the ring was rigid enough.  That could be accomplished with by mounting mirrors on a circumferential cable and rotating the whole structure slightly higher than orbital velocity at its altitude above the surface.  Hence, the cable would be in a constant state of tension and would remain rigid.  Such a structure could be built incrementally and individual sections of cable replaced.


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

#18 2021-07-29 08:23:02

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,749

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

For Calliban and Void re discussion of Venusforming ...

SearchTerm:Venus ring in tension to hold mirrors or solar panels and provide shade for Venus
SearchTerm:Ring around Venus

See Post #17 for details of ring-under-tension design

The ring could be assembled in an orbit chosen for the purpose, and then spun up to achieve tension.

Once in place, the ring could be extended laterally to shade more and more of the planet below, while collecting solar energy for productive use elsewhere.

(th)

Offline

#19 2021-07-29 18:38:57

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: cooling venus with solar energy beamed blind

Thanks for stopping in Calliban and (th).

For me this ring thing is an evolving project.  I realize that the scale of it would
be outlandish, but not against laws of nature, I think.

If Isaac Arthur can have an orbital ring, in "Colonizing Neptune", then I can have
rings of imagination also.

I would like to note that this type of thing would work very well for Mars as well,
and maybe the Moon.

I see that you noticed that the ring could be spun up or down with the sun's photons.

But, there can be another thing I think.  The solar wind brushes the atmosphere of
Venus and carries off Oxygen.  I want that to stop.  So, if the ring were segmented
and each segment could have a magnetic field that could be throttled.  This could
also spin the ring, and, I hope stop the Oxygen loss.  It is even possible that the
Oxygen then forming a layer, may form Ozone.

Just imagine that you labeled the half of the ring currently traveling up in the
sun's gravity well the "Up Half".  Then label the other part the "Down Half"  In
reality that would only describe a moment in time, as the segments would process
by spin to eventually be in all places.

If you want to spin the ring faster, then imposes greater magnetic field force
on the "Up Half", and a lesser force on the "Down Half".

The solar wind will push more on the "Up Half" than on the "Down Half".

And this ring would not be only for that, but would include habitations and farms
and power plants of verious types.  Skyhooks, I think.

If a population of humans was that masterful, then they could try to shell inside
the atmosphere of Venus.  Imagine a shell floating in the atmosphere of Venus
20 stories thick.  Imagine it's surface were shiny.  Now if you really want to cool
off Venus, you could.  Before shelling the whole thing though you might build a
floating ring that could interact magnetically with the orbital ring.

Obviously the technology and scale of this is almost silly to contemplate, but
a sufficiently advanced civilization might pull it off.

But the question comes, "Do you really want to cool Venus off, after setting all this
up?  My choice is likely no.  If you eventually shell Venus and divide it's atmosphere
between what is above the shell and what is below the shell, then in a best case,
you might actually have an Oxygen/Nitrogen atmosphere above the shell.  There would
be a lot of complexity to accomplish that, and there can be lesser achievments
settled for, but  How about that a "Mostly" metal shell, with a breathable atmosphere
above it, and a very hot thermal reservoir below it.

20 Stories thick?  Why not 200?

Truly this would require fantastic abilities, but 200 years ago we did not have what
we have now.

I think that it will be possible to mine Venus even as hot as it is.  But it will take time to get that act right.

Having done that you could make a lot of "Stories" in the shell, and very likely
a whole lot of living space in the orbital ring.  What's not to like?

Done, Sort of.....

Last edited by Void (2021-07-29 18:41:22)


Done.

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB