Terraforming Mars

[DiSiLLUSiON]

I was reading a few old comics, in order to get ideas about the terraforming of Mars, which I want to expand upon in a fanfic.

In those comics, the idea was offered to simply drop huge amounts of water on Mars (bombing it with rocks of water -- since the solar system has an abundance of that) and introduce some genetically engineered bacteria in order to terraform it, introduce an atmosphere and such.

But, even though I'm not all that into science, that sounds ridiculous even to me; the lack of gravity on mars would make sure that any water would vaporize within short order, right?

But what if we made the gravity larger? If we could mine to something approaching the core, and put more heavy metals inside of it, wouldn't the gravity theoretically increase? It would probably be a huge undertaking; taking centuries at the least; not to mention the amount of materials needed, where would we get those?

But if we could overcome those hurdles, would that be a plausible way to terraform the red planet?

 

[Deckerd]

No. Domes is the way. Eden project and all that.

 

[Lindley]

Something interesting I read recently relating to Firefly's terraforming suggested a way to simulate Earth-standard years even on planets with a different orbital period.

If one assumes that you have the technology to adjust its spin to match Earth days, then you could introduce a precisely-calibrated "wobble" into its axis which causes the tilt of the planet relative to the sun to change at the same rate as Earth's does, thus resulting in similar seasons.

 

[Urge]

Mars has enough gravity, hasnt it? Its cold because its far away from the sun, and then it gets even colder because of the thing atmosphere - but it has some water I have heard, and some ice, doesnt it?

Around the equator, it gets up to 20 celcius at daytime, so there water can buble around at daytime, some of it will vaporise, but it will fall down as snow again when it gets realy cold at nightime (minus 70 or something) so in those conditions, there should be possible to add more water, and some bacteria (if they are not already there) and hope it works. If one manages to get the temperature up with the thicker atmosphere that the bacteria might produce (global warming) it might get so hot that the areas with frosen nigtrogene (?) vaporise, and then it will get even thicker.

Another, faster, but also more expensive way of doing it will be to transport atmosphere from Venus to Mars. The atmosphere of Venus is mostly carbon dioxide, wich contributes a lot to global warming, so then Venus can get a little less atmosphere, and cool down a litte (but I suspect Venus will not be such a nice place even if one takes so much atmosphere from there that Mars gets Earth-standard pressure, Venus has A LOT of atmosphere) while Mars gets more atmosphere, and heats up. Perhaps these two can be combined, Co2 from Venus, Water from Ceres perhaps? Ceres is a nice little planet beetween Mars and Jupiter, very small, low gravity, but now the scientists have found out that Cers is mostly made up from water, probably enough water to make at least one nice ocean on Mars

Ceres can perhaps also be pulled into orbit around Mars, so that we can easy strip it from water that we drop into Mars.

But then again.... Ceres might harbour life, so if there are some cool bacteria or little fishes there, it cant be used.

Ceres:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet)

 

[Lindley]

The question is whether any additional atmosphere dumped on Mars will stay there or not. The reduced gravity could allow any additional gasses to just be flung off into space. It's only about 1/3rd Earth normal.

 

[SilentP]

I think that to create an Earth pressure atmosphere, you would have to create an atmosphere that is 3 time 'thicker' than Earth's, if the gravity is 1/3g. Again, the problem of if the higher levels of atmosphere being kept in place by gravity and not being blasted off by solar winds comes into play.

 

[Saul]

Mars is too small though. The soil won't recycle itself like Earths. So after 100 years it would have to be terraformed again.

 

[Trekker4747]

Obviouisly we need to terraform it using Mighty Putty!

 

[B.J.]

Again, the problem of if the higher levels of atmosphere being kept in place by gravity and not being blasted off by solar winds comes into play.

You've hit on a big part of the problem there. Mars doesn't have a strong magnetic field like the Earth. Without that, you can't deflect the solar winds, and the atmosphere tends to boil away.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

But is it possible to create a stronger magnetic field and/or a stronger gravity? That was the question I asked in the opening post.

Is such a thing possible, and if so, how? Also; is it economically feasible? What do we need to make it so?

We already have lots of heavy materials in the solar system, so they wouldn't be a problem, at least.

 

[The Exile]

Those guys in the Fighting Machines won't be happy.

 

[Lindley]

I think a stronger magnetic field would be *lot* more possible than stronger gravity.

 

[Ronald Held]

A denser atmosphere would help in reducing the ground harmful radiation. Start by adding greenhouse gases that will not escape in scale times of thousands of years?

 

[Urge]

Perhaps it would be simpler to suck atmosphere out of Venus, and terraform that planet instead? It has enough gravity, and a good magnetic field, doesnt it? If we get the right technology, we can put a pipe or something that goes from the surface and up into space, and just start sucking out atmosphere.
If one has to add more gravity, magnetic field and everything to Mars, then it wont be worth dumping it there, since it will fly away annyway. Perhaps some of it can be used for inndoor-use in greenhouses and such on Mars and the moon, but not terraforming.

Is there a mechanical way of turning Co2 into oxygen by the way? That would be great for spaceships, and it could be used for terraforming Venus as well. I read at wikipedia that right now (On ISS, the spaceshuttle, and so on) they are using some sort of pellets that create oxygen when burned, but sometimes they have release the C02 into space because it would require a lot of space to turn it into oxygen again the organic way.

 

[Trekker4747]

I think terraforming planets is way beyond any scope we'll have for centuries and even THEN it'd take centuries for the terraforming to work.

We're not talking "using the deflector dish to suck out all of the bad stuff" we're talking using plants, microbial life, and machines to convert millions of cubic meters of atmosphere into something habitable over the course of a couple centuries.

It "can be done" but in the case of Mars would require something to maintain the atmosphere or it'll all just bleed off into space again due to Mars' low gravity.

It'd be simplier, cheaper, and not to mention quicker just to build pressurized and protected domes and habitats.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

It'd be simplier, cheaper, and not to mention quicker just to build pressurized and protected domes and habitats.

Of course it will be cheaper, easier and can be more quickly done. But there's a lot to say for walking freely on a planet with an atmosphere. Either that, or we could build a gigantic Dyson sphere (or something alike), but that might be an even more daunting prospect.

 

[Ronald Held]

No reason not to live in Martian domes first as you slowly terraform it.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Wouldn't a large enough explosion when Mars is in it's strongest point of gravitation pull from the sun, knock the planet into a closer orbit until it's new circular orbit stabilizes? Like ideas about using rocket thrusters on incoming asteriods, so they get off trajetory every so slightly and by the time they reach Earth, we are out of it's path.

 

[Trekker4747]

Wouldn't a large enough explosion when Mars is in it's strongest point of gravitation pull from the sun, knock the planet into a closer orbit until it's new circular orbit stabilizes? Like ideas about using rocket thrusters on incoming asteriods, so they get off trajetory every so slightly and by the time they reach Earth, we are out of it's path.

It's "possible" but would have to be a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very large explosion.

All of the nuclear weapons on Earth right now couldn't do it.

 

[Zachary Smith]

Wouldn't a large enough explosion when Mars is in it's strongest point of gravitation pull from the sun, knock the planet into a closer orbit until it's new circular orbit stabilizes? Like ideas about using rocket thrusters on incoming asteriods, so they get off trajetory every so slightly and by the time they reach Earth, we are out of it's path.

It's "possible" but would have to be a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very large explosion.

All of the nuclear weapons on Earth right now couldn't do it.

To accomplish this task, One merely needs to alter the gravitational constant of the universe. Simple.