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Warming Up Mars With Greenhouse Gases

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the this-is-news-in-august dept.

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."

3 of 521 comments (clear)

  1. Re:SimEarth by innerweb · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Providing an atmosphere is nice, but will not make Mars *liveable*. The bigger concern is the lack of a radiation shield like Earth. Even if the people live in safe housing, plants and crops would be hard to cover in large enough quantities to be useable. The magnetic field surrounding the Earth and the ozone layer do protect us (mostly) from the harmful radiations of space (our Sun and 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.
  2. Re:What if they like to eat humans? by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  3. Re:Sustainable? by WormholeFiend · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.