Okay, I didn't exactly put a lot of thought into the VTP when I wrote it in, but here's what occurs to me from that.
Firstly, the VTP is not expected to produce results as soon as the MTP. It's expected to take years, probably decades, by the most optimistic view. It's also very much a work in progress. The actual real estate for the short and medium term future are the Castles (this hasnt stopped a decent amount of land on Venus being sold to speculators to raise capital).
The rough division I had for the hydrogen trade was for each molecule of CO2 to have 4 molecules of H2 added, splitting it down to a single CH4 and two H2O molecules. So half the hydrogen sent to Venus would be used for terraforming and half for an export material (CH4 is, of course, a major fuel). I'm by no means married to this notion.
Now that I've run the numbers for moving the CH4 to Earth, it would take about 900 years for 10 vessels carrying as much as a modern LNG tanker to move it all (and the effect of burning it all in Earth's Atmopshere would probably turn it into something very much like Venus). Assume comparable figures for moving Hydrogen and the scheme becomes very long term indeed. Possibly CO2 is simply being scooped up and moved into space, creating a belt effect of frozen CO2. If 10 units were moving 150,000 tonnes a day into space, that would reduce the timescale to about 90 years. More units would make it faster. Perhaps a combination of space elevators with giant atmospheric filters...
Imagine, if you will, Venus ringed by belts of CO2 and scores of Castles suspended like beads, each the midpoint of a cable of diamond filaments stretching dow towards the surface (as far down as the temperatures allow) and as far up as orbital space.
Of course, building such devices would be an immense task, and there would then be a need for water and biological work, but it would be pretty damn cool.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
Firstly, the VTP is not expected to produce results as soon as the MTP. It's expected to take years, probably decades, by the most optimistic view. It's also very much a work in progress. The actual real estate for the short and medium term future are the Castles (this hasnt stopped a decent amount of land on Venus being sold to speculators to raise capital).
The rough division I had for the hydrogen trade was for each molecule of CO2 to have 4 molecules of H2 added, splitting it down to a single CH4 and two H2O molecules. So half the hydrogen sent to Venus would be used for terraforming and half for an export material (CH4 is, of course, a major fuel). I'm by no means married to this notion.
Now that I've run the numbers for moving the CH4 to Earth, it would take about 900 years for 10 vessels carrying as much as a modern LNG tanker to move it all (and the effect of burning it all in Earth's Atmopshere would probably turn it into something very much like Venus). Assume comparable figures for moving Hydrogen and the scheme becomes very long term indeed. Possibly CO2 is simply being scooped up and moved into space, creating a belt effect of frozen CO2. If 10 units were moving 150,000 tonnes a day into space, that would reduce the timescale to about 90 years. More units would make it faster. Perhaps a combination of space elevators with giant atmospheric filters...
Imagine, if you will, Venus ringed by belts of CO2 and scores of Castles suspended like beads, each the midpoint of a cable of diamond filaments stretching dow towards the surface (as far down as the temperatures allow) and as far up as orbital space.
Of course, building such devices would be an immense task, and there would then be a need for water and biological work, but it would be pretty damn cool.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.