Planet Moving, Space MegaStructures and Other Feats and Ways to Accomplish Them

Trully an excellent solution ot the problem. If we want to slow a planet down i suppose we just send it to a position where its velocity points away from the sun, then warp it into the new orbit. I propose using the same technique to now terraforming a planet by hurling big rocks at it.

Now mive been thinking, if we want to move the darn planet, it would take a tremendous amount of energy. where do we get it if the sun's not enough? My craziest idea is we turn jupiter into one giant fusion reactor and crank some power out of there

Both a bump, and another idea I've thought of.


Space Station Strings:
This idea, though not requiring any feat of engineering, would require
alot of resources, and alot of time.

The basic idea is this; instead of making big hlking ships to travel be-
tween the planets, we build a string of space stations between the planets,
not only would this allow for ships to become much smaller fuel/engine
wise, it would allow for more passengers and cargo to be stored.

A scenario.
The UCS Phoenix, a ship carrying 100 passengers and 100 metric tons
of cargo is headed for Mars.
In the old days when ships had to carry there fuel, the only way to carry
that many passengers and that much cargo would be to make a colossal
ship, however with the Inter-Solar Station network, the ship leaves Earth
orbit, and stops at 5 of the stations between Earth and Mars, refueling,
restocking food and oxygen, and letting the passengers get some exer-
cise in .7 gravity and letting them look into space through the observa-
tion deck.


This could be applied on an Interstellar scale as well, having ships trav-
eling between Earth and Alpha Centauri stop at refueling/restocking
stations throughout the trip.

A neat idea, but one major hole... What about the majority of the year when the planets are not lined up?

Also, how would these stations be resupplied? Would the passing through ships carry the supplies?

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
A neat idea, but one major hole... What about the majority of the year when the planets are not lined up?

I knew I was forgetting to include something.

Thenstations would'nt be lined up in a straight line, rather they'd
be spaced at relatively equal intervals throughout the solar system,
so even if Mars is'nt at it's closest point to Earth, there's enough
stations in between in all directions that you would'nt face that
problem often.

Also, how would these stations be resupplied? Would the passing through ships carry the supplies?

Well they'd be resupplied with the things they could'nt produce by
special automated supply ships that would make a monthly run.

They'd have hydroponics systems to grow the food supplies, so they
would'nt generally have to be resupplied with food.

Some c/would be on asteroids, so they in theory could produce the
metals and things needed for repair, but the only thing they'd need
real resupplying for would be fuel stocks, required elements and
replacement parts and systems.

Well they'd be resupplied with the things they could'nt produce by
special automated supply ships that would make a monthly run.

That would mean a lot of supply probes. Once you factor in travel times and orbits and so on, you'd probably have several heading to meet any one station at any given time - All in different orbits or at different velocities so they arrive as scheduled on a monthly basis.

So, I'm going to set up a hypothetical situation here... Let's say for every station that could be used for a trip from Earth to Mars, there is an average three month one way trip. So, that means, once the station is established and everything you need to launch a supply probe three months ahead of when it arrives. Also, provided that the probes are reusable and they get sent back, you would have probes on the inbound. Let's say that also has a three month one way trip time. So, once everything gets set up and the probes are constantly heading out and coming back, for any given station you have six probes floating around in space. Now, if you have 20 stations you have 120 supply probes out there at any given time. For 75 stations you get 450 probes. And so on...

That means logistically, it would be slightly crazy.

They'd have hydroponics systems to grow the food supplies, so they
would'nt generally have to be resupplied with food.

That would somewhat solve problems with vegetables and grains, more or less... But what about meats?

The main problem with relying on hydroponics is that, on average, for a healthy lifestyle, a person would need a lot of food grown to sustain them, even for a month. So, you would need small crews on these stations or lots of hydroponics stations. Well, either way you would need lots of hydroponics stations, really.

Some c/would be on asteroids, so they in theory could produce the
metals and things needed for repair, but the only thing they'd need
real resupplying for would be fuel stocks, required elements and
replacement parts and systems.

That would be a neat idea. In fact, I'm a big proponent of utilizing asteroids in such ways. Just about the best thing you could do is hollow out the asteroid and build on the inside. Or at least tunnel through it. Of course, you need to find a stable asteroid, which would be pretty hard to do. Why on the inside, though? A few reasons... With a properly shaped asteroid you could spin it to at least give some gravity. The big reason would be protection from other debris, though - be it micrometeorites or a space craft out of control. On top of that, the raw materials excavated from the build could be floated on back down to Earth and a killing would be made in profits from them alone.

Now, back to the issue of the space stations in general... Why would people en route to Mars/Earth want to stop? Stopping in space to meet up with a space station would mean using a lot of fuel. Restarting the trek to Mars/Earth would require even more... So, you're looking at either having large reserves of fuel kept at these stations or onboard the craft to and from Mars/Earth themselves.

Which would make more sens: Expending tons of mass for fuel so you can make pit stops along the way or using that same mass to carry everything you need for the trek along with you?

That would mean a lot of supply probes. Once you factor in travel times and orbits and so on, you'd probably have several heading to meet any one station at any given time - All in different orbits or at different velocities so they arrive as scheduled on a monthly basis

Well I was/am thinking that the supply probes would be traveling at
about 20PSL (Percent the Speed of Light), so travel time would'nt
be as huge an issue as current technology would make it.

That would somewhat solve problems with vegetables and grains, more or less... But what about meats?

They'd either have artificial meat growing technology utilizing nanotech,
which is possible today, though to a very limited extent, or
the stations would have special nutrient mixtures that would provide
for the nutrients meat normally would.

The main problem with relying on hydroponics is that, on average, for a healthy lifestyle, a person would need a lot of food grown to sustain them, even for a month. So, you would need small crews on these stations or lots of hydroponics stations. Well, either way you would need lots of hydroponics stations, really.

Well if you have robotic attendance systems, you don't need people
there, that and these stations would be prety big, capable of sustai-
ning 100 people continuously for a month.

Now, back to the issue of the space stations in general... Why would
people en route to Mars/Earth want to stop? Stopping in space to meet up with a space station would mean using a lot of fuel. Restarting the trek to Mars/Earth would require even more... So, you're looking at either having large reserves of fuel kept at these stations or onboard the craft to and from Mars/Earth themselves.

To allow the ships to be smaller, and hold more cargo and passengers,
without having to have massive amounts of onboard fuel.
That, and it would allow the passengers to stop and stretch there legs
so to speak, and assuming the stations used spinning sections to repro-
duce the effects of gravity, it would allow the passengers on short (as
in a day or two) trips between the two points to not have to go the whole
trip in zeroG.

Another idea, I thought of while reading about terraforming.


This idea would be either gradual build-up, or creating a giant
membrane.

What the idea entails is setting up huge towers equally spread
apart on Mars, the towers wouold be about 3 miles in height.

There would be hundreds if not more of them.

The towers would in essence be giant support beams for a thing,
but strong membrane roof for the planet.

The membrane would be made of an engineered biomaterial.
It would be very thin, but still strong, it would be slightly trans-
parent, perhaps a greenish tint.
It would be able to keep the majority of the dangerous radiation
that hits Mars out.

After the membrane was set-up, giant atmosphere production
systems would be activated on the surface, creating an atmosphere
that Humans
and other Terrestrial life could survive in.

This c/would be either temporary (which I think is the most likely),
while large asteroids that have strong enough magnetic fields are
set-up in orbit around Mars to produce a magnetic field, since the
planet does'nt produce one.
Or, the membrane may stay in plce indefinately, with spaceports on
top of larger polar and equatorial towers.

hey iori, what time frames are you putting on the above post?!?!?!

Also if the membrane had a level of magnification do you think that would stimulate flora growth???!?!

Some cool and far out ideas are coming out here, its all good.

Originally posted by one_small_step
hey iori, what time frames are you putting on the above post?!?!?!

Also if the membrane had a level of magnification do you think that would stimulate flora growth???!?!

Some cool and far out ideas are coming out here, its all good.

Actually, I originally had'nt thought of it, but I'd say measured
in centuries, I'd say at the least a century, at the most eight-
hundred years.

A small amount of magnification would probably help the flora
production, since Mars ges only a little bit less (atleast by number)
sun energy than the Earth, magnifieing it some would bring it
up to Earth standard.

Cool, I'd probably say more, but its hard to pick given the rate tech has boomed in the last 50 years.. who knows what milestone / revolutionary step we may take in the coming months, let alone 100 years.
In 200 years round trips might be taking us about a 24 hours... happy days.
I think we'll learn (big step wise) when the moon is expoilted, I mean explored and habitats are created etc..

We need craft building/assembly facilities in space, once that commences... the rest will be history.

Originally posted by Heckman

Since the planet is now closer to its sun, it is experiencing a greater gravitational pull toward it. Thus, it needs a greater velocity to overcome this force. How do we speed up the planet so that it doesnt eventually fall into the star?

.

Since the planet is moving in orbit around its Sun , assuming that the wormhole could be used multiple times one could aim the wormhole in such a way that the planet exits the wormhole heading directly for its Sun.. In which the Sun's gravitation would pull the planet toward it speeding up the planets velocity.

Before the planet gets to close to the sun and or when the planet reaches the desired velocity, the wormhole could be used again this time aimed so the planet exits in the desired orbit around its sun with its now higher velocity.


[edit on 31-8-2006 by Heckman]

Not to mention killing everyone on the planet.