You are given the task for terraforming Mars. Price is no object, but you can only use technology we have today or will have reasonably in the future. The goal is to thicken the atmosphere, raise the temperature and allow liquid water to once again flow on the surface. You don’t need to worry about the atmosphere being breathable to humans, but you want the pressure to allow for humans with breath masks to be able to walk around on the surface without a pressure suit.
How would you do it? How long would it take? And how long would it last? Eventually, even if you introduced life to Mars whatever atmosphere you created would be dissipated again by the same forces that caused the original one to be blown away.
Have you ever read Red Mars (there’s also a couple sequels - Green Mars and Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson? He goes into considerable detail about a (relatively) plausible terraforming of Mars.
The main feature atmosphere-wise and liquid-water-wise, if you’re not worried about making the atmosphere breathable just yet, is to bombard Mars with water-rich comets - timescale is definitely on the order of centuries, since you’re probably sending robots out to the Kuiper Belt or somewhere to get water-rich astronomical bodies, build some sort of mass-driver or engine on them, and set them on a collision course with Mars.
If you put your people on Mars before the comets hit, you also have to take care to get the comets into Martian orbit and have them graze the atmosphere or break off parts that will graze the atmosphere, rather than impact directly on the planet’s surface.
That seems like the most important step. However, if you want Mars to continue to have a thicker atmosphere, you’re going to have to keep doing it - I don’t think you’ll be able to stop and have Mars retain the thick atmosphere.
I think I’d try to create some sort of eco system first of all with some genetically engineered extremophilic cyanobacteria. I have no clue as to how feasible this is, but it seems more feasible then trying to mechanically change the surface environment on a planetary scale.
I am not a terraforming engineer. But I think the first big issue is to introduce a lot of mass into the Martian atmosphere. So I agree with wevets that you want to crash a bunch of comets into Mars.
The typical approach is to place mirrors in orbit, increase the albedo of the poles and heat the surface and so induce a greenhouse affect. People also suggest dropping ice bombs on the surface as well.
The problem is the amount of available gas and the slow penetration of heat into the regolith and the uncontrolled impacts of bombing the planet with chucks of ice.
So, since I have unlimited money and near future technology I want to build a massive reflective construct in between Mars and the Sun and *melt *a portion of the surface. That way we liberate CO[sub]2[/sub], nitrogen, oxygen, and water from the rocks and heat the surface. It’s energy intense but it does allow for an oxygen source without having to do the whole damn thing with blue green algae. Check Chapter 6 of Martyn J. Fogg’s Terraforming book for more details.
My original thought (and yes, I read Red Mars and the follow on books) would be asteroids set in decaying orbits. There are a lot of ice rich asteroids in between Mars and Jupiter and while it would be expensive we probably have the tech to do it. At the same time you could build CO2 factories on Mars to convert the soil to CO2…hell, maybe you could have them do some work and refine resources or produce stuff for the eventual colonization to come. That and perhaps bio-engineered organisms that would use resources on current day Mars and convert them to CO2.
The kicker is I don’t think any of this would last more than a few hundred thousand years…maybe a million, tops. You’d have to keep doing it to keep it up. There would be other issues as well, such as the radiation since there would be no magnetic shield for the planet.
Yup - if there’s a lot of ice closer than the Kuiper Belt, use it - it’ll be faster and cheaper than the farther-out ice.
I thought Martian soils were low in carbon, and a quick check bears out that the ones rovers have tested are primarily feldspar, pyroxene, olivine, and glass - none of which have a lot of carbon. There is already a lot of CO[sub]2[/sub] ice on the polar caps of Mars, so I think you’d have a better opportunity melting those than making it from the soil.
There does seem to be a lot of ice in the soil according to that link, but it doesn’t specify whether it’s water ice or CO[sub]2[/sub] ice - so I’ll assume the former… either way, you do want to melt that soil with a big soletta.
That would make things interesting. I’m thinking the inhabitants of a terraformed Mars sleep underground or underwater.
I like Grey’s idea of melting the rock. Note: do not do this near inhabited stations…
It would make more sense (and I know some authors have explored this) to genetically modify ourselves to Mars vs fighting a losing battle with the weak Martian gravity not holding atmosphere.
I’ve never understood these “terraforming mars” subjects. Like the scenario that humans need to migrate there to survive.
If we were able to terraform Mars to suit our needs, wouldn’t we have the capacity to re-terraform the parts of Earth we fucked up? As bad as Earth could get, wouldn’t it still be generations closer to the state we need than starting from scratch on a cold barren rock like Mars?
We are learning to terraform earth, its called anthropogenic global warming. And we should be able to use that to help us in the quest to terraform mars.
Local cleanup’s we are also learning, we can use bacteria to break down stuff like oil spills and last I’ve heard perhaps even PCB’s.
And I think that’s the way we need to go, genetically engineered microbes that can survive on mars, reproduce and over time alter the planet.
The first thing to do is to swap Mars with Venus. Mars isn’t sufficiently massive to be of use; Venus is but is too close to the Sun. Then put a suitably massive object like Ceres or Triton in orbit around Venus. Hopefully that will kickstart a significant magnetic field. After that we can set about cooling down Venus by adding water. Then we can start terraforming.
Not just humanity’s either…basically all life that we know in the universe so far is in the same basket. One big rock could ruin the whole basket, or at least wipe out a lot of the current species. Mars would be the first step, sort of a proof of concept that we COULD live elsewhere and take other species from Earth with us, which we undoubtedly would.
Yeah, that would probably be the biggest bang for the buck initially. There is a lot of frozen C02 at the poles that could be liberated to thicken the atmosphere.
I was trying to figure out some magical way (but still using tech based on the OP) to increase the size of Mars core and get it working again, but nothing springs to mind, unfortunately. You’d need to basically do what was done to the Earth, which is hit it with another planet, small enough not to completely shatter it but large enough and with a big enough core to increase the size of the aggregates new core, which just doesn’t seem feasible.
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The first thing to do is to swap Mars with Venus. Mars isn’t sufficiently massive to be of use; Venus is but is too close to the Sun. Then put a suitably massive object like Ceres or Triton in orbit around Venus. Hopefully that will kickstart a significant magnetic field. After that we can set about cooling down Venus by adding water. Then we can start terraforming.
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Even if we COULD swap Venus with Mars (or try), I’m not sure that would be a good idea. It might shift the balance of forces in the solar system and have some pretty nasty unintended consequences.
I’d take that bet. What the hell has Neptune ever done for me, huh?
Honestly, if we’re at the point where we can move planets there’s no point in flipping Venus and Mars. Move both of them into Lagrange points in Earth orbit (93MM more or less and leading and trailing by 60 degrees) and work on them there. Venus will cool a bit, Mars will warm up a bit.
I’m also voting for a genetically engineered organism. We need a plant or bug that has an enthusiastic appetite for whatever the semi-permafrost on Mars can provide, and poops/breathes out an atmospheric contributor. Take advantage of the exponential runaway growth.
Very good point. the idea that Mars could be made into another earth is just so far out that it makes no sense. Second-how would you get millions of humans to the newly-earthified Mars? Antarctica is a tropical paradise compared to Mars-why not try that first? Oh, and Mars will lose whatever atmosphere we give it-the gravity is too weak, and the magnetic field non-existent.
The magnetic field is certainly a major issue, but Mars HAD a liquid ocean in the past and could have one again. Which means it won’t be nearly as cold.
As for colonists, you wouldn’t ship millions of humans from the Earth to Mars, you’d start a colony and, you know, let them breed more humans there. Just like you’d ship in or engineer organisms from Earth to colonize newly made biological niches on the terraformed Mars.
All of this would cost a ton and is probably beyond our ability, especially political will, but saying it makes no sense, well, makes no sense.
I was thinking along the lines of GM bacteria which could reduce oxides in the soil, releasing oxygen and binding the reduced metal, iron, probably, by combining it with something stable so it couldn’t re-combine with the oxygen.
