The large-scale application of technology and principles to modify or manage the global environment of a planet—terraforming being the most extreme example. It involves modeling complex climatology, atmospheric chemistry, and geology to enact change. Projects might include building orbital mirrors to melt ice caps, introducing engineered microbes to alter atmospheric composition, or redirecting comets to deliver water. It's civil engineering, but where your job site is an entire world and your timeline is millennia.
*Example: "The Venusian working group in planetary engineering isn't building cities yet. They're modeling the long-term effects of dumping gigatons of calcium and magnesium from asteroid mining onto the surface to sequester the runaway CO2 atmosphere. The first phase is called 'The Great Liming.' It'll take 500 years to see if it worked."* Planetary Engineering
by Abzugal January 30, 2026
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