Re: Terraforming Saturn?



'Where might we obtain 45 billlion cubic kilometers of
oxygen?'

We make it out of the hydrogen! Stars have the ability to fuse
hydrogen atoms into all the elements that we have around us. Perhaps
we too will be able to do this once we have advanced Nanotechnology.
We could do it today, but it would be far too costly and take too much
time.

[Strictly speaking, nanotechnology at its most sophisticated, Drexlerian vision
is about the intentional positioning of individual atoms. This is a powerful
technique and can achieve many things, but what it cannot do in any obvious or
direct fashion is the intentional positioning of sub-atomic particles, which is
what fusion is. In other words, what you want is a sort of hypothetical
picotechnology-- which no one has ever seriously proposed or even begun to work
out the engineering techniques of. Either that, or you want to use
"conventional" nanotechnology to brute force slam hydrogen atoms together in
quantities we don't even begin to have at our disposal to replicate
"conventional" fusion.

[Nanotechnology is not magic-- Moderator JSN]

'With what source of power might we heat that atmosphere to a liveable
temperature?'

Fusion power should be readily available in the post nanotech era.
There's always the possibility of zero point energy.

Saturn itself might be a good source of power.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060214_saturn_lightning.html

[I would be fascinated to see a back of the envelope calculation on the volume
of space required to construct a ZPE power facility capable of heating that
volume of oxygen, even under fairly optimistic assumptions about ZPE.
Likewise, while Saturn is itself a source of power, some basic mathematics and
physics might determine whether this is a feasible notion or not. The starting
point would be to determine just how much heat that volume of oxygen in that
shape would radiate into space, and therefore need replacement, every second.
I expect this amount of energy to be vast.

[Nanotechnology is not magic-- Moderator JSN]

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?'

Why do we need two shells? Isn't Saturn's gravity enough to hold a
sufficient atmosphere?

[You would have to tell me, based on the altitude and whether you want to
provide protection for the vast amount of crud floating in Saturn-space

[There are easier ways-- Moderator JSN]

.

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