Re: [DIYbio] Re: Planetary science - biology

Surely for a heat-pump to work, you need to have a gradient, not just
lots of heat.

To ask that another way: Are there larger heat *gradients* on Venus with
which to generate useful energy, or is there just more ambient energy,
which is of no use?

Venus is scary precisely because it used to be almost identical to
Earth, except that Earth developed life and Venus succumbed to runaway
global warming. There but for the grace of an ecosphere go we.

On 31/01/12 16:40, mad_casual wrote:
> Venus is a much more desirable candidate for many reasons:
> Mass- Mars isn't big enough to support an atmosphere fit for human
> habitation. You could float habitats on Venus' atmosphere.
> Productive Energy (thermal and non-ionizing radiation)- Mars' surface
> is relatively devoid of non-destructive energy. Venus has too much,
> even simple heat pumps would effectively convert atmospheric energy to
> other forms.
> Destructive Energy (ionizing radiation)- Mars is awash in it. Venus'
> atmosphere has a magnetosphere that affords a level of shielding.
> Chemistry- Mars has lower water, carbon, and nitrogen in any form on
> its surface or in its atmosphere than Earth. Venus has more of all of
> the above, typically boiled in acid and at 90 atm of pressure such
> that they are unusable to biological systems.
> Value- Fixing Venus teaches us lots about "fixing" Earth. Fixing Venus
> will be all about collecting energy rather than just expending it.
>
> IMO, put an outpost on the Moon, colonize Mars, terraform Venus.
> Anything else is making a purse out of a pig's ear. On that note; the
> human body is supremely adapted to this planet and for relatively
> short periods of time at that. Bending atmospheres to fit our lungs,
> putting chairs in spacecraft to fit our rear ends, and blasting
> surgeons and/or medicine around the Solar System is, to me, somewhere
> between naive fantasy and religion.
>


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