Lets suppose we wish to raise the atmospheric temps and pressure of Mars.
We want large quantities of Carbon Dioxide to jump-start global warming.
Lets also suppose we have access to some kind of non-linear mass transport…stuff dissapears from one spot and reapears in another without transversing the space in between…boom-tubes, stargates, etc.
Four portals in total: two on the surface of Venus, and two positioned at the Mars ice caps.
The portals are one meter in diameter. The exit portals deliver super-pressurized, hot CO2 directly to the Martian ice caps.
How long before Mars has surface temps and pressure condusive to Earth life?
BONUS…how long until Venus is terraformed by being relieved of excess hot CO2?
It would of course depend on how much gas the magic portals can transfer per time, which we can’t know without knowing the properties of the magic portals.
Well, the use of the word “portal” conjures in my mind a door. One side of the door opens to Venus, one side opens to Mars. If that’s the case, then the rate of flow would simply be a function of the difference between the Venusian atmospheric pressure and the Martian atmospheric pressure. I don’t know enough about fluid dynamics to set up the equation, but I would think it would be a fairly simple calculation.
Planets are big, and a one-meter portal is small. I think it would take a very long time for the pressures to equalize.
A gas molecule orbiting the Sun at Mars-orbital-distance would have a higher gravitational potential energy than a molecule orbiting the Sun at Venus-orbital-distance. That might create an impetus for the gas to flow from the Martian portals to the Venusian portals.
Based on that, I’m going to guess that the atmospheres will equalize at somewhere around 45 times that of the Earth’s. So, we’re left with how fast the gases will move from one planet to another to figure out the warming effect. I think that its unlikely, given the size of the portals, that the incoming gases will retain enough of their heat to significantly raise the temperature on Mars. Which means that to get a Mars warm enough to support human life, it will take some years of the greenhouse effect to get the place nice and comfy. I’d WAG that it’d be somewhere around 100 years or so.
However, you wouldn’t want to equalize the pressure on the two worlds, as you’d have to scrub a lot of CO[sub]2[/sub] from the atmosphere in a short period of time, if you wanted to prevent Mars from turning into Venus 2: Interstellar Bugaloo. To throw out another WAG, I’d say you’d want it somewhere around 1.5 times that of the Earth’s. This would speed the warming up, as well as help keep the planet warm, once you got things like plants growing on the surface.
