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Scientists Propose 'National Parks' On Mars
colonist writes "Microbiologist Charles Cockell and astrobiologist Gerda Horneck want to turn seven areas on Mars into 'national parks', conserved in their pristine state. 'It is the right of every person to stand and stare across the beautiful barrenness and desolation of the Martian surface without having to endure the eyesore of pieces of crashed spacecraft scattered across the landscape,' they write. Cockell is not against colonization, though. He says that setting aside some areas for conservation would free up the rest of the planet for settlement."
Charles Cockell, of the British Antarctic Survey, works on microbes growing in the extreme polar conditions. If you have an access to Nature, check his latest paper treating of "Ecology: widespread colonization by polar hypoliths". There's a summary available from BioEd Online for those (prolly 99% of the crowd here) who can't access Nature.
Eureka Science News - automatically updated
I wonder if the authors have read Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red Mars" (and Green and Blue...) He obviously thought a lot about the science involved in colonization, and saving areas of Mars "in their pristine state" won't be easy, if he got much of his analysis right. Especially if any of these areas are on the equator (the falling space elevator episode)
The current batch of robot probes aren't causing any problems for anyone. The worst thing they leave behind is heat sheilds and parachutes, and the parachutes will be broken down in a few decades by UV radiation from the sun (no free oxygen -> no ozone).
I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
Never mind Mars.
The US *is currently* building a road in the Antarctic from their scientific base on the edge of the region too the Pole.
They are *mining snow to fill in crevases*.
The Man on Mars should be worried...
Brown said phase one of the project -- filling huge crevasses with ice on the crevasse fields 70 kilometers (40 miles) south of McMurdo station -- has already been completed.
Sir Edmund Hilary (the first man to climb Everest)has just walked part of it, and needless to say, has slammed the initiative.
http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/news
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
those are Valles Marineris and Hellas Planitia
- first, because canyons provide a very good place for underground houses - you have just a window on the side of a canyon
- second, because Hellas is the lowest place on whole planet, which results in twice the atmospheric pressure (Mars has 6hPa on average): 14 hPa. Pressure has big influence on water phase - in Hellas you would expect water to be in liquid phase, while everywhere on Mars you expect water to constantly dwiddle between gaz and solid phase (tri-point place on phase diagram). Liquid water is a good argument to put human settlements in Hellas.
I know that stuff because my wife makes a PhD about base on Mars.
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/news
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
Nice article. I for one am happy that this subject has been broached now as it is important. Might be a good idea for all those interested to read KSR's Mars Trilogy and the Clayborne-Russell arguments to get a real insight into the issues that (might probably) arise and be at stake.
;)
That said, I'd still love to see a human presence on Mars, as long as I'm one of em...
Sax was a Green until he got brain damage and started trying to get into Ann's pants.;)
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
That article's old, here's one from yesterday.
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http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_national_story_skin/4
Link to some spinoffs from NASA.
Sure some of this stuff might of been discovered without NASA. But it probably would have been decades later or in some cases we might still be waiting. And judging from some of the stuff listed it's helped save lives already. Example? Better Firemans Air Tanks.
My favorite?
BREAST CANCER DETECTION - A solar cell sensor is positioned directly beneath x-ray film, and determines exactly when film has received sufficient radiation and has been exposed to optimum density. Associated electronic equipment then sends a signal to cut off the x-ray source. Reduction of mammography x-ray exposure reduces radiation hazard and doubles the number of patient exams per machine.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
The question is - which makes more sense economically? Terraforming the entire planet, refusing to colonize it altogether, or building biodomes all over its surface? Right now, the third option is pretty much out of the question, so we have a long-term decision to make about whether Mars is more valuable as the red planet, or as a green one.
Remember, time is literally money. If one spends money on something, one doesn't just need to pay for the direct costs, but one also has to take into account the number of years which elapses for the investment to pay off, based on whatever the interest rates are.
Personally, I'm a big fan of the third option you mention, which wikipedia refers to as paraterraforming:
Also known as the "worldhouse" concept, paraterraforming involves the construction of a habitable enclosure on a planet which eventually grows to encompass most of the planet's usable area. The enclosure would consist of a transparent roof held one or more kilometers above the surface, pressurized with a breathable atmosphere, and anchored with tension towers and cables at regular intervals. A worldhouse can be constructed with technology known since the 1960s.
Paraterraforming has several advantages over the traditional approach to terraforming. For example, it provides an immediate payback to investors; the worldhouse starts out small in area, but those areas provide habitable space from the start. The paraterraforming approach also allows for a modular approach that can be tailored to the needs of the planet's population, growing only as fast and only in those areas where it is required. Finally, paraterraforming greatly reduces the amount of atmosphere that one would need to add to planets like Mars in order to provide Earthlike atmospheric pressures. By using a solid envelope in this manner, even bodies which would otherwise be unable to retain an atmosphere at all (such as asteroids) could be given a habitable environment. The environment under an artificial worldhouse roof would also likely be more amenable to artificial manipulation.
Really, being able to "build-and-pay-as-you-go" seems much better -- one could even see private industry doing this on its own. With traditional terraforming, I couldn't imagine private industry doing it. Heck, even with governments, what're the chances that the government will still be around a few hundred years down the road, when the project is actually completed?