Terraforming Other Planets?

[Eclipse Now]

Nice shot, although I'm not sure if I'd like staring 'up' at the other side of the way. Looking 'up' along the main drive of the torus is freaky enough, but does going across the torus have to be curved as well? Can't the stream go 'down' into a more natural looking river, without relying on the bottom of a curve in the way? With this design you'd probably feel like you were always at the bottom, and couldn't get a clear view: even though 'up' had plenty of view. Does that make any psychological sense?

[Eclipse Now]

What would happen to deciduous trees that lived in a permanently 'spring' or 'summer' climate? Would they mimic a 'year' by closing some giant shutters over the windows to limit sunlight and mimic winter? Would they genetically change the trees? Would they just limit the kind of biodiversity on that station? Or would some stations bother to have a year for their biodiversity, and some not, offering year round perfect weather for their inhabitants? I can see a market for all manner of environments, designs, lifestyles, and concepts. It's just getting the sheer money together to get started! I basically only think we'll have the wealth to do this once we've:

* solved peak oil and climate change via GenIV nukes

* created some form of global government

* brought the 3rd world up out of poverty

* solved most problems here at 'home' to have everyone contributing to the global economy so we can create our new homes in space.

[Moontanman]

Temperate trees can be grown at the equator and if that proves to be a problem I am sure there are planet of tropical trees that could be grown as well. I can also see many habitats being used from oceanic types to deserts with ecosystems with no vertebrates to ecosystem with only reptiles or primitive mammals. The possibilities are endless as is the human mind and spirit...

[TheBigDog]

I think it is beautiful, but the flaw in the design is that it is not modular. If there is a failure of the outer seal everyone dies, you cannot isolate a small percentage that fails and keep the rest running normally. One impact; done.

 

I think that this is more along the lines of planetless living rather than terra forming other planets.

 

Bill

[Eclipse Now]

For some reason when we discuss terraforming torus's just keep coming up. :) But that's OK, it's all good.

[Eclipse Now]

OK, so one question about server migrations is after a traumatic event like this, can the database continue to email me when my favourite threads are updated or do I need to manually go in and click "watch this thread" or make a comment for notifications to continue?

 

Because this has been a fun thread!

[Moontanman]

To get back to the idea of Terra forming, i think such a project would take far longer than human are capable of planning for, I've seen estimates of many hundreds of thousands of years before a human could walk around on mars with out a space suit. maybe that why artificial habitats keep coming up....