Build The Enterprise.

Originally posted by googlefudge
Are you suggesting altering the rate of spin of a planet?

No, I was thinking about spinning bed chambers.

If your idea of making these planets habitable is to build self contained habitats on the surface then what's the point?
Because there are significant benefits to being on the surface and having an atmosphere. For a start, it might be possible to grow the plants outside the habitat. If there is enough atmospheric pressure then humans could venture out with nothing more than a basic breathing apparatus with some oxygen.

You can build self contained habitats in space and save yourself all the trouble and grief of getting in and out of a socking great gravity well.
I am not planning to do much getting into or out of the gravity well. I am suggesting doing everything on the surface.

An impact on a habitat destroys just that habitat, all the others are unaffected. there is no ocean spanning tidal wave for example.
If the habitats are in earth orbit the debris would create a cloud of micro meteorites that would wipe out all the other habitats.
If the habitats are not in earth orbit, then would they be clustered together or each in its own orbit around the sun?

And again, you make space habitats out of asteroids, you use up threatening asteroids when making them.
Only a tiny tiny benefit. There is of course the risk of getting it wrong and creating rouge asteroids.

And as for small asteroids that burn up in an atmosphere, space habitats have lasers and armour to deal with those.
Which are totally unnecessary on a planet with an atmosphere.

I didn't say it was impossible to protect against asteroids, I said the atmosphere provides significant free protection.

Originally posted by humy
“guns”? no. Of course not.
I was implicitly thinking vaguely along the lines that they should be programmed to [b]DO NO HARM ( to humanity )[/b]

a rail gun is a giant cannon and doing no harm to humanity can be interpreted a different way than you think in an alien (robot) brain.