Terraforming

by Beech, Martin

• ISBN13: 9780387097954
• ISBN10: 0387097953
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-03-30
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

We all know that Earth's population is growing at an alarming rate, and vital resources are becoming scarce. There simply isn't enough space to grow the food the bulging human populations will need in the future. An energy crisis is also upon us. What happens when the oil runs out or becomes too costly to support us in the lifestyles to which we've become accustomed? What do we do?

Author Biography

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 GÇÿopinion 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

Table of Contents

Prolog: The Big Guns of Kugluktuk	p. 1
Summer, the Year 2100	p. 1
Notes and References	p. 4
Introduction	p. 7
What's in a Word?	p. 9
Moving Forward	p. 11
The Anthropocene	p. 12
Future Worlds, Future Homes	p. 13
Economics	p. 17
Notes and References	p. 18
Life in the Solar System, and Beyond	p. 19
Mars: The Once and Future Abode of Life?	p. 21
Life Express	p. 26
The Miller-Urey Experiment	p. 28
Panspermia: The Bigger Picture	p. 31
Life and Death Clouds	p. 35
Vignette A: What Is Life?	p. 37
The Rights of Microbes	p. 40
Notes and References	p. 41
The Limits of the World	p. 45
Home on the Range: A Brief History of the Solar System	p. 46
The Blue Marble	p. 53
Breathing Room	p. 56
A Magnetic Shield	p. 59
Humanity's Footprint	p. 61
We, the Tikopia	p. 67
The Aging Sun	p. 68
Back to the Present	p. 74
Vignette B: The Viking Landers	p. 75
Notes and References	p. 79
In the Right Place at the Right Time	p. 81
Planetary Temperatures	p. 82
Atmospheric Temperature and Pressure	p. 88
Phase Diagram of Water	p. 93
The Habitable Zone	p. 96
Atmospheric Retention	p. 97
The Greenhouse Effect	p. 101
The Tail Wagging the Dog	p. 103
Feedback Cycles and Stability	p. 105
The End of the Biosphere	p. 110
The Formation of Terrestrial Planets	p. 112
Super-Earths	p. 118
Vignette C: Kepler's Somnium	p. 119
Notes and References	p. 122
The Terraforming of Mars	p. 125
The Measure of Mars	p. 128
Whither the Water?	p. 136
The Opening Salvo	p. 138
Altered States: The Means of Terraforming Mars	p. 142
Increased CO2 Abundance	p. 146
The CO2 Runaway	p. 147
Super-Greenhouse Gases	p. 151
Albedo Change and Increased Insolation	p. 154
The Phases of New Mars	p. 157
The Times of Their Lives	p. 162
Worldhouse	p. 165
Near-Term Developments	p. 165
Vignette D: Daisy World	p. 167
Notes and References	p. 171
The Terraforming of Venus	p. 175
The Moist Greenhouse Effect	p. 182
Cloud Life	p. 183
Perelandra Remade	p. 185
Atmospheric Blow-off, Cooling, and Mining	p. 186
Roman Blinds, Spin Up, and Spin Apart	p. 191
Back to Basics	p. 194
Getting CO2 Stoned	p. 196
A Cold New Dawn	p. 197
Surface Turnover	p. 199
Flying High	p. 201
A Distant Dawn	p. 203
Vignette E: Back to the Moon	p. 203
Notes and References	p. 206
An Abundance of Habitats	p. 211
The Moon's a Balloon	p. 212
Hot-Footed Hermes	p. 216
A Fragmented Neighborhood	p. 220
Life on a Dwarf Planet: Ceres World	p. 222
Living in the Clouds	p. 225
Supramundane Planets and Shell Worlds	p. 226
O'Neill Colonies and Orbiting Cities	p. 229
The Coming of a Second Sun	p. 230
Earth Shift and a Synthestic Sun	p. 235
Dyson Spheres and Jupiter	p. 236
The Galilean Moons: Food for Thought	p. 238
The Deeper, Darker, Colder Solar System	p. 242
The Pull of More Distant Horizons	p. 245
Other Worlds Abound	p. 246
Future Prospects	p. 248
Habitable Exoplanets and Biomarkers	p. 251
Vignette F: The Mysterious Titius-Bode Law	p. 254
Notes and References	p. 257
Epilogue	p. 261
Internet Resources	p. 265
Glossary of Technical Terms	p. 269
Appendices	p. 273
Blackbody Radiators	p. 273
Accounting for Greenhouse Gases	p. 275
A Terraforming Simulator Model for Mars	p. 277
Population Growth and Lily World	p. 281
Index	p. 289
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