Pluto may have a subsurface ocean. If so, it's ocean could also potentially be nearly as habitable as our ocean - except for the lack of oxygen. But - that makes it far more habitable than, for instance, the surface of Mars in many ways.
There is nowhere in our solar system as habitable as even the most desolate parts of the Earth or the Earth oceans. But Pluto could easily be more habitable for humans than Mars if you could travel out there. But if it is habitable it may also be inhabited, so the first thing to do is to find out what, if anything, lives there. Same is true for Mars. So exploration comes first.
As for artificial heating - if you can redirect a large asteroid or comet to hit an icy planet, it will create a subsurface lake that will stay liquid, most likely for a thousand years or so before it freezes all the way through. So we could create temporary habitats like that with rather simple mega-engineering.
But if you want to create habitats in space, the easiest method might well be to mine the ingredients you want from asteroids, and get the water and ice from places in the inner solar system that have ice - and build it here instead.
See: Asteroid Resources Could Create Space Habs For Trillions; Land Area Of A Thousand Earths
Especially if you are thinking about humans living there, then adaptations to make it habitable for humans may need such extensive work, you might as well build your whole habitat as a Stanford Torus or similar. Which has the great advantage that you can then design it with whatever climate etc you want. Also far more controllable and you can start small, hundreds of square meters, then square kilometers and as you gain in experience, build larger and larger habitats.
There is nowhere in our solar system as habitable as even the most desolate parts of the Earth or the Earth oceans. But Pluto could easily be more habitable for humans than Mars if you could travel out there. But if it is habitable it may also be inhabited, so the first thing to do is to find out what, if anything, lives there. Same is true for Mars. So exploration comes first.
As for artificial heating - if you can redirect a large asteroid or comet to hit an icy planet, it will create a subsurface lake that will stay liquid, most likely for a thousand years or so before it freezes all the way through. So we could create temporary habitats like that with rather simple mega-engineering.
But if you want to create habitats in space, the easiest method might well be to mine the ingredients you want from asteroids, and get the water and ice from places in the inner solar system that have ice - and build it here instead.
See: Asteroid Resources Could Create Space Habs For Trillions; Land Area Of A Thousand Earths
Especially if you are thinking about humans living there, then adaptations to make it habitable for humans may need such extensive work, you might as well build your whole habitat as a Stanford Torus or similar. Which has the great advantage that you can then design it with whatever climate etc you want. Also far more controllable and you can start small, hundreds of square meters, then square kilometers and as you gain in experience, build larger and larger habitats.
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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