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Terraforming: Engineering Planetary Environments

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... It will take the oceans 17 years to completely freeze solid, while the remaining CO 2 in the atmosphere snows out over a period of 9 years. In stage 5, after 200 years of cooling, the entire inventory of CO 2 in Venus' atmosphere has now accumulated on the surface as vast CO 2 glaciers, and a 3 bar atmosphere of nitrogen is left behind (6). During stage 4, the CO 2 snow will accumulate over the entire surface of Venus. ...
... Clearly, CO 2 glaciers are not desirable on the Venusian highlands, so the CO 2 must be moved to the basins. This can be done by selectively heating the highlands with reflected sunlight from orbiting mirrors, encouraging CO 2 to deposit over the shadowed lowlands (6). The dry ice would cover the entire surface of Venus (assuming it was completely flat) to a depth of around 174 meters (11). ...
... Most of its surface is made up of vast, smooth rolling plains of ancient lava. Over 80% of its surface elevation is within 1 km of the mean elevation (6). Thus, even though the total amount of water brought to Venus will be significantly lower than the water content in Earth's ocean, the Venusian oceans will be considerably wider, covering a greater portion of the planet's surface than Earth's. ...
Article
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Venus is often overlooked as a target for settlement or terraforming because of its extreme environment, which is the result of a massive and dense super-greenhouse atmosphere. This paper presents a scenario in which Venus could be made habitable and ready for settlement in only a few centuries, based primarily on ideas put forward by Paul Birch in 1991. In addition, orbital habitats are constructed from additional materials used in the creation of the orbital infrastructure needed to begin and maintain the terraforming process. These habitats allow for the early settlement of Venus-space and can potentially provide a rapid return on investment. The massive CO 2 atmosphere is frozen out using a sunshade and stored in large ice caps at the poles, where it is mined and processed into various materials such as artificial limestone and carbon nanotube composite structures. The sunshade is also a vast solar farm used to beam power to the orbiting habitats during the long 200-year occultation of the sun. Oceans are created by dismantling several moons of Saturn, including Epimethius and Janus. Finally, simple cyanobacteria and other organisms are imported and seeded in the oceans to begin fixing nitrogen and oxygenating the atmosphere. At this point, the surface is ready for human occupation.
... Based on the nature of climate change on Earth, we now have substantial evidence that the environment and climate of a planet can be accidentally or deliberately altered on human timescales given the right, or wrong, technological and economic circumstances (e.g. Cervantes et al., 2011;Fogg 1995;Hiscox and Fogg 2001;Kahwaji and Ghantous 2011;McKay et al., 1999). The exact feasibility of creating an unconstrained planetary environment that mimics the Earth system is however unknown. ...
... Hiscox and Fogg 2001). Fogg (1995) also talks about other potential technologies such as nuclear mining and solar heating via orbital mirrors. Another technology, ecopoiesis, produces an anaerobic biosphere suitable for bacteria and primitive plants (Fogg 1995). ...
... Fogg (1995) also talks about other potential technologies such as nuclear mining and solar heating via orbital mirrors. Another technology, ecopoiesis, produces an anaerobic biosphere suitable for bacteria and primitive plants (Fogg 1995). A major hurdle to this is like on Earth, recycling of atmosphere, water, wastes, and the supply of food is largely an automatic process (Fogg 1995), and therefore running the life support system required to sustain an artificial ecosystem is now a task similar to that of civilized terrestrial agriculture. ...
Technical Report
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This investigation into chemically altering, and thus geologically changing the nature of a planetary atmosphere and its surface provides new scientific predictions, insight, and numerical theories into the feasibility of technologically inducing the habitability of other worlds. Innumerable permutations of potential planetary evolution pathways exist due to large variations in the astrophysical, atmospheric, and geologic properties of a given world, dictated by unique planetary formation, dynamics, and evolution. Surface interactions that give rise to habitable climates are driven by geochemical reactions and geomorphic processes that can act in feedbacks to either promote or decay the climactic habitability of a planetary atmosphere and surface. Using the TerraGenesis smartphone application created by Alexander Winn, I simulate and track 21 different technologically induced planetary engineering scenarios. I present numerical-game simulation modeling of our solar system’s real terrestrial bodies: Mercury, Venus, Earth, the Moon, and Mars, Jupiter’s moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Saturn’s moons: Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, and Iapetus, Uranus’s moon Oberon, and Pluto. I test a range of four hypothetical exoplanets to colonize: Bacchus, Pontus, Ragnarok, and Boreas. I also use the model on the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1d, while considering this approach for other future exoplanet studies. Calculations in this application are taken out with simple, coupled numerical rules, with model years into C.E., the Common Era. The user of this application 'controls' the terraformation process by manipulating the temperature, atmospheric pressure, oxygen content, sea level, and biomass, limited by economic resources and population. Technologically induced terraforming in this numerical model produced all 21 tested habitable worlds, and reached stability within 1,000–3,000 mission years. Through testing the efficacy of terraforming technologies to combat modern climate change on the Earth, this report additionally shows that it is at least feasible to achieve stable habitability on Earth before (or after) a global climate catastrophe; reversing the effects of modern climate change may take on the order of 100–1,000 years. This paper also reviews and condenses the current literature in the year 2018 on terraforming as well as recent developments and advancements. This is the complete report and in this state has not been submitted for review.
... V But Venus has a few draw backs. Its atmosphere is composed of 96.5% carbon dioxide, 3 To attempt to terraform Venus using "traditional" methods, the planet would have to be cooled and most of the atmosphere would have to be removed or converted into solid or liquid forms before we could begin to introduce Earth life. The planet's spin would have to be adjusted to provide an Earth-like day-night cycle. ...
... Venus have been proposed but the more plausible ones take tens of millennia [3,4]. Of course, advanced technology from the distant future might be able to shorten this time significantly. ...
Conference Paper
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The successful terraforming of Venus (and similar planets with thick atmospheres) requires removal of excessive atmospheric gases, cooling of the planet, conversion of the remaining atmosphere to an Earth-normal oxygen/nitrogen mixture, and adjusting the planet's spin to an Earthlike 24-hour day. In the case of Venus, these steps, based on near-term, projected technologies, will take several millennia. The approach described in this paper can reduce this time significantly while conserving most of the planet's atmospheric gases for future use. A material shell is constructed above the surface of the planet supported at first by buoyancy and later by pneumatic pressure. Planetary gases above the shell are then pumped below the shell until one atmosphere of pressure is achieved. The shell mass is increased during this phase to minimize stress within the shell. Then the remaining atmosphere above the shell is converted into an oxygen and nitrogen mixture. Eventually the atmosphere above the shell is Earthlike with respect to composition, temperature, and pressure. The shell itself can be spun independently of the planet to achieve a 24-hour day/night cycle and a 23.5 o axial tilt. It should then be possible to terraform the surface of the shell using "traditional" terraforming techniques.
... APM could also be of great benefit for what humanity does when it arrives at new planets and other extraterrestrial destinations. One of the more ambitious proposals is to engage in terraforming, which is the creation of livable environments on otherwise inhospitable extraterrestrial planets and other bodies of mass (Fogg, 1995(Fogg, ,1998Graham, 2004;McKay and Marinova, 2001). Terraforming proposals involve approaches such as using photosynthetic organisms to create an oxygen-rich atmosphere (Friedmann and Ocampo-Friedmann, 1995;Hiscox and Thomas, 1995), heating polar ice caps, such as the water-and-CO2 ice cap on Mars, to create a greenhouse gas atmosphere to warm the planet (Sagan, 1973;Mole, 1995; but see Fogg, 1995Fogg, , 1998, and putting megascale mirrors in a planet's orbit to reflect more radiation towards it and warm it (Birch, 1992). ...
... One of the more ambitious proposals is to engage in terraforming, which is the creation of livable environments on otherwise inhospitable extraterrestrial planets and other bodies of mass (Fogg, 1995(Fogg, ,1998Graham, 2004;McKay and Marinova, 2001). Terraforming proposals involve approaches such as using photosynthetic organisms to create an oxygen-rich atmosphere (Friedmann and Ocampo-Friedmann, 1995;Hiscox and Thomas, 1995), heating polar ice caps, such as the water-and-CO2 ice cap on Mars, to create a greenhouse gas atmosphere to warm the planet (Sagan, 1973;Mole, 1995; but see Fogg, 1995Fogg, , 1998, and putting megascale mirrors in a planet's orbit to reflect more radiation towards it and warm it (Birch, 1992). ...
Article
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Atomically precise manufacturing (APM) is the assembly of materials with atomic precision. APM does not currently exist, and may not be feasible, but if it is feasible, then the societal impacts could be dramatic. This paper assesses the net societal impacts of APM across the full range of important APM sectors: general material wealth, environmental issues, military affairs, surveillance, artificial intelligence, and space travel. Positive effects were found for material wealth, the environment, military affairs (specifically nuclear disarmament), and space travel. Negative effects were found for military affairs (specifically rogue actor violence and AI. The net effect for surveillance was ambiguous. The effects for the environment, military affairs, and AI appear to be the largest, with the environment perhaps being the largest of these, suggesting that APM would be net beneficial to society. However, these factors are not well quantified and no definitive conclusion can be made. One conclusion that can be reached is that if APM R&D is pursued, it should go hand-in-hand with effective governance strategies to increase the benefits and reduce the harms.
... When teleoperation is no longer so important, the majority of space industry can be relocated to the asteroid belt where the greater accessible resources of the inner solar system are located. It can then extend its support of human activity to the outer solar system, and it can support even larger objectives such as terraforming Mars [11,12]. ...
Preprint
The national space programs have an historic opportunity to help solve the global-scale economic and environmental problems of Earth while becoming more effective at science through the use of space resources. Space programs will be more cost-effective when they work to establish a supply chain in space, mining and manufacturing then replicating the assets of the supply chain so it grows to larger capacity. This has become achievable because of advances in robotics and artificial intelligence. It is roughly estimated that developing a lunar outpost that relies upon and also develops the supply chain will cost about 1/3 or less of the existing annual budgets of the national space programs. It will require a sustained commitment of several decades to complete, during which time science and exploration become increasingly effective. At the end, this space industry will capable of addressing global-scale challenges including limited resources, clean energy, economic development, and preservation of the environment. Other potential solutions, including nuclear fusion and terrestrial renewable energy sources, do not address the root problem of our limited globe and there are real questions whether they will be inadequate or too late. While industry in space likewise cannot provide perfect assurance, it is uniquely able to solve the root problem, and it gives us an important chance that we should grasp. What makes this such an historic opportunity is that the space-based solution is obtainable as a side-benefit of doing space science and exploration within their existing budgets. Thinking pragmatically, it may take some time for policymakers to agree that setting up a complete supply chain is an achievable goal, so this paper describes a strategy of incremental progress.
... Terraforming is the hypothetical transformation of a planet or a satellite to improve its capacity to support life, with Earth as its Platonic ideal. In this way, the ultimate goal of this process of planet engineering is to reshape a planet or a satellite to emulate the functions of Earth's biosphere as much as possible so that it can support in the open the lifeforms typical of our home planet with minimal modifications or differences (Fogg 1995). ...
Article
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... Terraforming is the hypothetical transformation of a planet or a satellite to improve its capacity to support life, with Earth as its Platonic ideal. In this way, the ultimate goal of this process of planet engineering is to reshape a planet or a satellite to emulate the functions of Earth's biosphere as much as possible so that it can support in the open the lifeforms typical of our home planet with minimal modifications or differences (Fogg 1995). ...
Article
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In our everyday experience, life, environment, and nature are connected and we tend to confuse the value we assign to them. One way around this issue is to analyze our intuitions on the terraformation of other planets such as Mars. In this way, we are forced to consider whether the original abiotic nature has a value of some kind regardless of its capacity to support ecosystems and life, what kind of value this might be, and what weight it might have when compared with other values. In this contribution, I will draw a map of the possible answers to these questions by analyzing the different perspectives brought forth by some of the main characters in K. S. Robinson's The Mars Trilogy. In this way, it will be possible to observe that, while on Earth instrumental and non-instrumental kinds of environmental value generally concur and support each other, in an abiotic landscape, such as that offered (we assume) by Mars, they may conflict.
... Terraforming involves making a planet, the Moon, or another celestial body more Earth-like by intentionally changing its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography and ecology. Terraforming is not immediately achievable with existing technology, but the basic concepts of how to terraform such planets have been explored by researchers for many decades (Sagan 1971, McKay et al. 1991, Fogg, 1995Zubrin and McKay 1997;Friedmann and Ocampo-Friedmann, 1995;McKay et al., 1999;Hiscox and Foff, 2001;Todd, 2006;Haqq-Misra 2012Fryxelius, 2017. Although the moon, Venus, Titan and other satellites of Saturn and Jupiter have been suggested for terraforming so far, Mars has traditionally been the prime candidate. ...
Chapter
One of the goals of astrobiology is understanding the future of life in the universe. Earth is the only known habitable planet so far, and the capabilities for human spaceflight and space settlement suggest possible futures in which life may spread from Earth to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. National space agencies and private space corporations are intensifying their development of human spaceflight capabilities, with the goals of enabling settlement of other planetary bodies, asteroid mining, and space tourism. The emergence of a space economy alongside ongoing scientific exploration has provided renewed interest in developing technologies for the use of space resources and human habitation of space. This chapter provides an evaluation of the challenges and opportunities that are being contemplated for the near- and long-term future of Earth life in space, which can inform future scenario analyses.
... A writer named Jack Williamson employed it in an article titled "Collision Orbit, " published in a magazine called Astounding Science Fiction. In the early 1950s, the great trio of science fiction writers, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov, adopted and used terraform in a way that influenced popular culture (Heinlein 1950;Clarke 1951;Asimov 1952;Fogg 1995). By the early twenty-first century, a descriptive term coined by a science fiction writer and published in a science fiction pulp magazine in 1942 would be superseded by a concept generated by one of the world's leading atmospheric scientists-a concept that would highlight the dominant role played by human beings in fundamentally transforming (or terraforming) the environment of our own planet Earth. ...
... However, a terraforming plan for this planet needs to be developed to contribute to making the environment suitable for life forms from Earth (Fogg, 1998). The concept of terraforming can be defined as a process of planetary engineering with the aim of transforming an inhospitable extra-terrestrial environment into a habitable place for terrestrial life (Fogg, 1995). ...
Article
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When bryophytes, lichens, eukaryotic algae, cyanobacteria, bacteria and fungi live interacting intimately with the most superficial particles of the soil, they form a complex community of organisms called the biological soil crust (BSC or biocrust). These biocrusts occur predominantly in drylands, where they provide important ecological services such as soil aggregation, moisture retention and nitrogen fixation. Unfortunately, many BSC communities remain poorly explored, especially in the tropics. This review summarizes studies about BSCs in Brazil, a tropical megadiverse country, and shows the importance of ecological, physiological and taxonomic knowledge of biocrusts. We also compare Brazilian BSCs communities to others around the world, describe why BSCs can be considered ecosystem engineers and propose their use in the colonization of other worlds.
... This supports the idea that even a cold and arid planet as Mars at present could be the result of a transformation triggered by the change of one or a set of parameters that induced overall drastic changes from a Holocene-like conditions, as suggested by our model. The set of transformations that induced the transition of Mars towards its present state is still debatable, but there is consensus about the lack of of tectonic activity that prevented the recycling of gases locked up in sediments [30] and possible disappearance of a planet wide magnetosphere, as today Mars retains a magnetosphere that covers only about 40% of its surface. Venus, on its hand, seems to have undergone a severe process of accumulation of greenhouse gases, which greatly increased its surface temperature to about 450 o C and the pressure of its dense carbon dioxide atmosphere to 9 MPa. ...
Preprint
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A classification scheme for rocky planets is proposed, based on a description of the Earth System in terms of the Landau-Ginzburg Theory of phase transitions. Three major equilibrium states can be identified and the associated planetary states or phases are: Earth-like Holocene state; hot Venus-like state; cold Mars-like state. The scheme is based on an approach proposed to understand the Earth transition from the Holocene to the Anthropocene, driven by the impact of the human action on the Earth System. In the present work we identity the natural conditions that cause transformations on the planets forcing them into one of the states identified above. In analysing the relevant physical parameters, one is stroke by the similarities between Earth and Venus, and how likely is that the Anthropocene transition may lead to hot-house Earth scenario.
... Renowned astronomer Carl Sagan (1961;1973) and NASA engineer James Oberg (1981) were early proponents of conducting real-world terraforming activities. Later, the physicist and geologist Fogg (1995) argued for distinctions to be made between the term terraforming -which he defines as using technologies to 'enhance' an extra-terrestrial planet to support human life -and Geoengineering -in his view technological interventions specifically designed to alter Earth. Despite Fogg's demarcation, the terms have continued to be used interchangeably. ...
... In the very long term, space settlement advocates think about terraforming Venus. The idea of terraforming Venus dates back to a suggestion by Carl Sagan in 1961 that Venus could be terraformed to an Earthlike environment [11], and more serious technical analysis of the possibility was done in by Fogg culminating in his 1995 book [12]. ...
Conference Paper
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Although the surface of Venus is an extremely hostile environment, at about 50 kilometers above the surface the atmosphere of Venus is the most earthlike environment (other than Earth itself) in the solar system, and the atmospheric pressure is similar to the Earth surface atmospheric pressure of 1 Bar, there is abundant solar energy, and the temperature is in the habitable "liquid water" range of 0-50C. Although humans cannot breathe the atmosphere, pressure vessels are not required to maintain one atmosphere of habitat pressure, and pressure suits are not required for humans outside the habitat. In the near term, human exploration of Venus could take place from aerostat vehicles in the atmosphere, and in the long term, permanent settlements could be made in the form of cities designed to float at about fifty kilometer altitude in the atmosphere of Venus.
... Adossée à des récits d'utopies technologiques, l'adaptation revêt un caractère nettement plus sélectif socialement et spatialement que le concept connexe de développement durable, dont le déploiement est par définition global (Felli, 2016). La littérature de science-fiction et les manuels d'ingénierie ont de longue date été le support de récits de nouvelles terraformations, dans lesquels l'humanité, confrontée à l'urgence de l'épuisement des ressources environnementales ou aux conséquences d'un désastre nucléaire, cherche à s'affranchir des limitations de l'oeukoumène par la création de mondes humanisables totalement artificialisés (Fogg, 1995). Les représentations littéraires de civilisations qui évoluent en marge des écosystèmes terrestres ou dans des territoires extra-terrestres artificialisés abondent depuis le XIX e siècle, du récit d'aventures (Voyage au centre de la Terre par Jules Verne, 1864), à la bande dessinée (Privat, 2013), en passant par des épopées romanesques (Pak, 2016). ...
... As MTB têm apresentado particularidades interessantes relacionadas à sua versatilidade metabólica e que, por conta disso, poderiam participar em conjunto do processo de terraformação com outros microrganismos fotossintéticos e/ou extremofílicos. De acordo com Fogg (1995), terraformação é um processo de (bio)engenharia planetária, especificamente dirigido a aumentar a capacidade de um ambiente planetário extraterrestre para suportar a vida. ...
Article
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Magnetotactic bacteria are gram negative, capable of responding to magnetic fields and have interesting characteristics related to their biophysical and metabolic versatility. The aim of this research is to suggest that these microorganisms, due to these characteristics, may participate together in the terraforming process with other photosynthetic extremophilic microorganisms. Magnetotactic has a cosmopolitan distribution and is ubiquitous in microaerobic aquatic environments. Although magnetotactic bacteria are historically related to the ALH 84001 meteorite as a species of biosignature or as a possible fossil record from Mars, this problem will not be addressed in this paper. A brief review of the magnetotactic bacteria and how they may be related in a possible terraforming process on Mars or other planets will be briefly presented. Finally, it is important to emphasize that this theme has evolved greatly over time, from a science fiction story to a truly scientific domain and context. Finally, it is hoped that this work will serve as motivation and basis for future research in order to contribute to the spread of astrobiology.
... A few decades ago, the renowned astronomer Carl Sagan proposed to transform hostile planetary surfaces and atmospheres like Venus and Mars into anaerobic environment B F.J.T. Salazar e7940@hotmail.com 1 Grupo de Dinâmica Orbital e Planetologia, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Guaratinguetá, SP, Brazil suitable for humans (Sagan 1961(Sagan , 1973. This hypothetical process, called terraforming scheme, modifies the environment of any planet deliberately until obtaining a similar environment to the Earth, allowing habitation by most, if not all, terrestrial life forms (McKay 1982;Fogg 1995). Since space exploration business is really limited by the terrestrial resources, a terraforming scheme to find new branches of civilization remote from the Earth (space-based civilizations) seems to be a good option for more resources in space that could enable expansion of human society and space business (McKay 1982;Johnson and Holbrow 1977;Oberg 1981;Haynes and McKay 1992). ...
Article
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Although the Martian environment is very cold (averaging about −60∘ C), highly oxidizing and desiccated, several studies have proposed human colonization of Mars. To carry out this ambitious goal, terraforming schemes have been designed to warm Mars and implant Earth-like life. Mars climate engineering includes the use of orbiting solar reflectors to increase the total solar insolation. In this study, Sun-synchronous solar reflectors orbits with inclination equal or less than 90∘ with respect to the orbital plane of Mars are considered to intervene with the Mars’ climate system. With different inclinations, a family of Sun-synchronous solar reflectors orbits distributes azimuthally the energy intercepted by the reflector. The two-body problem is considered, and the Gauss’s form of the variational equations is used to find the conditions to achieve a Sun-synchronous frozen orbit with inclination equal or less than 90∘, taking into account the effects of solar radiation pressure for a perfectly reflecting space mirror and Mars’ J2 oblateness perturbation.
... In the last forty years, geo-engineering schemes have been the subject of numerous studies for a possible futuristic use of orbiting solar reflectors for illumination-from-space applications, e.g. providing extra hours of illumination for energy supplies or terraforming schemes (engineering an Earth-like climate) [2, [4][5][6]13]. The main advantage is the vast energy leverage delivered by the reflectors which is obtained in a relatively short time [9]. ...
... Lorimer 2015; DeSilvey and Bartolini 2018), and more radically, to 'terraforming' (e.g. Sagan (1961Sagan ( , 1973Oberg 1981;Fogg 1995). Significantly, many of these actual and hypothetical developments have been prefigured within speculative fictions of different genres (for example in the work of Margaret Attwood) in a process which we see as analogous to the relationship between the rhetorics of cryopreservation (Chrulew 2017) and the new realities they resource which we have discussed in this paper. ...
Article
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This paper takes a critical approach to understanding the social and cultural ‘work’ of natural heritage conservation, focussing specifically on ex-situ biodiversity cryopreservation practices. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with the Frozen Ark, a UK-based ‘frozen zoo’ aiming to preserve the DNA of endangered animal species, the paper situates the development of non-human animal biobanks in relation to current anxieties regarding the anticipated loss of biodiversity. These developments are seeding new global futures by driving advances in technologies, techniques and practices of cloning, de-extinction, re-wilding and potential species re-introduction. While this provides impetus to rethink the nature of ‘nature’ itself, as something which is actively made by such conservation practices, we also aim to make a contribution to the development of a series of critical concepts for analysis of ex-situ and in-situ natural heritage preservation practices, which further illuminates their roles in building distinctive futures, through discussion of the relationship between conservation proxies, biobanking and biocapitals. We suggest that questions of value and the role of future making in relation to heritage cannot be disassociated from an analysis of economic issues, and, therefore, the paper is framed within a broader discussion of the place of ex-situ biodiversity cryopreservation in the late capitalist global economy. © 2018, © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
... This suggests that we have to either adjust the program most appropriately to the cultural background of the place where it would be transplanted or influence the culture so that it accepts the program without resistance, like terraforming. 5,6 Figuratively, such a recommendation leads us to the premise that we know and understand the topography of safety culture of the place in which we are interested. Were it not for this information, we could never plan, execute, or evaluate a program precisely. ...
... Third, current developments in the 'Rover era' reveal that our imaginations of outer space are fundamentally tied to beliefs about planetary climate change. NASA's investigation of terraforming Mars, for example, presented a hopeful view of purposefullyengineered climate change that could make Mars habitable for humans (Fogg, 1995;McKay and Marinova, 2001). Furthermore, recent announcements by SpaceX and Boeing that they are racing to put humans on Mars are based in a related, though more dystopian, view that humans will need an escape hatch in case earth's own climate changes irreversibly to a state that is uninhabitable for humans (Vance, 2015). ...
Article
Research into outer space has burgeoned in recent years, through the work of scholars in the social sciences, arts and humanities. Geographers have made a series of useful contributions to this emergent work, but scholarship remains fairly limited in comparison to other disciplinary fields. This forum explains the scholarly roots of these new geographies of outer space, considering why and how geographies of outer space could make further important contributions. The forum invites reflections from political, environmental, historical and cultural geographers to show how human geography can present future avenues to continued scholarship into outer space.
... In-depth discussions on this technological possibility are to be found in McKay et al. (1991) and Fogg (1995). ...
Book
This book extends the discussion of the nature of freedom and what it means for a human to be free. This question has occupied the minds of thinkers since the Enlightenment. However, without exception, every one of these discussions has focused on the character of liberty on Earth. In this volume the authors explore how people are likely to be governed in space and how that will affect what sort of liberty they experience. Who will control oxygen? How will people maximise freedom of movement in a lethal environment? What sort of political and economic systems can be created in places that will be inherently isolated? These are just a few of the major questions that bear on the topic of extra-terrestrial liberty. During the last forty years an increasing number of nations have developed the capability of launching people into space. The USA, Europe, Russia, China and soon India have human space exploration programs. These developments raise the fundamental question of how are humans to be governed in space. This book follows from a previous volume published in this series which looked at the Meaning of Liberty Beyond the Earth and explored what sort of freedoms could exist in space in a very general way. This new volume focuses on systems of governance and how they will influence which of these sorts of freedoms will become dominant in extra-terrestrial society. The book targets a wide readership covers many groups including: • Space policy makers interested in understanding how societies will develop in space and what the policy implications might be for space organisations. • Space engineers interested in understanding how social developments in space might influence the way in which infrastructure and space settlements should be designed. • Space scientists interested in how scientific developments might influence the social structures of settlements beyond the Earth. • Social scientists (political philosophers, ethicists etc) interested in understanding how societies will develop in the future.
... A writer named Jack Williamson employed it in an article titled "Collision Orbit, " published in a magazine called Astounding Science Fiction. In the early 1950s, the great trio of science fiction writers, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov, adopted and used terraform in a way that influenced popular culture (Heinlein 1950;Clarke 1951;Asimov 1952;Fogg 1995). By the early twenty-first century, a descriptive term coined by a science fiction writer and published in a science fiction pulp magazine in 1942 would be superseded by a concept generated by one of the world's leading atmospheric scientists-a concept that would highlight the dominant role played by human beings in fundamentally transforming (or terraforming) the environment of our own planet Earth. ...
... There are three potential sources that could provide this quantity of nitrogen (Fogg, 1995): ...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
As humankind heads into space, one of our primary goals is to find new worlds to settle. Mars stands out as far and away the most practical choice to begin this next phase of human civilization. Apart from its relative closeness, one of the main reasons for this is Mars's potential for terraforming. The red planet's characteristics, while representing challenges, offer an opportunity for the manifestation of a vision which has permeated human thought since the dawn of science fiction – another planet that humans can walk on without the need for a spacesuit; a planet with air, water, soil, plants and animals. Numerous thinkers have contributed to the development of terraforming strategies. This paper expands on previous work, incorporating our current understanding of Mars as well as emerging technologies. The result is a strategy that incorporates past ideas with several new ones. Terraforming is organised into 3 primary tasks: increasing the temperature, building the atmosphere, and implanting the biosphere. These are implemented in stages, favouring solutions that are controllable yet still fast. The use of robotics and genetic engineering are emphasized, based on the assumption that these technologies will be much more advanced, probably even commonplace, during the 21 st – 22 nd century.
... The largest hurdle in the task of carbon sequestration is to separate the CO 2 or CH 4 from N 2 , and the other trace gasses (e.g., Fogg 1995). A simple and viable solution is with chemical separation -using thermodynamically favorable or induced natural chemical reactions (figure 2) on a massive scale, powered by renewable energy. ...
Conference Paper
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The impressive speed at which humanity has grown technologically and industrially in the past ~100 years has led us to a catastrophic situation, if left unresolved, that will extremely alter the planetary biosphere and global planetary climate conditions will become unsuitable for natural human life. In order to create a completely stable and sustainable global planetary climate (which is the number 1 requirement for sustaining future biotic habitability on the Earth), we need to have an interdisciplinary and timely solution that does not require the immediate halting of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. The quickest and most effective approach to creating a sustainable planet for future generations is that we must slow, and eventually stop, the current rate of increasing anthropogenic (and anthropogenic-induced natural) greenhouse gas emissions. This planetary engineering solution would be initiated through globally funded mega-scale engineering projects, namely, renewably powered greenhouse gas sequestration plants. To put it simply, if we are able to remove carbon dioxide and/or methane from the atmosphere, we are likely able to slow, or completely stop, the growth in net thermal energy of our atmosphere. If we act cooperatively and quickly, the pH of the oceans may not reach catastrophic levels, the permafrost may not fully melt and release stored methane, and thus the planetary climate and biosphere may be saved from catastrophe. This conference paper shows succinctly an idea of a technological approach for saving the future generations of humanity, allowing them to become a multi-planetary species.
... When teleoperation is no longer so important, the majority of space industry can be relocated to the asteroid belt where the greater accessible resources of the inner solar system are located. It can then extend its support of human activity to the outer solar system, and it can support even larger objectives such as terraforming Mars [11,12]. ...
Article
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The national space programs have an historic opportunity to help solve the global-scale economic and environmental problems of Earth while becoming more effective at science through the use of space resources. Space programs will be more cost-effective when they work to establish a supply chain in space, mining and manufacturing then replicating the assets of the supply chain itself so it grows to larger capacity. This has become achievable because of advances in robotics and artificial intelligence. It is roughly estimated that developing a lunar outpost that relies upon and also develops the supply chain will cost about 1/3 or less of the existing annual budgets of the national space programs. It will require a sustained commitment of several decades to complete, during which time science and exploration become increasingly effective. At the end, this space industry will capable of addressing global-scale challenges including limited resources, clean energy, economic development, and preservation of the environment. Other potential solutions, including nuclear fusion and terrestrial renewable energy sources, do not address the root problem of our limited globe and there are real questions that they may be inadequate or too late. While industry in space likewise cannot provide perfect assurance, it is uniquely able to solve the root problem, and it gives us an important chance that we should grasp. What makes this such an historic opportunity is that the space-based solution is obtainable for free, because it comes as a side-benefit of doing space science and exploration within their existing budgets. Thinking pragmatically, it may take some time for policymakers to agree that setting up a complete supply chain is an achievable goal, so this paper describes a strategy of incremental progress.
Preprint
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As humanity looks toward the stars, the prospect of colonizing other planets, particularly Mars, becomes increasingly feasible. However, the enormous challenges posed by space travel, environmental hostility, and human biological limitations have sparked new avenues of exploration. One such avenue involves the use of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to prepare extraterrestrial environments and potentially resynthesize human life itself. This paper explores how AI could lead the charge in space colonization by autonomously constructing habitats, terraforming hostile planets, and ultimately recreating human life through synthetic biology and cloning. By considering AI as not only a tool but a caretaker and creator of future civilizations, we open a discussion on the ethical, philosophical, and technological implications of this groundbreaking approach. The role of AI in resynthesizing human biology, preserving culture, and shaping human evolution across the cosmos invites us to rethink our identity, our legacy, and our future as a multi-planetary species. Keywords: AI, space colonization, resynthesis, human life, Mars, artificial intelligence, robotics, synthetic biology, cloning, terraforming, human evolution, space exploration, future of humanity, cosmic legacy, ethics of AI.
Conference Paper
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Mars was created by a strong greenhouse effect caused by a thick CO2 atmosphere. It lost its warm climate when most of the available volatile CO2 was fixed into the form of carbonate rock due to the action of cycling water. It is believed, however, that sufficient CO2 to form a 300 to 600 mb atmosphere may still exist in volatile form, either adsorbed into the regolith or frozen out at the south pole. This CO2 may be released by planetary warming, and as the CO2 atmosphere thickens, positive feedback has produced a change in a variable, triggering a response. In this study, we have chosen methanogens such as Methanothermobacter wolfeii and Methanobacterium formicicum. Methanogens are anaerobic. They are non-photosynthetic and don't require organic nutrients, so they could be able to live in subsurface conditions. Also, research has shown that both species survived the Martian freeze-thaw cycles in their experiments. We are choosing methanogens and we can improve their chances of survival by using CRISPR and other techniques such as radiation-resisting protein (RecA or DrRecA) from Deinococcus radiodurans and antifreeze proteins (AFPs) of Psychrobacter cryohalolentis K5 to survive in freezing temperatures. This could be a game-changer. According to studies, they were incubated at eight temperatures between 22°C and 80°C, and their cellular ATP and ADP content increased with decreasing temperature. Existing techniques are ZFN and TALENs, but they are more labor-intensive and expensive than CRISPR. Thus, inducing RecA or DrRecA and AFPs in Methanothermobacter wolfeii and Methanobacterium formicicum will make them radio and cryo-resistant using CRISPR. Hence, they will be able to produce CO2 on Mars and can help to unfix carbon dioxide from carbonate rocks and polar ice caps. Thus, it will warm the planet and help to make the atmosphere thick.
Chapter
Terraforming is the process of modifying a planet, moon, or other body to a more habitable atmosphere, temperature, or ecology. The idea of terraforming or colonizing other planets has recently become a topic of intense scientific interest and public debate. Geoengineering and terraforming, at their core, have the same goal: to enhance or revive the ability of a specific environment to support human life, society, and industry. New Worlds: Colonizing Planets, Moons and Beyond examines extra-terrestrial colonization plans with a critical eye. The ten chapters of the book provide a detailed review of the demographic and economic reasons behind this space imperative, technical and ecological solutions to improve the settlement of our own planet, enhancements of our current space industry. The book also covers interesting topics such as the terraformation of Mars, the moon, and other planets like Venus, colonizing the outer solar system (and beyond), and the ethical considerations in favor of space expansion. This simple, yet informative treatise is an essential read for anyone interested in the subject of space colonization
Chapter
Terraforming is the process of modifying a planet, moon, or other body to a more habitable atmosphere, temperature, or ecology. The idea of terraforming or colonizing other planets has recently become a topic of intense scientific interest and public debate. Geoengineering and terraforming, at their core, have the same goal: to enhance or revive the ability of a specific environment to support human life, society, and industry. New Worlds: Colonizing Planets, Moons and Beyond examines extra-terrestrial colonization plans with a critical eye. The ten chapters of the book provide a detailed review of the demographic and economic reasons behind this space imperative, technical and ecological solutions to improve the settlement of our own planet, enhancements of our current space industry. The book also covers interesting topics such as the terraformation of Mars, the moon, and other planets like Venus, colonizing the outer solar system (and beyond), and the ethical considerations in favor of space expansion. This simple, yet informative treatise is an essential read for anyone interested in the subject of space colonization
Chapter
Terraforming is the process of modifying a planet, moon, or other body to a more habitable atmosphere, temperature, or ecology. The idea of terraforming or colonizing other planets has recently become a topic of intense scientific interest and public debate. Geoengineering and terraforming, at their core, have the same goal: to enhance or revive the ability of a specific environment to support human life, society, and industry. New Worlds: Colonizing Planets, Moons and Beyond examines extra-terrestrial colonization plans with a critical eye. The ten chapters of the book provide a detailed review of the demographic and economic reasons behind this space imperative, technical and ecological solutions to improve the settlement of our own planet, enhancements of our current space industry. The book also covers interesting topics such as the terraformation of Mars, the moon, and other planets like Venus, colonizing the outer solar system (and beyond), and the ethical considerations in favor of space expansion. This simple, yet informative treatise is an essential read for anyone interested in the subject of space colonization
Technical Report
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Under consideration of scientists using engineered tools for scientific discovery, it may be a natural curiosity to question the physical realities of fabricating the biosphere conditions of habitable spaces beyond Earth’s atmosphere and how we can study for and innovate new engineering systems to probe the scientific secrets of our universe through space exploration, settlement, and modification. Outer-Earth habitable spaces and the human condition require an understanding of the limits of ecological capabilities in largely unchartered habitats (such as the Martian habitat) for the regulation of life. Of particular concern are the questions from the engineer’s perspective influencing the work accomplished and contributed to science: When engineering tools and spaces for the territorializing of planets other than Earth, what ethical appropriations are necessary to be considered? How do we analyze the ethics behind potential outer space habitability using real science? How are planetary modification engineers tested to maintain the “health, safety, and welfare” of humans and other possible life forms when engineering terraforming mechanisms? To address the ethical dimensions of terraforming, scientists such as Carl Sagan, M.J. Fogg, and NASA’s Christopher McKay have researched and analyzed the extent to which terraforming is justified. Since the area of planetary engineering and terraforming is mainly approached from a theoretical and hypothetical perspective, much of the scientists’ arguments are built on scientific research, hypotheses, and assessments of potential conditional attributes of terraforming other planets rather than on documented instances. While the creation of a habitable climate of a self-regulating anaerobic biosphere requires assessments of technical feasibility, reasonable objectives, and environmental effects, for the sake of humanity, we must, at the same time, consider planetary engineering ethics through fundamental aspects of ethical viewpoints.
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A stellar engine is defined in this chapter as a device that uses the resources of a star to generate work. Stellar engines belong to class A and B when they use the impulse and the energy of star's radiation, respectively. Class C stellar engines are combinations of types A and B. Minimum and optimum radii were identified for class C stellar engines. When the Sun is considered, the optimum radius is around 450 millions km. Class A and C stellar engines provide almost the same thrust force. A simple dynamic model for solar motion in the Galaxy is developed. It takes into account the (perturbation) thrust force provided by a stellar engine, which is superposed on the usual gravitational forces. Two different Galaxy gravitational potential models were used to describe solar motion. The results obtained in both cases are in reasonably good agreement. Three simple strategies of changing the solar trajectory are considered. For a single Sun revolution the maximum deviation from the usual orbit is of the order of 35 to 40 pc. Thus, stellar engines of the kind envisaged here may be used to control to a certain extent the Sun movement in the Galaxy
Article
Mars colonisation started much earlier than one might think. Like any other human colonisation of the past, it began in the field of imagination. Nevertheless, this colonisation is happening now in the real world, and differently from the past it has a worldwide mass media coverage. Of course, the risk of repeating the same errors of the past does exist – this is what I mean by Anthropocene reloaded. While our planet is being destroyed by environmental crises, overpopulation, and natural catastrophes enhanced by human intervention, we plan to terraform Mars, to extract mineral and gas resources, and ultimately to create human settlements, with no guarantees that today’s investors and tomorrow’s settlers will show more respect to the environment than we have granted our own home-planet so far. I intend to analyse this issue by comparing reality and imagination, also referring to a group of fin-de-siècle utopias which were informed by a very different vision of planet Mars in comparison with later SF fiction.
Article
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Moral hazards are ubiquitous. Green ones typically involve technological fixes: Environmentalists often see ‘technofixes’ as morally fraught because they absolve actors from taking more difficult steps toward systemic solutions. Carbon removal and especially solar geoengineering are only the latest example of such technologies. We here explore green moral hazards throughout American history. We argue that dismissing (solar) geoengineering on moral hazard grounds is often unproductive. Instead, especially those vehemently opposed to the technology should use it as an opportunity to expand the attention paid to the underlying environmental problem in the first place, actively invoking its opposite: ‘inverse moral hazards’.
Conference Paper
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In the space frontier, space community aims to build Mars habitat. However, Martian atmosphere is toxic to human being with approximately 95 percent of carbon dioxide. In addition, its atmosphere is very thin and there are no trees as on the Earth. Therefore, it is essential to develop and manage an atmosphere on Mars to sustainably live there. In this paper, a new human 5-phased plan for terraforming Mars is proposed: (1) moon stabilization (2) planetary shield (3) carbon harvesting (4) atmospheric conversion and (5) human-focused habitability. The essential plan requires creating an artificial Van Allen belt and the formation of an anthropogenic atmosphere on this Red Planet. Moon stabilization of Phobos and Deimos orbits provides the constant rotating mass to support the terraforming macro-project proposed. Also, the project applies Paleo reactors to power a series of HAARP arrays placed on the modified surfaces of Phobos and Deimos. Therefore, the generating field will thicken up Mars atmosphere and affect the amplified weather mass fronts. Low-cost carbon splitters will be applied to pull off carbon from the Martian atmosphere to be stored as fuel for grounded settlements. Moreover, Faux Trees will support conversion of Martian aerial gases into a breathable medium (“air”). Finally, Mars habitat is complete with soil and natural tree plantations.
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Chapter 9 explores theoretical and practical implications for meaning and ethics based on previously developed cosmological theories of value and associated worldviews: cosmological reverence, cosmocultural evolution, and the connection-action principle. The cosmological theories of value ascribe various forms and degrees of value and meaning to the universe and to life and intelligence in the context of cosmic evolution—increasing in degree and implications as we move from cosmological reverence to cosmocultural evolution to the connection-action principle. This chapter explores the relevance of “cosmocentric ethics” and the potential meaning of becoming co-creators of a morally creative cosmos that emphasizes respect for relationships, diversity, and creativity. The chapter finishes with an analysis of practical ethical challenges regarding the search for, and potential interaction with, life on Mars and elsewhere.
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A number of scientific writers have proposed manipulating the ecology of Mars in order to make the planet more comfortable for future immigrants from Earth. However, the ethical acceptability of such ‘terraforming’ proposals remains unresolved. In response, in this article I explore some of these scientific proposals through the lens provided by Buddhist environmental ethics that are quantitatively expressed by practitioners in the ethnographic field of the United States. What I find is that contemporary Buddhists combine philosophical notions of interconnectedness with moral considerations not to harm others and then creatively extend this combined sensibility to the protection specifically of abiotic features of Mars. In so doing these Buddhists significantly reject proposals to alter the Martian ecology planet-wide as beyond the ethical right of humans. Along the way these Buddhists also importantly provide an innovative basis for enriching Buddhist environmental ethical protection of abiotic locations, and this strengthening can assist in mitigating climate change on Earth.
Article
This essay takes an analytical approach to examine some Chinese science fiction narratives with the themes of climate change, terraforming, and environment degradation—written from the mid-twentieth century to the early years of the twentieth-first century. My broad reading of the texts treats these narratives as archive—textual sources that document a historical development of the impact of human activities on nature. On the one hand, these narratives are all closely related to the country’s modernization, its economic takeoff, and the rhetoric of building a powerful China. On the other hand, they form one set of what can be understood as an emerging body of Chinese fiction located firmly within the strata and sediment of the Anthropocene. This body of literature offers a venue for explaining and exploring how economics, technological developments, and government policies have transformed the ecology, environment, and climate in the Anthropocene. These narratives also echo the concept of slow violence dubbed by Rob Nixon in 2011. These terraforming and climate narratives reveal an attritional violence of environmental degradation, climate change, and the consequential social and political problems that permeate so many of our lives. My close reading of Chen Qiufan’s novel The Waste Tide (Huangchao, 2013) specifically portrays a slow and attritional violence—namely, the ways in which the electronics recycling industry have caused severe environmental and occupational impacts on nature and humans—through exploration of the complex relationships among technology, the economy, and the environment.
Article
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This article explores world-making processes through which extreme frontiers of life are made habitable. Examining how notions of life are enlarged, incorporated, and appropriated in complex geopolitical contexts, the article argues that microbial worlds are becoming part of worlding processes and projects that further these frontiers. The emphasis on “microbial ontologies” is designed to draw attention to the increasing expediency of conceptualizing extreme earthly ecologies as analogues for other planetary worlds, as a way of tracing the relational trajectories of Antarctica and outer space, and to reflect on emerging modes of an extraterrestrial mode of thinking Earth. This article is informed by short-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Antarctic Peninsula with Chilean microbiologists engaged in the bioprospecting of extremophiles, to account for how extremophile organisms are made part of a market-driven search for bioactive components in areas highly sensitive to geopolitics at the same time as they become meaningful as proxies for extraterrestrial life. The article combines analysis, description, and fieldwork material, tracing the relational trajectories of Antarctica and outer space in very general terms and then discussing the intricacies of bioprospecting in Antarctica, where the question of who owns the microbial diversity existing outside of national territories remains ambiguous and contested.
Article
Significant attention has been focused on Mars due to its relative proximity and possibility of sustaining human life. However, its lack of in-situ sources of energy presents a challenge to generate needed energy on the surface. Comparatively, Titan has a nearly endless source of fuel in its atmosphere and lakes, but both are lacking in regards to their oxidizing capacity. The finding of a possible underground liquid ammonia-water lake on Titan suggests that oxygen might actually be within reach. This effort provides the first theoretical study involving a primary energy generation system on Titan using the atmosphere as a fuel and underground water as the source for the oxygen via electrolysis from wind generated electricity. Thermodynamic calculations and use of chemical kinetics in a zero-dimensional Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine model demonstrate that is indeed possible to operate an internal combustion engine on the surface of Titan while providing heat for terraforming and human activities. Subsequent terraforming estimates illustrate that while the potential for energy and heat exists, the amount of needed hardware is largely impractical. However, the findings may stimulate further curiosity by others to look towards outer space and imagine what might be possible.
Article
The discovery of a second genesis of life besides the one on Earth, this time on Mars, would have profound scientific and philosophical implications. Scientifically, it would provide a second example of biochemistry and of evolutionary history. Many important biological questions may be answerable through the comparison of biochemistry between the life forms on the two planets. Philosophically, the discovery of a second genesis of life in our solar system would suggest that the phenomenon of life is distributed throughout the universe. We could finally be confident that we are not alone. To protect a second genesis as we search for it, the robotic and human exploration of Mars should be done in a way that is biologically reversible, i.e., we must be able to undo our contamination of Mars if we discover a second genesis of life there. It is important to note that human exploration can be done in a way that is biologically reversible. Further, the discovery of a second genesis of life on Mars poses new questions in ethics. One question is: what ethical consideration is due to an alien life form when that life is distinctly different from Earth life, and the members of that life are no more advanced than microorganisms? Will we choose to terraform Mars to enhance the richness and diversity of the indigenous life we find there? In considering our answers to these questions, we should note that for most of Earth’s history our ancestors were microscopic.
Chapter
By the end of this 21st century, Homo sapiens might well be described as an interstitial species. We are not just between two time periods, but between two ways of life. Humankind is being transformed from a terrestrial to an extraterrestrial being. In the process of this metamorphosis, our species will be changed both physically and psychologically, especially if genetics are engineered or synthetically induced characteristics are used to ensure survival aloft. Beginning with this new millennium, social practices, institutions, and knowledge organized for living on Earth are being profoundly altered to acclimate to offworld living conditions. The survival of the species in outer space demands significant adaptation to differing environmental realities. Technology and management have already discovered that both with spacecraft and spacefarers, innovative approaches must be created for dealing with the complexities of safely getting and keeping humans in orbit, as well as returning them back unharmed. Limited experience in this Space Age teaches us powerful lessons: (1) the necessity for synergy that goes beyond individual organizations, nations, and disciplines, as discussed in Chapter 2; (2) the interdependence of all life systems, especially between those of Earth and those considered non-terrestrial. Exhibit 25. Super-ecology: future interactive loops. Source: Jesco von Puttkamer from his “Foreword” to the first edition, Living and Working in Space, by Philip R. Harris. Chichester, U.K.: Ellis Horwood, 1992, p. 21.
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After a hiatus of some 40 years since humanity’s first lunar landing, we are now planning to return to the Moon permanently, hopefully by year 2020. No united vision, plan, or strategy for exploring, settling, and industrializing the lunar surface has come forth from the world’s space agencies, despite numerous conferences, studies, and reports on the subject. However, NASA has undertaken to implement a national space policy to do just that, called the Vision for Space Exploration. The Agency is beginning to seek collaboration from public and private entities within the global space community in this latest orbital venture. But to build a lunar transportation system and outpost within a dozen years would involve facing up to harsh economic, technological, and political realities, leading to the realization that the only way earthkind can afford this macroproject is by means of international cooperation with major participation by private enterprise. If the limited resources of China, Europe, India, Japan, Russia, and the U.S.A. were combined into a joint technological enterprise on the Moon, then synergistic activities there would encourage competing space constituencies to work together on lunar development. Exhibit 125 (opposite) gives the principal reasons for doing this.
Article
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The use of space-based orbital reflectors to increase the total insolation of the Earth has been considered with potential applications in night-side illumination, electric power generation and climate engineering. Previous studies have demonstrated that families of displaced Earth-centered and artificial halo orbits may be generated using continuous propulsion, e.g. solar sails. In this work, a three-body analysis is performed by using the circular restricted three body problem, such that, the space mirror attitude reflects sunlight in the direction of Earth’s center, increasing the total insolation. Using the Lindstedt–Poincaré and differential corrector methods, a family of halo orbits at artificial Sun–Earth L2\hbox {L}_2 points are found. It is shown that the third order approximation does not yield real solutions after the reflector acceleration exceeds 0.245 mm s2\hbox {s}^{-2}, i.e. the analytical expressions for the in- and out-of-plane amplitudes yield imaginary values. Thus, a larger solar reflector acceleration is required to obtain periodic orbits closer to the Earth. Derived using a two-body approach and applying the differential corrector method, a family of displaced periodic orbits close to the Earth are therefore found, with a solar reflector acceleration of 2.686 mm s2\hbox {s}^{-2}.
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The concept of modifying the environment of another planet, so that it can support terrestrial life, is known as terraforming. As a speculative thought experiment in planetary engineering, it has been slowly gaining in respectability and, over the past 40 years, has amassed a considerable body of published work. In this paper, the progress of research into the terraforming of the planet Mars is briefly reviewed. While such an undertaking does not appear technologically impossible, whether it will actually happen is an unanswerable question. However, the control space for thought experimentation that terraforming provides is of use in planetological research, environmental ethics, and education. The subject is therefore relevant to the present day, as well as to a possible future.
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Kim Stanley Robinson has emerged as one of the most environmentally concerned and political savvy science fiction writers among his contemporaries. His ecological concerns began early and reached maturity in his Mars trilogy, which won rave reviews and science fiction honorifics, as each was successively published. Between 2004 and 2007, his latest trilogy—the “Science in the Capital” series—was released, focusing upon the near-term dangers of global warming and the tendencies toward a kind of surveillance society in the United States spawned by the continuing war on terror. This chapter seeks to spotlight the good, the bad, and the tenuous in the trilogy by exposing Robinson’s Enlightenment assumptions about modern science and the scientific community, his fascination with fast-times scenarios, his license to Science and scientists to utilize terra/terror-forming techniques on Earth’s ecosystem, and his wilderness worship and preference for Paleolithic lifestyles. In the process, it juxtaposes trends in the techno-corporate world affirming precisely the Big Science solutions advanced by Robinson in his trilogy against more difficult, but more promising alternatives emerging from post-Enlightenment responses to global warming as a cultural and political economic crisis emanating from voices from grassroots organizations and postmodern ecological thinkers. The paper’s reads Robinson’s work against its Enlightenment grain to sketch some essential ingredients of a post-Enlightenment approach to addressing the global warming phenomenon.
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A number of proposed methods of rapid (V>0.1c) interstellar travel are discussed, including pulsed fusion and antimatter powered rockets, laser pushed lightsails and interstellar ramjets. Lower velocity worldships are also briefly considered. The scale of the undertaking, from both a technological and an economic perspective, is such that it is unlikely to be realised for several centuries. However, the great increase in astronomical knowledge that will result from a programme of interstellar exploration means that astronomers have a vested interest in the dream becoming a reality.
Article
The hydrogen burning minimum mass (HBMM) is determined for solar composition by performing some numerical computations. Pre-main sequence evolution is followed for masses down to 0.04 solar mass, from initial models having central temperatures of 200,000 K, through deuterium burning, until either stable hydrogen burning is reached or the object has cooled down to roughly 10 to the -5th solar luminosity. The opacities are interpolated among the recent opacity tables by Alexander, Johnson, and Rypma (1983), which include a number of important molecules below 4000 K and grain formation below 1500 K. The HBMM turns out to be slightly smaller than predicted with Co and Stewart (1970) opacities, but mainly displays a luminosity ten times smaller. A physical interpretation of this result is presented, and the number of brown dwarfs expected to be detectable near the sun is discussed.
Article
The paper reports the results of nearly 40,000 computer simulations of close encounters between a planet-star (P-S) system and a stellar intruder. If the closest approach of the intruder is 2 - 3 times the semimajor axis of the orbit or less, the encounter tends to increase the semimajor axis of the P-S system or even dissociate it. More distant encounters tend to produce a mild shrinking of the P-S orbit. Averaged over all impact parameters, the encounters are disruptive. Close encounters which do not lead to disruption usually lead to the stellar intruder capturing the planet. The average orbital eccentricity of a captured planet is greater than e = 0.7, but some close encounters between a solar-mass intruder and an Earth-Sun system would result in the Earth being captured by the stellar intruder in an orbit with an eccentricity of less than e = 0.10.