Terraforming Saturn?


Would it be possible to build a nanotube shell around Saturn and
terraform it?

Saturn has approximately 95 times the surface area of Earth, but only
91% of its gravity.

Would a shell several feet thick be strong enough to support an Earth-
like environment and a large population?

[Saturn also has a solid ground (if it exists) of metallic hydrogen buried
under the crushing pressure of a highly toxic atmosphere. Presumeably, one
would want to live outside the atmosphere, thus requiring an inner shell to
stand on and an outer shell to trap the atmosphere, thus inviting second order
questions such as, 'Where might we obtain 45 billlion cubic kilometers of
oxygen?' 'With what source of power might we heat that atmosphere to a liveable
temperature?' and 'How might we stabilize two rotating spheres of diamond which
might weigh on the order of a million metric gigatons so they do not crash into
each other?'

[In short, there would seem to be better ways to live in space. -- Moderator
JSN]


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Relevant Pages

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