Timeline for Superfast Terraforming of the Moon by Portal from Earth
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
18 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 28, 2021 at 20:38 | comment | added | John Dvorak | @user2352714 much more interesting things happen if the air doesn't escape Earth's gravity, and falls back on Earth instead. With a bunch of extra energy because the portal doubles as a very tall elevator. | |
| Mar 28, 2021 at 20:30 | comment | added | Jared Smith | 3000 meters? Mexico City is only 2200. That's just at sea level? That's nuts. I guess we'd get used to it, but it would definitely be challenging lol. Assuming the other problems inherent in the setup don't kill us all anyways. | |
| Mar 28, 2021 at 8:36 | comment | added | Starfish Prime | @chiggsy "as soon as it is out from under the magnetosphere" is not correct. Ionisation and blowing away into interstellar space is a time and energy consuming process. It'll be fine for thousands and perhaps even millions of years. Mars wasn't dessicated in a day. | |
| Mar 28, 2021 at 2:59 | comment | added | chiggsy | @Willk That water vapor will be ionized as soon as it is out from under the magnetosphere. Ionized, and blown away in the solar wind. What makes continental Earth habitable is the magnetosphere and the ozone layer. By the way, how much of our ozone will be depleted in this scheme? How much plankton will be blown onto the surface of the moon? Plankton is carbon, and we need it here, moderating our temperature, not floating in space uselessly. | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 23:14 | comment | added | user2352714 | Add to that the fact that the moon doesn't really have the gravity to maintain an atmosphere, so it will keep sucking the atmosphere from Earth until the conditions on both bodies stabilize. Which will be never, as the atmosphere keeps escaping into space. | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 22:33 | history | edited | Mary | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
spelling and punctuation
|
| Mar 27, 2021 at 17:48 | comment | added | Starfish Prime | @Willk (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 17:32 | comment | added | Willk | I am sorry but I must downvote because your equations were insufficiently thorough and did not consider the contribution of water vapor from the ocean portal. | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 16:28 | comment | added | Starfish Prime | @PcMan given the magic inherent in the question, I'm assuming that the portal is of sufficient size of equalise the two bodies promptly but safely in a plot-compatible way ;-) | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 16:23 | comment | added | MolbOrg | "bit of an eye opener to see exactly how much" - yep, numbers are beautiful, especially on big scales, for this very reason - being eye opener. On scales of planets and space, even if one excpects, surprises will happen, as nothing in our everyday reality prepares our estimating parts of brain for those huge scales, huge things. Space is big, planets are huge | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 16:14 | comment | added | PcMan | Don't worry about dying of lack of air. Unless the portal's aperture is many kilometers wide, neither you nor your grandchildren will have to worry about it. Maybe their grandchildren. a 10m wide portal will take 85000 years to drop Earth atmospheric pressure by 1% | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 16:09 | comment | added | Mike Serfas | You're right - the question only goes to the point of equalizing with the existing air, so I should also. | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 16:05 | comment | added | Starfish Prime | @PcMan yeah, its been a really interesting problem. I knew it would be quite a lot, but it is a bit of an eye opener to see exactly how much. The more I look into with stuff like this, the more utterly implausible terraforming a planet or moon seems to be. | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 16:00 | comment | added | PcMan | I ran the same calc, using surface areas and scale height and whatnot (much messier than yours), and came to an identical conclusion. The Moon may be tiny, but it will suck a lot of our air. | |
| Mar 27, 2021 at 15:45 | history | edited | Starfish Prime | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Clarify the equation solving at the end.
|
| Mar 27, 2021 at 12:48 | history | edited | Starfish Prime | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Actually use correct post-disaster atmosphere mass on Earth.
|
| Mar 27, 2021 at 12:31 | history | edited | Starfish Prime | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 194 characters in body
|
| Mar 27, 2021 at 12:25 | history | answered | Starfish Prime | CC BY-SA 4.0 |