Ice oceans discovered on Mars!

[Dauphin]

There is plenty. There are enough asteroids to make an Earth sized planet, except Jupiter messed it up so that they never coalesced.

[KrazyHorse]

Whereas mass of atmosphere is not really that great. 100 1-mile radius iceballs would have significant impact (can't be arsed to do exact calculation right now).

[TCO]

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
There is plenty. There are enough asteroids to make an Earth sized planet, except Jupiter messed it up so that they never coalesced.

My understanding of the asteroid masses is that it is much les than a planet. Maybe you are counting in all the comets?

[Lung]

Why bother terraforming anyway? Without a magnetic field, any created atmosphere would soon be lost anyway. Besides, after living under large domes for decades or even generations, why would anyone care for an atmosphere? It's infinitely easier to maintain an atmosphere within the confines of a self-enclosed dome than on a planetary scale. In any case, terraforming outside the colony would be on the forever plan after the laborious tasks of maintaining the colony and making it financially independent.

As for martian microbes, there is a minimal risk as we have no idea what there may be, but it's hardly worth losing sleep over it. Any microbes on Mars are unlikely to have the best part of 5 billion years of evolution behind it, so are hardly likely to be able to compete with any form of life on earth. What chance would a microbe from 2 billion years ago on earth have against any form on life on earth now? I cannot imagine, in the long-term at least, any quarantine from Mars being more than what your average horse has when being shipped overseas!

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Lung
Why bother terraforming anyway? Without a magnetic field, any created atmosphere would soon be lost anyway. Besides, after living under large domes for decades or even generations, why would anyone care for an atmosphere? It's infinitely easier to maintain an atmosphere within the confines of a self-enclosed dome than on a planetary scale. In any case, terraforming outside the colony would be on the forever plan after the laborious tasks of maintaining the colony and making it financially independent.

As for martian microbes, there is a minimal risk as we have no idea what there may be, but it's hardly worth losing sleep over it. Any microbes on Mars are unlikely to have the best part of 5 billion years of evolution behind it, so are hardly likely to be able to compete with any form of life on earth. What chance would a microbe from 2 billion years ago on earth have against any form on life on earth now? I cannot imagine, in the long-term at least, any quarantine from Mars being more than what your average horse has when being shipped overseas!

The magnetic field doesn't have much to do with atmospheric evaporation - rather it deflects or redirects hi-energy solar charged particles from reaching the surface. Mars does have such a field of sorts but it is much weaker than the Earths.

The problem with microbes, billions of years old or not, is their adaptability to new environments. If such agents were released on earth the more appropriate question would be what chance it would have against competing microbial life. If it did adapt and prosper then there could be grave consequences for almost all/any present lifeforms.
As for the the problems caused by shipping horses overseas, well that rather depends upon the horse in question doesn't it ...

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin


My plan for terraforming Mars involves knocking loads of dense iron asteroids into it. Bump up the G-force at the surface, get a a bit of atmosphere going and then start the process of seeding life.

Basically I can't see how terraformers can expect to maintain an atmosphere on Mars without having a impermeable canopy or stronger gravity.

I think the total asteroid mass in the solar system was last estimated at about a fifth to a fourth of the Earths mass. ie: Probably not enough for this purpose.
In any case the immense amount of energy released during an asteroid bombardment would almost certainly eject a sizable quantity of the matter you wish to insert (gigaton equivalent impacts or greater).

[Seeker]

I'm with Lung on this, the effort to make Mars earthlike is ridiculous.

I see an atmosphere not much more dense than now, but much warmer. Dense enough for liquid water. (and thus, a marine ecosystem)

Humans will never be able to walk around and breath on mars, but I believe we could 'terraform' enough to grow plant life outside domes. Actually Frank Herbert's Dune is a good model for how Martian colonists will live: sealed 'sietch' communities, everybody must wear a 'stillsuit' outside (in this case an ultralight weight environment suit).

At Home in a Dome

[Gatekeeper]

Everyone:

Excellent news. Perhaps the first step in creating a thicker atmosphere might be to somehow get more carbon dioxide circulating, then go from there.

Gatekeeper

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Let them develop the far side. Keep the side facing Earth the way it has always been.

The far side of the moon is perfect for all kinds of observatories.

As for the near side...sice most facilities are liable to be underground anyway, I reallly don't see a problem. I think the real guiding factor will be, which side is less likely to take an asteroid hit?

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
I think we should divy up the oceans proportional to coastline length...

I think we should divy up the coastlines proportional to naval strength...

[Sandman]

Mars held onto it's atmosphere for millions of years, long enough for water features to appear.

It only lost it's atmosphere because of catastrophic asteroid impacts, which I'm sure we can defend against.

Plus, it's vulcanism died out earlier than the Earths, so the atmosphere could not be recharged.

A gigantic canopy covering the whole planet could be a good solution, since the gas would not be pressurised and the canopy could be relatively flimsy.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk


I think we should divy up the coastlines proportional to naval strength...

That's the current system. How American; why bother to negotiate for what you can just steal?

[The Mad Monk]

[Az]

Sandman. a Gigantic canopee is nof feasable for human logistical and technological skills for at least another 10000 years, and even that if all goes smoothly.

[KrazyHorse]

I don't understand the problem; like I said, atmospheric leakage doesn't become a problem until you're on multimillennial timescale. Pay the rent every 10000 years and crash a few more comets into Mars.