Venus or Mars for terraforming and colonisation?

[sihnfahl]

I think it sounds like it's more about getting a capsule to really high suborbital altitude and then having it spin while it's dropping back to Earth, before it has to start breaking.

Which makes sense, as it's utilizing its RCS to start the spin. Limited fuel means they'll do everything to ensure the rocket and its payload return to earth. So spinning in a deliberately quickly decaying orbit....

[halfeye]

Which makes sense, as it's utilizing its RCS to start the spin. Limited fuel means they'll do everything to ensure the rocket and its payload return to earth. So spinning in a deliberately quickly decaying orbit....

It's not in any sense an orbit. What that thing does is take people straight up to the edge of space, and drops straight back down again. It doesn't get anywhere near orbital speeds, which would require serious and expensive heat shielding, which it doesn't have, because it doesn't need them, because it doesn't go that fast. It's a cheap and nasty "almost there", except that it isn't really almost there at all.

[Tyndmyr]

For anyone who's interested, Blue Origin is going to try spinning up some centrifugal gravity in orbit: NASA and Blue Origin upgrading New Shepard spacecraft for artificial gravity.

All sorts of opportunities for testing the effects of spun-up low gravity (1/6 G).

Oooh, thanks for sharing! It's not a full on station, but hey, experiments make sense. I'll definitely keep an eye out for any interesting findings.

[GiGi]

I think, Mars for colonisation and Venus for terraforming.

[Mark Hall]

I think, Mars for colonisation and Venus for terraforming.

I realize it is a bad idea for any number of reasons, but I've long wondered about developing an extremeophile bacteria that could survive Venus's upper atmosphere and start to use photosynthesis to convert Venus's atmosphere.

[halfeye]

I realize it is a bad idea for any number of reasons, but I've long wondered about developing an extremeophile bacteria that could survive Venus's upper atmosphere and start to use photosynthesis to convert Venus's atmosphere.

Hopefully, it's a matter of finding rather than developing because I don't think we can do that yet. A lichen might be good if it exists, but it would need to break off daughters rather than grow, because growing would take it down.