Can we make dimonds from the carbon atmosphere of Venus?

that’s a hell of an idea… It might be cheaper to connect the planets with a flexible hose and pump the gas from one to the other though…

Or inventing one of these.

No. Diamonds are solid carbon that have been under unbelievable pressure for millions of years. They can’t be created from gas.

There is already plenty of CO2 on Mars, in its poles and regolith. The atmosphere itself is 95% CO2, too. What it needs is a massive amount of nitrogen to increase pressure to terran levels, basic plant life to convert most of that CO2 into oxygen, and an artificial magnetic field to prevent solar winds from stripping the planet of the atmosphere you are trying to build.
You will also need to import water.
In the game “Per Aspera” you import Nitrogen and Water by redirecting nitrogen rich asteroids and water rich comets to crash into Mars.
To increase temperature further, you also disintegrate Mars’ two moons by modifying their orbits below the Roche limit.

^That’s give or take, my understanding.
The planet needs a protective magnetic shield, to form an atmosphere to even pump anything into.

To my knowledge, Mars could be terraformed, but it would only create a temporary Eath-like environment, that would eventually dissipate back to nothing.

From what I’ve read about findings on Mars, it had oceans, rivers, and who knows what else. But it lost it all.

To prevent Earth, from suffering a similar fate, it is important that we fully understand what happened to Mars. Some believe it was VERY similar to Earth, in the distant past…

Diamonds.
If you apply enough heat to a diamond, it will turn into graphite, another form of carbon.

Ironically (for this conversation,) if oxygen IS present during the super heating, the diamond will burn itself completely to carbon dioxide.

Sooo. Uh…Maybe if you grew an oxygen producing algae on Mars, you could complete the process?...

Carbon is extremely plentiful, in the universe. We could get it, in many ways.

I always thought, it would logically easier, to change humans to genetically fit an alien atmosphere, than to change an alien planet’s atmosphere. A lot of people said that was ridiculous.
Then, a few years ago a movie called “Titan” or “The Titan,” explored exactly that, and although it WAS science fiction, they succeeded in making a person capable of not just breathing and surviving, but potentially thriving in the atmosphere of one the moons of Saturn…

To me, we can’t take our environment with us everywhere, it’s just too difficult.

At this point in reasonable space travel, it’s the food, water, and oxygen, that hamstring our transportation vessels.

Simpler still, would be a way of connecting virtually to a robot, and exploring other planets by remote without even leaving Earth…

Do you mean planets, where you wrote plants?

We’ll be lucky if we can keep our own planet habitable before the side-effects of our excesses wipe us out of existence.

Making a distant planet habitable is so much more difficult than that task, that it’s hard to even comprehend just how difficult that would be.

So I am going with NO, unless/until we solve our myriad problems here on Earth first. And even if we do all that, likely also no, at least not for an extremely long time. And when we do, no probably not “hey let’s make diamonds out of atmospheric carbon and then undo-that to somehow make everything habitable on a planet with the heat and density of Venus, etc etc etc.

^Venus is theorized to have a habitable zone, around 50km from it’s surface in it’s atmosphere. The Russians used to be, and maybe still are, more interested in Venus than Mars, in regards to their space program.

We could make something like the “cloud city” of “Bespin.” (Star Wars.)..

Diamonds are almost pure carbon and contain no oxygen so are not a source of CO2. You’d be better carrying carbon in the form of coal to an industrial city like Newcastle.

@flutherother lol

Well. To terraform Mars, C02 would be effective at creating an atmosphere. C02 IS a greenhouse gas. It would eventually trap gases in it’s atmosphere and even warm up.

Then, it’s a matter of planting or manufacturing something to turn the C02 into 02…
There is also H2O, on Mars.
We just have to start planting close to it’s source…

Then bring in the liquor stores, and churches, you got yourself a Mars colony…

(Might have to live underground at first or something.)

You can not connect to a robot and control it remotely, because any radio signal will take minutes to travel from mars to earth and back. That is why all the rovers and the helicopter that were sent to mars are autonomous. Even the landing was done autonomously.

CO² and C are two different things. Just like sodium and chlorine are two different things. But together they make NACl, table salt.
I don’t know how they could seperate the carbon atom from the oxygen atoms in CO².

@ragingloli “You can not connect to a robot and control it remotely, because any radio signal will take minutes to travel from mars to earth and back.”

But what if you use The Schwartz?

It can be done with the Bosch Reaction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosch_reaction

Nice @Caravanfan. I wonder how much energy it would take.

@Dutchess_III Lots. That’s why it’s not practical.

@MrGrimm888 What’s the plan? Send lots of blimps to Venus so they can float around there? And keep supplying them with whatever they need to maintain buoyancy and atmosphere and clean water, soil, spare parts, etc, all hovering around, hoping for good Venusian 50km altitude weather?

When you get to Venus and have a factory set up, let’s talk.

Dutch. Do some research, and you’ll see.
We have plants, phytoplankton, and things that convert what we exhale, back into the air we breathe. This is called a “closed loop cycle.”.. It’s really neat…

@Zaku. I gave a hypothetical example, of the fictional city of “Bespin.”..
In the series “The Expanse,” humans had a research station in Venus’ atmosphere.

The Russians had a “Venera” project, from the 60’s to the 80’s, and they sent multiple craft there. At the time, Russian rocket/propulsion technology was state of the art.
It should speak volumes to the potential value in Venus, that a nation would spend massive amounts of money on studying it.

As you read this, we are searching the universe, for “habitable places.”
That includes asteroids, meteors, rogue planets, ice planets, and even “termination zones.” Which are a place on a non-rotating planet, where the side facing it’s star is way too hot, and the backside is way too cold. But. We could live comfortably, in the place where the starlight stops, and darkness begins…A “Goldy Locks Zone” on a planet or large satellite (moon.)

I am not an expert, by any means. Most of what I’m talking about is basic stuff.
IF I’m understanding the question correctly, RDG is wanting to put CO2 on Mars (I presume) to increase it’s temperature and forming an atmosphere that could hold gases, then we plant stuff to turn the CO2, into O2, like here on Earth. An attempted recreation, of our own closed loop cycle.
All of my responses, are me being under the assumption that RDG is asking if this could terraform Mars. Again, the same reason greenhouse gases are making Earth too hot, should be helpful in creating an atmosphere on Mars.

As far as a magnetic field, perhaps we won’t have to cover the whole planet, and maybe we could just protect the most habitable zones…

I did reread the Q, and I noticed that the OP may be thinking that the removal of the carbon stuffed diamonds from Venus’ atmosphere, would ALSO make Venus habitable.

In that case, I will stick with my original answer, that Venus is already “habitable.”

ANY such actual plans of this magnitude, and pretty much everything to do with space, is wildly impractical and expensive.

The question doesn’t ask, could we afford it, or even about practicality…

There ARE multiple people on Earth, with enough money to do something really big outside of Earth, if they wanted.

If you walk around say a modern fighter jet, the whole thing looks ridiculously expensive and impractical. Because they are.
A single F-35A costs over $80 million. The cost of maintaining a single aircraft over it’s intended 66 year “life cycle,” is a staggering $1.3 trillion...

The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier (the newest US carrier,) cost $13.3 billion. I won’t go into the numbers regarding maintenance over it’s “life cycle.”
I may as well say a gazillion dollars…

A LOT of things, seem impossible, until someone gets out the checkbook and builds them…

Loli. We would not have to use radio waves, but likely a combination of multiple technologies, like laser communication…

Most technology required for this hypothetical question, already exists…

And I guess I should remind you all, that there is literally a fucking Tesla convertible drop top Roadster that was orbiting Mars, and now the Sun, with us.
You can’t make this shit up…

“What man can contemplate, man can achieve.”

@MrGrimm888
Everything, including radio and lasers, is limited to the speed of light.
Unless you invent subspace communication or open a micro wormhole to send a signal through, realtime control of any robot will be impossible, unless you upload your mind to it and send a copy of yourself to mars.

^Why do you think Musk, is chasing that neuro-link?..

One of his goals, is to do precisely what you are talking about…Mainly, he wants to live forever.

@ragingloli That’s why we need robots with AI machine learning capability.

^That’s another great point.
We absolutely could, just view the findings of an AI controlled robot.
They could drop off relay stations for line of sight communication with lasers that are “hamstrung” by the slow speed of light…

It will take baby steps, for space exploration, and potentially colonization.
☆From the very first time humanity viewed other planets through a telescope, we were thinking about going to them, and obviously living there.

As soon as the Wright brothers flew for just a moment, we were destined to make better aircraft.
The Wright brothers, got some inspiration from nature. They noticed how certain seeds were capable of moving through the atmosphere. Once we understand the universe, I’m confident we will learn from the nature of space as well. That will form new ideas, and inventions.

We’re already doing a LOT in space. I fail to understand this sentiment, that we will never advance above known technology. It’s baffling…

Especially given the fact, I’m typing on a device that has capabilities I’m certain nobody ever thought of, even 30 years ago…

And EVERYBODY has a similar device. Well. As of 2024, 4.88 billion people, have smartphones.

Even the simplest fact that each person with that device has access to almost ALL of our collective knowledge, is astonishing.
Imagine if Einstein, had today’s technology, or Leonardo da Vinci?..

Humans suck. But we’re collectively great, at making leaps in technology. Give the credit, if it’s due. Geeze…

When I read a question like this, I mainly notice the size of the chasms between whatever theoretical conceptual possibility might be referred to, and the words in the question, and I feel like i should respond accordingly, and that it would be inappropriate to encourage a question worded in this was with over-optimistic affirmations, because a “yes” answer to such a phrasing seems preposterously inaccurate.

Also, even if the question were about something VASTLY more reasonable and practicable, such as your suggestion of a relatively habitable region high in the Venusian atmosphere, I’d still want to engage it in practical terms, as I tend to even with science fiction. Like, what would it take to maintain that altitude, maintain powered equipment and any humans there for any length of time, just how (unin)habitable is it, what could be gained, what technology would need to be developed, etc.

Bespin, for example, somehow had breathable outside air, and required fantastic amounts of resources, and levitation technology practical for a city-sized object, etc.

@MrGrimm888
“Why do you think Musk, is chasing that neuro-link?”
because he wants to enslave humanity? turn them into puppets controlled via remote? create obedient servants for his own fiefdom on mars?

I know what a closed loop system is MrGrimm. It refers to living things.
Animals breath in Oxygen.
They exhale CO² as a waste.
Plants take in CO² and emit oxygen as a waste. But that’s for living things.
It’s the carbon from dead plants and animals that are fossilized that convert to mostly to carbon.
Under extreme pressure, over millions of years, some carbon converts to diamonds.
Other carbons convert to oil. I assume it depends on point of decomposition it’s in.
We have finite oil reserves.
It’s a simplistic explanation,I know. If I’m wrong on any major points feel free to tell me.