Terraforming small worlds

[captainjack23]

Without starting a big fuss, does anyone know if this is on the level ?

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20001203.html

Specifically, how long would a breathable (ie O2Ni) artificially generated atmosphere be retained ?

And yes, I know its from a webcomic, but the guy is IIRC an engineer and SF geek, which means he probably did some research or ran some numbers.

 

[tjoneslo]

I've seen notes that adding an earth like atmosphere to the moon would last between 10,000 and 100,000 years and still remain breathable. This is without doing any maintenance (i.e. adding more air at the same rate it gets lost). It's possible, but time and resource consuming. It's not permanent and will have other problems.

Many of the questions in the space below the comic are also relevant concerns.

 

[captainjack23]

I've seen notes that adding an earth like atmosphere to the moon would last between 10,000 and 100,000 years and still remain breathable. This is without doing any maintenance (i.e. adding more air at the same rate it gets lost). It's possible, but time and resource consuming. It's not permanent and will have other problems.

Many of the questions in the space below the comic are also relevant concerns.

Agreed.

I'm hunting around the IntarwebZ for info on atmospheric retention. Interesting and complicated stuff.

I'll post some sources as I get time.

Right off the bat, it sure looks like a mars sized planet (4) could hold a thicker atmosphere for quite a while under different circumstances; let alone being terraformed.

I'm pretty curious about the smaller ones retention times.

Mainly, I'm looking at a solution/explanation for the small worlds with denser atmos than seem natural for a non OTU campaign. (generally my rule o' thumb is if size>4, atmos> size is anomolous: for the stat minded that about 45/144 of all the siz 3 or less worlds..).

The idea is that this would indicate terraformed worlds -probably in the last 10k years or less -kind of a late Asmovian empire setting.


Of course, it would also work somewhat for the OTU vis a vis the ancients meddling....

 

[Bygoneyrs]

If any planet can be Terraformed, it is most likely Mars. Now the cost and time it would take come into question, would mankind be willing to put forward the effort to make it happen/ That would be the real question.

Penn