I'm reposting improved versions of my "Worlds for Man" space colonization essays on Fantastic Worlds, and I'm planning on finishing the series this time around. Here are the ones I've posted already ( Read more... )

I've modified and posted my 2007 article "Worlds for Man - Mercury" on Fantastic Worlds, at http://fantasticworlds-jordan179.blogspot.com/2011/04/worlds-for-man-part-1-mercury.htmlRead more... )

Introduction

Ceres is not often thought of as a "planet," and is thus often overlooked. But it is a perfectly respectable "dwarf planet," equal in mass to a medium-sized moon (though much smaller than our own giant Luna). It contains about a third of all the mass in the Asteroid Belt, and hence is the "failed planet" filling the Keplerian orbit ( Read more... )

From Jeanna Bryner of SPACE.com (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/081223-st-2008-astronomy-discoveries.html)

( Hear the Good News! )

Earth, as our homeworld, is already habitable. The problem is that our polluting activities are “de-terraforming” her, rendering her less habitable and destroying the biological riches that are our world’s evolutionary heritage. Our immediate task in managing the Earth’s future is to slow, stop, and eventually reverse this process of ( Read more... )

Venus is in many ways a disappointment. Closest separate planet to the Earth, with almost the size and mass of the Earth, with the gravity to retain a thick atmosphere, Venus should be a prime choice for colonization. But the planet's proximity to the Sun and lack of a moon, coupled with a denser crust and resultant feebler tectonic action, have ( Read more... )

MercuryLittle Mercury, the smallest of the currently-official eight planets, is notable for her density (second densest world in the Solar System) and proximity to the Sun. Mercury is an airless rockball, superficially similar to Luna, which has been stripped of her volatiles by heating and of some of her lighter solids by impacts. The result is ( Read more... )