Terraforming - Human Destiny or Hubris?

jangobongo writes "Space.com has a thought-provoking article written by Dave Brody for Ad Astra Magazine about the practical and ethical aspects of terraforming other planets. Mars is currently the focus of most terraforming debates, but the author's conclusion is: 'What works is what takes the least work: [terraform] asteroid/comet resources in near Earth orbits... Humanity would get lots and lots of cheap, free-floating, scalable, designer settlements in interesting, useful orbits.' These would then become stepping stones to other planets in our solar system and beyond."

Comments

Re:Asteroids/Comets - Terraforming

[Rei]

Besides, it's a lot easier to picture living on Mars. The landscape has such an Earthlike feel to it. It's easy to picture a city off in the distance haze, sagebrush growing scattered across the landscape, etc.

Even if you can't get an O2 atmosphere, just increasing the atmospheric density to a sizable portion of our own would be a huge benefit. You wouldn't need pressure suits (only rebreathers and, depending on temperature and atmospheric composition, possibly unpressurized skin-protecting layers). The atmosphere would do a good job shielding you from radiation, the climate would be more moderate, and if you had to protect crops from the atmosphere still, the greenhouses would be much lighter if you didn't have to have them pressurized.