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Bernd: yeah, Riker said that one could see Lake Armstrong, along with Tycho City and New Berlin on a clear day. Well I can't, and I've been straining for days.-;
I still think Venus is a viable planet for terraforming to be used on, as it has about the right mass and location for a sustainable ecosystem. Once the terraformers had gotten rid of the mainly-CO2 atmosphere and replaced it with something more useful to life as we know it, why wouldn't life thrive upon it's once-arid surface?
I once read that an astronaut landing on the surface of Venus would be simultaneously suffocated (CO2 atmosphere), flattened (by the atmospheric pressure) and roasted (by the insane +650K temperature that the atmosphere helps maintain). His remains would then be disintegrated by the ferocious lightening that scars Venus' surface, and lightening comes frome where? That's right. The Atomsphere.
IMO (not a humble one, mind), changing the atmosphere would be high on my list of priorities if I were terraforming any planet.
------------------ "Fire, Fire!" said Mrs O'Dwyer. "Where, where?" said Mrs O'Hare. "Down in the town." said Mrs Brown. "Lord bless us and save us" said old Mrs Davis. "I never knew a herring was a fish."
Regarding terraforming of the Moon: the level of difficulty of giving the Moon an athmosphere that could maintain bodies of liquid water is, well, incredibly high. Thus, I'd prefer to think that "Lake Armstrong" as mentioned by Riker has nothing to do with open water. After all, the Moon has plenty of seas, oceans, bays... By Riker's time, there could be one more basalt formation named Lake Armstrong, perhaps marking the spot where a big nuclear or antimatter warhead or a kinetic- energy projectile hit during the last war. The "lake" of volcanic origin could be one of the most easily discernible things on lunar surface in 2373, and enough to make our satellite look different from the one Cochrane was used to seeing. There might be other such impact marks as well (but there aren't any parklands or bodies of water visible when we see the Moon in, say, STV).
And as far as colonizing Mars is concerned: perhaps humans visited Mars before WWIII and found it uninteresting to the extreme. No colonies were established before the war. And when warp drive opened the skies for human exploration, nothing could have interested the explorers less than a nearby rathole that wasn't even class M. Using warpships, humans could probably locate planets which could be colonized simply by sending over a bunch of people no better equipped than the settlers of the American west - but settling Mars would have required constant supply flights for such simple things as water or nitrogen!
The availability of class M planets would explain why humans neither need nor seem to be eager to terraform non-earthlike planets. The desire to protect native life would be secondary, since life is so abundant in the Trek galaxy that it has little intrinsic value.
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The Timo? Of the last name I couldn't possibly spell and rastech fame?
Welcome.
Regarding Lake Armstrong: While terraforming the entire Moon is not a logical task to undertake, it would be relatively simple to dome off a large section, say a crater, and terraform the area underneath.
------------------ "Stirs a large iron pot. Casting a spell on Vermont." -- John Linnell
[This message has been edited by Sol System (edited November 01, 1999).]
posted
And, if one of these domes is really huge, it could have a lake in it that would be discernable from Earth. But the other explanation is just as plausible (if not more so).
------------------ "Agh! Save me from the wee turtles!" -Groundskeeper Willy, The Simpsons
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Andy: the lunar habitats may have been on the opposite side of the moon.
And I thought Sisko was just thinking of leaving Starfleet and construct orbital habitats after Wolf 359 - as revelaed in 'Way of the Warrior'.
------------------ "Fire, Fire!" said Mrs O'Dwyer. "Where, where?" said Mrs O'Hare. "Down in the town." said Mrs Brown. "Lord bless us and save us" said old Mrs Davis. "I never knew a herring was a fish."
posted
ahhhh, but Riker said "On a clear day... yadda yadda visible from Earth" - and the moon only faces the sames side to earth (well theres a TINY wobble - but not that much)
Oh and yeah, I thought maybe he didn't take up the job - I couldn't remember - so I put it in anyway
------------------ "Remove your hand or I will remove your arm!" - 7 of 9
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