Comments on: We must be willing to consider what might at first seem absurd and unworkable

By: Michael van der Riet

Michael van der Riet — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 10:39:34 +0000

Altitude Zero but how much better if we could get radioactive spiders involved?

By: Altitude Zero

Altitude Zero — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 18:04:52 +0000

Because messing around with a supervolcano is just bound to lead to something good…

By: Wang Wei Lin

Wang Wei Lin — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 02:42:21 +0000

There is nothing more dangerous than people who have a messiah complex.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 00:26:25 +0000

Phil: “Or is this another attempt by mankind to cool the earth globally?”

Lol.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 00:25:21 +0000

I applaud Thomas Arciuolo and Miad Faezipour for writing something truly interesting enough to talk about.

By: Phil B

Phil B — Sun, 09 Apr 2023 20:28:19 +0000

It lost me when it made the claim that removing heat from the magma chamber would potentially forestall the next eruption. It goes on to say that the limits of the magma chamber give a volume of 25,600 cubic kilometers of magma which is 6,141 cubic miles. This claim is similar to saying a cupful of water onto the Hawaiian volcano would potentially stop the lava flow during an eruption.

Or is this another attempt by mankind to cool the earth globally?

By: Norman Yarvin

Norman Yarvin — Sun, 09 Apr 2023 16:24:47 +0000

A look at the full text of the paper reveals that they’re completely clueless.

One of the main limitations of geothermal is that when you put a pipe down and extract heat, the heat is *gone*; more heat then has to diffuse in from the surroundings. So making the pipe out of copper, with its high thermal conductivity, is a total waste: the conductivity that matters is the conductivity of the surroundings. Do they address this? Not at all.

Oh, and as for the idea of gold-plating the outside of the tubes to protect them… they should connect with an oil field roughneck sometime and ask him what he thinks the chances are of lowering a 8-kilometer-long pipe into the ground without scratching through gold plating. The reply would be highly amusing to witness.

Considered, yes. Considered, and rejected.

By: Ezra

Ezra — Sun, 09 Apr 2023 15:17:19 +0000

Stop thinking about alternative sources of energy. Just use the coal, oil, natural gas USA has in abundance.

By: bob sykes

bob sykes — Sun, 09 Apr 2023 12:41:28 +0000

The pipes will require every gram of copper on the three inner planets plus the asteroid belt. Construction will take 1,000 years, and it will cost $1,000 trillion. But at -10% apr, it will pay for itself in 10 days.