This re-instated what passes for faith in humanity

[Occhidiangela]

Hi,
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Throw a few comets at it (dirty snowballs, rich in water :) ) and we'd be well on the way to Earth 2.  Then pull Venus back to the other Trojan and snag a big (Ceres, maybe) asteroid for its moon to help get that atmosphere thinned out, and we'd have Earth 3.

Personally, though, I think we should go for a ring world (or even a Doyson sphere) right off the bat ;)

--Pete
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After pondering the law of unintended outcomes, incremental effort, and a gut level cost benefit hunch, I will suggest that the energy investment required to move the amount of material necessary to build a Ring World, not to mention a Dyson Sphere (or perhaps a Dyson Whiffle Ball) would be orders of magnitude greater than the energy investment required to move two planets to self sustaining orbits. I say we crawl before we try to walk. :)

I should probably do the math.

I am also puzzled over how climate/weather sytems are handled in a Ring World, given its different make up compared to the self contained "sphere in a blanket" model of Earth 1. Am I correct in assuming that this is described in a Ring World book?

After moving the other two planets about, we can proceed to worry about correct SPF for sunscreen, or ear muffs, on Earth 2 and Earth 3. :)

If Earth 2 and Earth 3 can be reasonably assured as {Hillary Duff and Ashley Simpson}-free environments, then I say "what are we waiting for?" (Hmm, cost effective Occhi thinks a wood chipper may be the better route to take, in a morally unconstrained environment . . . wait, isn't that Hollywood now? :P )

Pres Bush is being far too modest in his call for a mission to Mars, though maybe that is merely a first step. Funny, that is similar to CK Anderson's title for his Mars mission novel: A Step Beyond. Good down to earth science fiction, that one. ;)

Occhi