Our moon with atmosphere?

[Atheist-Lite]

Could they siphon off a bit of earths atmosphere to the moon as a temporary, hundred thousand years, stop gap to avoid climate change induced mass extinction and a quicker alternative to terraforming mars? I'd like to save the planets animals...

[Elessarina]

The moon used to have an atmosphere but couldn't hold onto it.. i don't think it had enough gravitational pull

[Animavore]

Kinda like Stringfellows.

[Rum]

Ele is right. It would escape immediately. Not an option.

[Atheist-Lite]

Ele is right. It would escape immediately. Not an option.

Anyone done the math? Look at Titan...similar size but with atmosphere, albeit a different composition. A hundred thousand years is long enough to move onto Mars. How much atmosphere would be required if a self-repairing nano-material of thin polythene like stuff was wrapped around the moon at somealtitude so that the upper part of its atmosphere didn't leak away?

[Rum]

Ele is right. It would escape immediately. Not an option.

Anyone done the math? Look at Titan...similar size but with atmosphere, albeit a different composition. A hundred thousand years is long enough to move onto Mars. How much atmosphere would be required if a self-repairing nano-material of thin polythene like stuff was wrapped around the moon at somealtitude so that the upper part of its atmosphere didn't leak away?

Yes, the maths has been done.

[PsychoSerenity]

The moon used to have an atmosphere but couldn't hold onto it.. i don't think it had enough gravitational pull

That read like a joke, is there something funny in there that I've missed?

But anyway, yeah unless we get some black-hole technology to increase its mass. Or compress it enough that the gravitational forces on the surface were the same as on earth - Would that work? And if so, can some of our clever physics people calculate how small we'd have to squish the moon?

[Atheist-Lite]

If it becomes possible to siphon atmosphere then over some thousands of years the technology might develop to siphon some of earths magma to increase the moons mass? if the initial atmosphere only remains a few thousand years it might be enough time to bootstrap a entire host of other technological fixes that become possible with continued scientific progress.

[Elessarina]

The moon used to have an atmosphere but couldn't hold onto it.. i don't think it had enough gravitational pull

That read like a joke, is there something funny in there that I've missed?

The one that got away...

[Elessarina]

If it becomes possible to siphon atmosphere then over some thousands of years the technology might develop to siphon some of earths magma to increase the moons mass? if the initial atmosphere only remains a few thousand years it might be enough time to bootstrap a entire host of other technological fixes that become possible with continued scientific progress.

If you try to increase the moon's mass you're in danger of causing the moon to starts on a collision course with earth?

leave La Luna alone...

Mars is a batter option..

[Thumpalumpacus]

We should just build the smokestacks of our coal-fired plants high enough that they vent directly to space. That should solve the problem.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

We should just build the smokestacks of our coal-fired plants high enough that they vent directly to space. That should solve the problem.

Um, no. The gases wouldn't have escape velocity, so they'd re-enter after a while.

[Thumpalumpacus]

We should just build the smokestacks of our coal-fired plants high enough that they vent directly to space. That should solve the problem.

Um, no. The gases wouldn't have escape velocity, so they'd re-enter after a while.

But by that time, we'll be further along in our orbit. We will have left the gases behind.

Really, this can work.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

We should just build the smokestacks of our coal-fired plants high enough that they vent directly to space. That should solve the problem.

Um, no. The gases wouldn't have escape velocity, so they'd re-enter after a while.

But by that time, we'll be further along in our orbit. We will have left the gases behind.

Really, this can work.

Um, escape velocity...

[Thumpalumpacus]

Um, escape velocity...

No, that's no problem. You just fire up the plants as they rotate to the trailing hemisphere, and shut them down as the Earth's rotation brings them back to the leading side. That way, the emissions never get blown back onto the Earth, but are rather left in its wake. It's the same reason the tailpipe on your car vents to the rear of the car, and not the front. This way, the Earth's orbital velocity provides the escape speed.

It's easy, don't you see? You just have to time the ignition and shutdown of the plants so that we don't get a facefull of smoke, so to speak.