Beech Terraforming: The Creating of Habitable Worlds

Astronomers' Universe
1. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-0-387-09796-1
Verlag: Springer-Verlag
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 291 Seiten

The word ''terraforming'' conjures up many exotic images and p- hapsevenwildemotions,butatitscoreitencapsulatestheideathat worldscanbechangedbydirecthumanaction.Theultimateaimof terraforming is to alter a hostile planetary environment into one that is Earth-like, and eventually upon the surface of the new and vibrant world that you or I could walk freely about and explore. It is not entirely clear that this high goal of terraforming can ever be achieved, however, and consequently throughout much of thisbooktheterraformingideasthatarediscussedwillapplytothe goal of making just some fraction of a world habitable. In other cases,theterraformingdescribedmightbeaimedatmakingaworld habitablenotforhumansbutforsomepotentialfoodsourcethat,of course, could be consumed by humans. The many icy moons that reside within the Solar System, for example, may never be ideal locationsforhumanhabitation,buttheypresentthegreatpotential for conversion into enormous hydroponic food-producing centers. The idea of transforming alien worlds has long been a literary backdrop for science fiction writers, and many a make-believe planet has succumbed to the actions of direct manipulation and the indomitable grinding of colossal machines. Indeed, there is something both liberating and humbling about the notion of tra- forming another world; it is the quintessential eucatastrophy espoused by J. R. R. Tolkien, the catastrophe that ultimately brings about a better world. When oxygen was first copiously produced by cyanobacterial activity on the Earth some three billion years ago, it was an act of extreme chemical pollution and a eucatastrophy. The original life-nurturing atmosphere was (eventually) changed f- ever, but an atmosphere that could support advanced life forms came about.

Associate professor of astronomy, and Head of the Astronomy Department at Campion College, The University of Regina. My main research interests during the past decade have focused on the smaller objects within the solar system (comets, asteroids and meteoroids), but concomitant to this I have continued to perform research related to the structure and evolution of stars (the area of my doctoral studies). The book being proposed here is partly based upon a series of research papers that I have published over the years and on material used in a solar system studies class. The topic of asteroengineering was recently the focus of an 'opinion article' I wrote for the May 2006 issue of Astronomy Now magazine, and an editorial piece in the May 2006 issue of Smithsonian Air and Space magazine.Home web page: http://hyperion.cc.uregina.ca/-astro/mbeech.html

Autoren/Hrsg.

Beech, Martin

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;About the Author;7
2;Table of Contents;8
3;1 Prolog: The Big Guns of Kugluktuk;11
3.1;Summer, the Year 2100;11
3.2;Notes and References;14
4;2 Introduction;16
4.1;What’s in a Word?;18
4.2;Moving Forward;20
4.3;The Anthropocene;21
4.4;Future Worlds, Future Homes;22
4.5;Economics;26
4.6;Notes and References;27
5;3 Life in the Solar System, and Beyond;28
5.1;Mars: The Once and Future Abode of Life?;30
5.2;Life Express;35
5.3;The Miller-Urey Experiment;37
5.4;Panspermia: The Bigger Picture;40
5.5;Life and Death Clouds;44
5.6;Vignette A: What Is Life?;46
5.6.1;Defining Life;46
5.7;The Rights of Microbes;49
5.8;Notes and References;50
6;4 The Limits of the World;53
6.1;Home on the Range: A Brief History of the Solar System;54
6.2;The Blue Marble;61
6.3;Breathing Room;64
6.4;A Magnetic Shield;67
6.5;Humanity’s Footprint;69
6.6;We, the Tikopia;75
6.7;The Aging Sun;76
6.8;Back to the Present;82
6.9;Vignette B: The Viking Landers;83
6.10;Notes and References;87
7;5 In the Right Place at the Right Time;89
7.1;Planetary Temperatures;90
7.2;Atmospheric Temperature and Pressure;96
7.3;Phase Diagram of Water;101
7.4;The Habitable Zone;104
7.5;Atmospheric Retention;105
7.6;The Greenhouse Effect;109
7.7;The Tail Wagging the Dog;111
7.8;Feedback Cycles and Stability;113
7.9;The End of the Biosphere;118
7.10;The Formation of Terrestrial Planets;120
7.11;Super-Earths;126
7.12;Vignette C: Kepler’s Somnium;127
7.13;Notes and References;130
8;6 The Terraforming of Mars;132
8.1;The Measure of Mars;135
8.2;Whither the Water?;143
8.3;The Opening Salvo;145
8.4;Altered States: The Means of Terraforming Mars;149
8.5;Increased CO2 Abundance;153
8.6;The CO2 Runaway;154
8.7;Super-Greenhouse Gases;158
8.8;Albedo Change and Increased Insolation;161
8.9;The Phases of New Mars;164
8.10;The Times of Their Lives;169
8.11;Worldhouse;172
8.12;Near-Term Developments;172
8.13;Vignette D: Daisy World;174
8.14;Notes and References;178
9;7 The Terraforming of Venus;181
9.1;The Moist Greenhouse Effect;188
9.2;Cloud Life;189
9.3;Perelandra Remade;191
9.4;Atmospheric Blow-off, Cooling, and Mining;192
9.5;Roman Blinds, Spin Up, and Spin Apart;197
9.6;Back to Basics;200
9.7;Getting CO2 Stoned;202
9.8;A Cold New Dawn;203
9.9;Surface Turnover;205
9.10;Flying High;207
9.11;A Distant Dawn;209
9.12;Vignette E: Back to the Moon;209
9.13;Notes and References;212
10;8 An Abundance of Habitats;216
10.1;The Moon’s a Balloon;217
10.2;Hot-Footed Hermes;221
10.3;A Fragmented Neighborhood;225
10.4;Life on a Dwarf Planet: Ceres World;227
10.5;Living in the Clouds;230
10.6;Supramundane Planets and Shell Worlds7;231
10.7;O’Neill Colonies and Orbiting Cities;234
10.8;The Coming of a Second Sun;235
10.9;Earth Shift and a Synthetic Sun;240
10.10;Dyson Spheres and Jupiter;241
10.11;The Galilean Moons: Food for Thought;243
10.12;The Deeper, Darker, Colder Solar System;247
10.13;The Pull of More Distant Horizons;250
10.14;Other Worlds Abound;251
10.15;Future Prospects;253
10.16;Habitable Exoplanets and Biomarkers;256
10.17;Vignette F: The Mysterious Titius-Bode Law;259
10.18;Notes and References;262
11;Epilogue;266
12;Internet Resources;269
12.1;Solar System and Space Exploration;269
12.2;Terraforming/Colonization;269
12.3;Asteroid Search and Collision Avoidance;270
12.4;Astrobiology;270
12.5;Gaia/Global Warming/Human Population/Global Issues;270
13;Glossary of Technical Terms;272
14;Appendix A: Blackbody Radiators;275
15;Appendix B: Accounting for Greenhouse Gases;277
16;Appendix C: A Terraforming Simulator Model for Mars;279
17;Appendix D: Population Growth and Lily World;282
18;Index;289