Reply #19: We could actually terraform Venus as well... [View All]

[Solon]

It would require a more radical transformation than Mars, for example, knocking around comets to impact the planet to "import water" so to speak. One of the ways to begin the process is to create an extremely thin solar blocker that would decrease the solar radiation reaching Venus completely. In other words, creating a "sun screen" that's about twice the radius of the planet. We could have the technology to build such a device in as little as 20 years, perhaps less.

Oddly enough, after blocking out the sun's rays from Venus, just letting it cool down on its own, it would take centuries before it cools down enough for humans to even think about setting foot on the surface, and that's with space suits. The most radical way to transform it is to wait until the atmosphere freezes, and then send mobile factories to reprocess the ice to have roughly the same composition as Earth's atmosphere, with far less carbon dioxide.

In as little as 10,000 years, we would have yet a third habitable planet in the solar system.