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Re:Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] by dogma1138 on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @03:39PM (#12592417)
Mars has no magnetic field so you get cooked with radiation.

Mars' soil contains tons of perchlorate at levels which are very toxic to humans.

TBH Venus seems like a better candidate for long term terraforming.

You can build floating complexes in it's upper atmosphere, and it has enough oxygen and water locked in it's atmosphere and we might be able to fix the rotation and the density of the atmosphere in one go by using the atmosphere to speed up the rotation of Venus. While both of these are quite "far fetched" technically, as far as terraforming goes we aren't any closer to terraforming mars than Venus, and at least for Venus we don't need to figure out how to give it a magnetic field.

Re:Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] by skykooler on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @03:50PM (#12592512)
Venus also has no magnetic field. It has much stronger gravity as well, requiring larger rockets to take off from it, and it is quite difficult to mine resources from due to the high temperatures and pressures at the surface, meaning all materials for a colony would need to be sent from Earth.
Re:Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] by dogma1138 on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @03:55PM (#12592563)
Venus has an induced magnetic field which while isn't as good as what we got on Earth, is better than what you have on Mars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Venus#Induced_ma...

Additionally the current theory is that if Venus will be sped up to below 56h per rotation it would regenerate it's intrinsic magnetic field which should be near earth levels.

And while Venus does have higher gravity than Mars, it's still lower than Earth's, and overall the delta V for venus insertion orbit is slightly lower than what you need for Mars.

Re:Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] by FireBeyond on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @04:26PM (#12592847)
"Additionally the current theory is that if Venus will be sped up to below 56h per rotation it would regenerate it's intrinsic magnetic field which should be near earth levels."

That's great and all, but how exactly do we realistically speed up the rotation of a _planet_?

Re:Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] by dogma1138 on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @04:32PM (#12592904)
One of the more "probable" and more or less energy sane suggestions would be using mass drivers to eject the atmosphere at high speeds to induce spin.

The mass of the venusian atmosphere is high enough for this to actually work and still leave you a lot of atmosphere to work with, it will take 20-30 years but it still doable.

Re:Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] by hinkley on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @06:36PM (#12593798)
And pointing those canisters at Mars or the moon. Once you've hit Venusian escape velocity you might as well move that atmosphere somewhere else that needs it.

But compressing acidic gasses makes the corrosion problem worse, doesn't it? How do you deal with that?

Re:Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] by richmarr on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @04:48AM (#12596260)
Nothing says "I love you" like super-compressed canisters of acid hurtling through space at interplanetary speeds :)
Re:Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] by hinkley on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @10:57AM (#12598132)
I think you have a good candidate for the Portal 3 story line there.
Re:Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] by rbanffy on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @04:41PM (#12592988)
A fleet of masses attached to solar sails imparting a little bit of momentum as each one passes by.

This is planetary engineering. It's not supposed to be fast.

Unless, of course, you are a Kardashev II civilization.

Re:Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] by baq on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @10:24PM (#12594981)
same way it actually slowed down: mess with the atmo.
Re:Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] by raverbashing on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @04:22PM (#12592801)
Easier to live in Mars with some radiation and lower temperatures (and pressure) as opposed to 400C and acid rains of Venus
Re:Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] by dogma1138 on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @04:27PM (#12592859)
No one is suggesting living on the surface until it's terraformed, the dense atmosphere allows for easy construction of floating platforms.

As far as terraforming goes, Venus is just a better candidate for long term colonization.