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Warming Up Mars With Greenhouse Gases
fembots writes "Scientists are thinking of using the same toxic stuff (Octafluoropropane) already blamed for global warming here to put some life back on Mars. It would take hundreds of years but eventually ice sheets would melt, grass would grow here, and temperatures would hit 50 degrees along the equator of the planet. Martian organisms might be revived too - if there are any."
So, what took our planet (loosely theoretically) a couple billion of years to do, could be (again loosely theoretically) done there in a matter of hundereds? (I realize that theoretically the larger portion of the time it took for life to develop here had more to do with variable chances than it did with the atmosphere, although atmosphere is included in those variables)
It just seems to me that the world of science has recently turned more into a smorgishboard of unfulfilled promises and reluctance to realize that we cannot even figure out 90% of the problems with our own people, on our own planet, so why should we be trying to conquer others?
How are we going to protect Mars form that? Until we figure out a way to do that, the rest is rather useless (on Mars). How are we going to increase the gravity of Mars to prevent the Atmosphere from leaking off very fast? True, it will take a long time in our standards, but how much can be leaked off before it is not useable again?
InnerWeb
Freud might say that Intelligent Design is religion's ID.
Do we really want to wake up the Martian Organisms?
In all likelyhood, if Mars has microscopic life, the Earth has probably already been infected with it. Calculations show that spores can survive certain meteor impacts and be transported to Earth in the process. Our life may have even originated on Mars. Earth was too valcanic for stable life formation early on, but due to its smaller size Mars may have been mild and wet at that time. Thus, life may have formed on Mars while Earth was still bubbling, but the roles switched later on and Earth did "more" with the stolen life when Mars cooled and dried out.
Table-ized A.I.
Inexorably, Mars' atmosphere is being lapped away by the constant barraging of the solar wind. If we thicken it up, by whatever means, it will simply thin down again because the gravity on the planet isn't strong enough to compensate for it.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I don't mean this to be shameless advertising(, because we don't make money off of this, the pennies we make from cafepress is put towards server expenses).
http://www.redcolony.com/ We accept articles from people and have a active forum with 16yros up discussing this very topic on scientific grounds. The site is about sharing ideas and getting the public excited about colonizing and sxploring (and terraforming) the Red Planet. I hope any visitors enjoy their stay.
"You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm." - S. G. Colette
if Mars is tectonically dead, then this would be an advantage for building bases INSIDE the planet.
Put large fields of solar panels and wind turbines on the surface for power, and bring everything you need for indoor hydroponics.
It would be feasible (although not cheap) and faster than terraforming.
I bet that if you look around Mount Olympus, you could find large cave systems that can be used as a starting point.
Earth didn't have an ozone layer until plant life started to produce mass amounts of oxygen. There might be some way of speeding up that process. I see the big problem as being- not enough water. Underwater life doesn't need an ozone layer to thrive. Humans would still have to carry around breathable oxygen, but that would be a minor inconvenience.
Bracken, for example, would likely be a good thing to send. The Wollemi Pine and other trees that predate flowers (and therefore don't rely on insects) would also be good candidates. As the atmosphere would likely remain thin, flying insects probably wouldn't work too well, but there are flowering plants that pollenate by beetle - those would seem to stand a better chance.
It would likely remain extremely cold and rocky - ideal conditions for the Bristlecone Pine which actually thrives under near-unendurable conditions. Just about any plant (or algae) that can handle a cold desert on Earth will likely do well on the fringes of a terraformed Mars and may well help to maintain the boundaries.
Once a basic ecology is in place, you can add to it (slowly!) to build up to something that can sustain large animals, but I don't think you can really attempt to do this in one go. Part of the problem with Biosphere 2 was that it was too small to be self-sustaining, but the other part was that they tried to run through the necessary steps far too fast, thus introducing unwanted organisms and also not allowing what was there to properly adjust.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Gravity has little to do with how thick an atmosphere is. Look at Venus: gravity is at 98% of Earths yet has an atmosphere 90 times denser. All this at an even closer distance to the sun where the solar wind is magnitudes stronger. Magnetic fields, seismic activity, and the presence of water have far more influence than just the strength of gravity.