Could we, with current technology, begin to terraform the planet mars so as to make it suitable for human life?
I personaly think so, if only the funding could be had. There don’t appear to be any major technological breakthroughs needed to get it done. here’s what NASA has to say on the subject and here are someothers.
Assuming that the above conclution is “yes”, and we go to mars only to find microbial life there–say–living in the icecaps. Could it be moraly justified to go ahead with the terraforming, thus killing these aliens to give ourselves another place to live? Perhaps we would simply be forcing their evolution?
What if there is no life? Can we be trusted not to cause something catistrophic to happen if we attempt transfoming a planet?
First of all, do you understand how scientifically valuable martian life would be? We have a very tenuous understanding of the origin of life on Earth. The main question about martian life would be if it is related to life on Earth or not. If it is, that means that panspermia is possible. If it is not, then we need to find out how similar martian life is to earth life. Does it use DNA? Protein? Are some kinds of molecular structures neccesary for life? Fundamental questions about molecular biology could be answered. Fundamental research in molecular biology means, you guessed it, more effective medicine. Who knows how many lives might be saved? And in contrast, exactly how many people are going to be transported to Mars, and at what expense? A million dollars a person for a one way trip? If YOU want to go to Mars, and have a million dollars to pay for it, fine. Don’t expect ME to pay for it.
Not just yet. We still need more research on environmental encapsulation before successfully starting a terraformaing project. Biosphere 2 was an example of how much we have yet to learn.
We would just be spinning our wheels if we started a terraforming project on Mars with today’s technology. Once we learn the complete ins and outs of how to set up a successful micro-environment, than it is entirely doable.
By the way, I am 100 percent in favor of terraforming Mars.
If we find some life on Mars, it’s likely there will be life elsewhere on Mars. We could learn a lot by studying them, and to kill them all would be our loss. I’d also worry about Martian life contaminating us. Unlikely, but still a risk. So I’d vote against terraforming.
If we were certain there is no life, I don’t see why anyone would object to a terraforming attempt. What if we screw up? A dead world will turn into a dead world. The question is, how can we be absolutely sure there is no life? I have no answer to this.
We may have the technology to terraform a planet but we don’t have the resources/infrastructure to do it.
Think of the rockets, station keeping equipment, on site support and delivery of reflective sails the size of cities to a planet that is 0.5 to 3.5 AU’s away. Think of the resources needed to cover the polar caps in thousands of tons of soot. Whole manufacturing plants that produce CFC’s and operate independently. We’re not ready yet in my opinion.
But when we are ready we will simply be returning Mars to its warmer wetter condition. A whole new environment for life to flourish in, not simply exist in. It may not intentionally happen, but when we arrive the planet will change. But were our effects are lest felt, deep in the soil, I would imagine that Martian life will simply out compete any new terrestrial interlopers.
I don’t what we could use, but get something to like drill into the planet, or lauch a bomb into one of it’s volcano’s. Hell, all the volcano’s. Thus warming the planet, melting ice caps, releasing CO2. Then, plant massive amounts of the easiest growing plants to make use of the CO2 to create oxygen. This would create a breathable atmosphere.
We can never be certain that Mars is totally free of life, but that doesn’t mean that we should just let the planet sit. If microbial life does exist on Mars, there’s a strong chance that it could adapt to more Earth-like conditions (after all, microbes on Earth mutate rapidly all the time), and even in a best case scenerio, it’ll take hundreds, if not thousands of years for us to terraform Mars, not a few years.
So whilst I think that we should do everything that we can to try and find life on Mars, I don’t think that we should get our panties in a bunch if we do happen to find it and turn the whole planet into some kind of giant nature preserve. After all, Mars hasn’t changed a hell of a lot in the past million years or so, so it’s not like any life forms currently on Mars are going to evolve into a sentient species any time soon.
As much as I hate to do this, I’m going to speak up for december here. I think what he means is that while we know that the world’s getting warmer, we’re not 100% as to what’s causing it. (Of course, there are some scientists who claim that the Earth’s not getting warmer, but is actually growing colder, even if it does seem like the winters are warmer.)
Exactly why more research is needed on how to successfully create a self-sustaining Earth environment. Otherwise, we may inadvertantly turn Mars into another Venus.
Sure we can. Mars needs an atmosphere and some water. Cant suckout the water without an atmosphere, cant have an atmosphere with out water. Lets slam an ice comet into it and come back in a few thousand years.
…what?! you think terraforming is instantaneous?
Sure why not? to save some microbes that have survived all by itself with no support for billions of years? You think humans can wipe out something like that? It wouldnt surprise me if those things came alive and ate some of us. Slam a comet into mars, if they survive that, they deserve to live.
Hell, no! but thems the price of progress… but better to do it on mars than to try that shit on earth.
Since I am against use of “life-prevention”,and I like my space, I am all for terraforming Mars. While I don’t think the earth is overpopulated yet (I think we just need to be more efficient with our land use), if everyone stopped using life-prevention, we would populate quite rapidly, and need another place to stay.
It would be easier to do Venus–most likely there’s no life to be a problem. just seed the atmosphere with engineered miroorganisms that will eat up the CO2 generating oxygen in the process. After a bunch of time, the greenhouse effect will go away, the planet will cool off, and become inhabitable. Assuming, of course that it lies at the right distance from the sun to not be too hostile to carbon-based units.
