This is refreshing. A scientist who thinks it may be there now, and has no problems with terraforming. Usually such people are concerned about the ethics.
3 thoughts on “Life On Mars”
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This is refreshing. A scientist who thinks it may be there now, and has no problems with terraforming. Usually such people are concerned about the ethics.
Comments are closed.
Very refreshing. We discover new life on earth all the time and last I’ve heard we’ve contaminated this planet for quite some time now. It’s a planet! not a hothouse flower.
Terraforming should be done the same way as on earth as well… one habitat at a time (not tuna cans either, there’s just no reason not to build really big.) We don’t live on a raw earth. Everywhere people go they locally change the earth for their comfort.
On earth the climate may change, but the word for that is opportunity to grow things in places we didn’t before (instead of another power grab with carbon exchanges.)
Who pays for it is worth discussion. Hopefully costs will continue to come down and humans begin to live there… not as a romantic notion, but because it’s a real planet with a real abundance of everything required for industry and growth.
Mars is the new land of opportunity because of what it doesn’t have. People saying to other people “you can’t.”
Getting there is a problem we are solving. Once there, a lot of nonsensical ideas will be replaced with reality. I’m looking forward to seeing mine shattered. It will be better than I imagine.
Dr.– Cabrol thinks that Mars could be “terraformed”—transformed into an environment where humans can actually live without extra protection. This would require an increase in atmospheric pressure. —
No, it doesn’t.
First Earth has 7 billion people. And there in something 1% or surface area of the planet.
All that need for say a million people on Mars is small fraction of the planet that humans can live “without extra protection”. Of course on Earth people wear clothes, what is meant is without a uncomfortable
spacesuit. So an environment which added say 2 psi, could make spacesuits less problematic. But say Mt Everest pressure and supplemental oxygen would better improvement.
But I think it would be easy to add 1/2 or 1 atm of pressure by using water. So water for people and water pressure for plants and animals.
So Mars currently has 15 trillion tonnes of atmosphere, And doubling it would not make much difference. But 1 trillion tonnes of water at the the surface would make a difference- in terms of pressure.
So 1 square km and 10 meter deep is 10 million tonnes of water. And provides about 1/3 of atm at that 10 meter depth. Which should work fine for plants. And being under 10 meter of water will allow enough sunlight to reach the plants.
And 20 meters deep [20 million tons] would provide enough pressure
for humans. And with swimming suits, perhaps mostly to keep warm in cooler water of lower than 15 C, one probably swim within a range of 5 to 20 meters depth- or inflate a bit and be more problems with movement at 5 meters, but I am talking about an operating range- or if go to surface one might be more immobilized. And of course swimming in the range is better than swimming in same range on Earth because with earth gravity it’s more of pressure difference [3 times more]. One can travel more vertical distance on Mars than on Earth- not have problem with bends. Plus suits could enhance this further.
And at 20 meter depth one still gets enough sunlight.
Now as far as keeping water warm.
There is lots of ways, but on Earth one has solar ponds which have cooler surface and warmer water below the surface. So solar pond are 2 meter deep, and have like 30 C surface water and 80 C water about 1/2 meter below the surface. So Mars one might instead want 10 C water at surface [or ice] and warmer water below the surface. This works by using salt water and having a saltwater gradient, salter warmer water sinks and less salty less warm water rises to the surface.
Ice in top would reduce evaporation.
But another factor which would reduce evaporation is large surface areas of water. So 1000 square km in one area, reduces amount evaporation per square km as compare to having just 1 square km.
So need is lots of cheap water, and put it in a few large craters, and you have cities and farms, which people can move around in and which structures can more easily made.
“Don’t try telling planetary scientist Nathalie Cabrol that studying Mars is a waste of time and money, no matter how many crises we face here on Earth. That, she says, would be like telling Christopher Columbus not to sail to America.”
The people who think NASA’s budget would cure poverty and global hunger are the same people who if given the choice between going back in time and killing Hitler or Columbus would choose Columbus.