Quote:Original post by AnonymousPosterChild
1. The pipe itself would need to constantly be changing positions over and over again, including serveral twists around the sun. Not only would this require massive amounts of power, but the engineering would be awful.
Well, yeah, I never said it would be easy or cheap or even doable with the current technology.
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2. You'd need to set up massive pumps in a geostationary orbit around each planet, and these pumps would need to move with the pipe in order to keep a steady flow of gas.
See the above answer.
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3. We lack the materials nessecary for such an undertaking. We're still wrapping our heads around space elevators for christ's sake.
Again, see the previous answer.
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4. From wikipedia:
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The lack of a magnetosphere surrounding Mars may have allowed the solar wind to erode the atmosphere, the relatively low gravity of Mars helping to accelerate the loss of lighter gases to space. The lack of plate tectonics on Mars is another possibility, preventing the recycling of gases locked up in sediments back into the atmosphere. The lack of magnetic field and geologic activity may both be a result of Mars' smaller size allowing its interior to cool more quickly than Earth's, though the details of such processes are still unrealised.
We don't know for sure if Mars ever had an atmosphere (bigger than the one it has today)
The gravity not being enough, that's BS, Titan has an atmosphere, right?
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So now we know that Mars cant even HOLD an atmosphere. Yeah, good plan.
Oh, we KNOW? What a definite answer we have here. Any proofs? Notice how the Wikipedia article uses the term "may have allowed".
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5. Why not use geodesic domes? They're cheaper, easier to maintain that a several hundred million mile pipe, and a hell of a lot cheaper.
How would they transport the gas?
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6. Debris will be an issue too. This pipe is going to twist along a lot of orbits, and will intersect with a lot of debris paths. This would tear the pipe apart.
Yes, but by that time we might have stronger materials.
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7. A pipe is a stupid idea anyways. It'd be a hell of a lot easier to make a fleet of ships and have them run between transfer orbits. Ships can alter course to make sure they dont run into larger debris, we can easily make them in large numbers, as opposed to a giant pipe, and they'd be able to run actual supplies to and from each planet.
Yes, that is another posibility, but I am not sure if we could ever have so many ships to transport that much atmosphere.
BTW, I bet that if you would have told someone 500 years ago about how in the future we'll have transatlantic fiber optics networks, that person would have laughed his ass off.