Making a second-home for humanity by cooling Venus.

Initially I had thought of just boring old space mirror to deflect some of the sunlight off it. But on reflection..

Then I thought of a very long buckytube, one end on Venus the other on Mars, conducting the heat and coolth in directions alternate. Would need to have two hinges to let it bend to avoid the rest of the stuff in the plane of the ecliptic i.e. the planet Earth.

Finally, I realised the most logical way is to send a job-lot of sinks with a bit of cold water in them and hot water tanks that draws in heat from the atmosphere.

In this way it is possible to exploit the well-known property of sinks* that if you put in some cold water, then no matter how much hot water you put in subsequently, it never gets quite gets warm enough**.

So, by exploiting this process, Venus will be cooled down.

*and baths too

** similar to the effect of objects getting heavier the further you carry them.
-- not_morrison_rm, Mar 30 2014

864 ave F temp http://www.space.co...us-temperature.html
HOT enough to melt lead [popbottle, Mar 30 2014]

Venus http://www.youtube....watch?v=U2DBcbZc3ck
It's Shocking Blue... [normzone, Mar 31 2014]

cycle the heat sinks back & forth Comet_20Energy_20Transport
relevant? [sophocles, Mar 31 2014]

Occasionally the Sun gets between Venus and Mars. Or, more precisely, sometimes when Mars is at one place in its orbit, Venus has moved ahead, around the curve of its orbit, such that it is on the far side of the Sun, looking at it from Mars. Your buckytube will have to deal with the fact that the Sun is a pretty big object, rather less-easily avoided than the Earth and Mercury.
-- Vernon, Mar 30 2014


//the Sun is a pretty big object, rather less-easily avoided than the Earth// Tell that to a person teetering on a precipice!
-- pocmloc, Mar 30 2014


I'm bunning this just for the concept of cooling Venus, something I've never heard proposed before.

I do think that an orbiting sun wall is probably the only way to do it though. Then there's that atmospheric pressure problem, plus about a dozen others. Not a nice place, but still, worth mulling over just for the sake of a thought experiment anyway.
-- doctorremulac3, Mar 30 2014


Bun. The whole scheme should be powered by a Peltier Device.
-- AusCan531, Mar 30 2014


//Heat sinks to cool Venus//

Wrong - heat _rises_ _from_ _hot_ Venus.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 30 2014


So put a large lens between venus and the sun. First use it to heat the atmosphere to the point that it expands even further, and much of it escapes the planet.

Then re-aim it to direct that sun away instead. The thinner atmosphere will cause it to cool more quickly as well.
-- MechE, Mar 30 2014


a pun is not an idea [-]
-- Voice, Mar 31 2014


//Wrong - heat _rises_ from_ hot_ Venus

The surface heat from the atmosphere will travel downwards to some extent via conduction.

//the Sun is a pretty big object

Well, the buckytube is only deployed at night.
-- not_morrison_rm, Mar 31 2014


Recycle the heat sinks. Put them in a sequence going back/forth?

oh, & I don't consider adding a link to another relevant HB idea "shameless" when it's relevant, & we have nothing to gain from these fake internet points. After 10+ years, haven't we figured out the worth of a bun?
-- sophocles, Mar 31 2014


//Venus has moved ahead//

Presumably, though, it would no longer do this if the two were chained together, as proposed. The orbital skipping games which Terra might then have to play are half the fun of this idea, aren't they?
-- pertinax, Apr 01 2014


//Well, the buckytube is only deployed at night.//
Night is rather long on Venus.
-- RayfordSteele, Apr 01 2014



random, halfbakery