Celestia Forums

I remember seeing an addon of a terraformed Pluto. An interesting idea, but I don't think this is possible. Pluto, unlike Mars, has no atmosphere at all, and worse receives barely any sunlight resulting in an extremely cold world.

It would take some kind of amazing technology to terraform Pluto. But even still, if it were to be terraformed, there is not much gravity, we'd practically be floating around the whole place....

Stancel wrote:But even still, if it were to be terraformed, there is not much gravity, we'd practically be floating around the whole place....

I found that out the hard way in Orbiter.

Depending how hot the red giant sun gets, it might be enough to thaw out Pluto for a million years or so. I think the peak luminosity on the asymptotic giant branch might be enough to do this.

Perhaps you would then end up with a water-vapour atmosphere and a deep ocean of water (and various other "ices"). There probably wouldn't be Titan-style haze because this depends on ultraviolet, and red giants put out less ultraviolet in relation to visible light than a G-class star like the present-day sun.

The main limiting factor on the atmosphere would be the low gravity: the atmosphere would be continually being lost to space. I don't know whether sufficient atmosphere would be built up to allow surface liquids. Also not sure what the solar wind conditions in the "habitable" zone of an asymptotic-branch giant would be like, but it might be severe enough to cause significant atmosphere erosion.

I don't think it is likely that high enough atmospheric pressure would be built up though, gases would be too easily lost. You'd probably have the surface sublimating away (going from solid to vapour), which would make Pluto a "supercomet" of sorts. That'd be an interesting spectacle: Pluto and Charon evaporating in the light of a giant sun...

To put it bluntly, there are much easier worlds to terraform. Picking a tiny outer-system iceball isn't the best choice.

Basically, the future sun would turn them into a pair of giant comets, right? if so, i'd LOVE to see that.

I just thought of these 'cos ive got the topic on my mind at the moment, but how about putting a worldhouse over Pluto? You could contain an atmosphere under the worldhouse, therefore solving the problems of it leaching off into space However you still wouldnt get much sunlight... I guess you would need a soletta and mirrors as well?

The "world house" idea has been my favorite for a long time.

But now that it has been brought up, i'm thinking of making one for my terraformed pluto add on.

About the terraformed planet itself though, i doubt it will ever be warm enough for palm trees, or even deciduous. I'm thinking that the main Biome there would be evergreen fir trees and such.

Of course, some wisecracks might want to use that as an excuse to call it the "christmas planet", since there's nothing but fir trees just waiting to be decorated with christmas decorations.

EDIT: ok, i added the "worldhouse" idea by making a second 1000 km radii body inside pluto, and used the worldhouse as a "cloudmap" for the new body.

Nice

Hey since this would be in effect a completly sealed greenhouse with no outlet, there would be no where for the heat to escape... wouldnt the heat underneath it therefore build up and up? Eventually you might even need a way to reduce the heat at the surface...
Perhaps palm trees arent that unrealistic ...although I guess they'd have to have darker chlorophyll perhaps to cope with less light?

There's an excellent write-up on worldhouses at Orion's Arm: http://www.orionsarm.com/civ/Worldhouses.html

...John...

Speaking of Worldhouses...

Did you know that by some estimates, there is enough steel in the asteroid belt to build a steel frame building 8000 stories high covering the entire land surface area of the Earth?

Telepath wrote:Speaking of Worldhouses...

Did you know that by some estimates, there is enough steel in the asteroid belt to build a steel frame building 8000 stories high covering the entire land surface area of the Earth?

It's more amazing that the asteroids have such vast resources of naturally formed steel - an artificial metal alloy...

That also has to be one of the weirdest ways I've heard to give people a frame of reference for something astronomical. Why would anyone think "I know, let's give people an idea of how big the asteroid belt is by converting it into scaffolding"?!

It's like saying there's so much helium in Jupiter that you could make enough helium balloons to cover the earth in a sea of balloons 50 miles deep or something...

Malenfant wrote:It's like saying there's so much helium in Jupiter that you could make enough helium balloons to cover the earth in a sea of balloons 50 miles deep or something...

I personnally would have to guess that there is alot more helium than that.

Johaen wrote:

Malenfant wrote:It's like saying there's so much helium in Jupiter that you could make enough helium balloons to cover the earth in a sea of balloons 50 miles deep or something...

I personnally would have to guess that there is alot more helium than that.

I was picking a random number off the top of my head, but yeah

Wow... it would be a planet-sized ball-court (you know, those enclosed play areas filled with light weight plastic balls that kids love to play in)!

...John...

Dollan wrote:Wow... it would be a planet-sized ball-court (you know, those enclosed play areas filled with light weight plastic balls that kids love to play in)!

...John...

Mine the asteroids...Take Jupiter apart... The solution to parenting problems everywhere.... forever!

Dollan wrote:There's an excellent write-up on worldhouses at Orion's Arm: http://www.orionsarm.com/civ/Worldhouses.html

...John...

Excellent read! Much thanks!

Telepath wrote:... there is enough steel in the asteroid belt to build a steel frame building 8000 stories high covering the entire land surface area of the Earth?

If you find the above statement hard to comprehend, then here are some figures for you...

Resources of the Asteroid Belt