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wesphilly06 t1_j1zjx5l wrote

I wonder if I would be possible to mimic water rich asteroids and terraform a planet or moon by launching our own or redirecting an existing one to another “dry planet”.

I don’t understand the science but fascinating nonetheless

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Padhome t1_j2053f6 wrote

That planet or moon would have to have a functioning magnetic field and consistent temperature. The farthest you could probably make it work is Jupiter, and even then those moons are covered in it's shadow for a long time and are bombarded by its deadly radiation.

That leaves Mars, which can't sustain an atmosphere because of it's weak magnetic fields, and was actually once like Earth but could not support itself, or Venus, which is a sulfur acid hellscape of unimaginable atmospheric pressure, and is surprisingly the best option considering it's the closest thing we have to a twin.

I don't know throwing water rocks at it would help much though.

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Call_In_The_Bin t1_j22fwyg wrote

It wouldn't keep an atmosphere in the geological long term, but in the human short term it would work fine.

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1wiseguy t1_j20g9dy wrote

If you want to transport water or gases from Earth to Mars, the amount of mass necessary to make a minimal atmosphere or any kind of ground water is staggering and impossible.

Steering an asteroid or comet to collide with Mars is also quite a trick, and finding one that's headed roughly for Mars could take quite a while.

These things are great for a sci-fi story, but in the real world we have laws of physics that we must answer to.

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carpiediem t1_j24t3gc wrote

I don't think anyone is suggesting bringing it from Earth. You're right that comets would be tricky, but we can manage a lot when given a millennium or two.

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Probably_Not_Evil t1_j204s2u wrote

If you enjoy sci-fi, you might check out Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. There's some terraforming in the book similar to what you're describing.

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chamax15 t1_j207a94 wrote

Loved that book. Especially the first half.

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carpiediem t1_j24t7jo wrote

Blue Mars has a great terraforming plot too.

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MechanicalFetus t1_j20552z wrote

Sounds fun to me. You think it would be cool to nuke the poles of Mars to see if we could spread out/vaporize some of that solid ice? I also love the idea of using Nukes to dig a 32km hole on Mars to create a depth and pressure of 1 equivalent earth atmosphere

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