Greenhouse effect could make Mars livable

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
But given enough time and enough concerted effort to terraforming, it should be possible to terraform Mars enough to be Human-livable. Pardon the pun, but I'm not holding my breath for a Human-breathable atmosphere on Mars, but a carbon-heavy atmosphere may be a better alternative that'll warm the planet and make plants happy.

It's not that hard to have a human-breathable atmosphere. The only problem is finding all that oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by monolith94
None of this is feasible within our life times of course. And it'll be many lifetimes before such a plan is economically viable.

Again, this is something that can niether be proven nor disproven until we try. And again I disagree.

My question is, if you start a greenhouse effect, how would you stop it? We wouldn't want Mars to become another Venus.

Venus' atmosphere is something like 400 times as dense as Earth's. Not even Earth can become another Venus unless we really, really try. Hell, Earth has been much hotter than it is currently or feared to become so there's no real concern here. Mars, having a much thinner atmosphere, is at about 0% risk of turning into Venus. It's simply too far away from Sol to receive much heat, its gravity isn't strong enough to hold that dense an atmosphere, and there's the lack of a decent magnetosphere to protect from solar wind blowing away said atmosphere.

[The Mad Monk]

The main advantage Mars has, oddly enough, is it's gravity well. People could live there without fear of the degenerative disorders that plague astronauts spending even relatively short times in microgravity.

Of course, that gravity well makes tranport to Earth more difficult, so why complicate matters further with a thick atmosphere to plough through, along with the assortment of storms you get whenever you have a sizable atmosphere?

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


It's not that hard to have a human-breathable atmosphere. The only problem is finding all that oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

Well, isn't the carbon and nitrogen locked up on Mars' surface? The entire South Polar Cap is cardon dioxide right? And with a carbon-heavy atmosphere may come a lot of oxygen-spweing plants and microbes. It may take eons that route to make an breathable oxygen atmosphere, but I would think we'd develope the means to accelerate the process looong before the process could finish on its own.

[The Mad Monk]

I am in favor of terraforming Venus, BTW. That rock is useless until we can scrub it a bit.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
The main advantage Mars has, oddly enough, is it's gravity well. People could live there without fear of the degenerative disorders that plague astronauts spending even relatively short times in microgravity.

Of course, that gravity well makes tranport to Earth more difficult, so why complicate matters further with a thick atmosphere to plough through, along with the assortment of storms you get whenever you have a sizable atmosphere?

Given this Administration's obsession with unmanned robtic drones for the military (not a bad thing, I do support such research), is it not reasonable to assume that either the government or private sector will develope the means to robotically mine out there or even just bring the rocks closer to Earth/Luna or Mars to make them easier to mine manually?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
Well, isn't the carbon and nitrogen locked up on Mars' surface? The entire South Polar Cap is cardon dioxide right?

Not ice?

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
And with a carbon-heavy atmosphere may come a lot of oxygen-spweing plants and microbes. It may take eons that route to make an breathable oxygen atmosphere, but I would think we'd develope the means to accelerate the process looong before the process could finish on its own.

We could drop lots of algae if there's liquid water.

[Dis]

mining.

why do people always bring up mining mars? What company would choose to mine mars when it's far cheaper to mine Earth?

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
I am in favor of terraforming Venus, BTW. That rock is useless until we can scrub it a bit.

We are in partial agreement. The planet is far hotter than anything we have the ability to protect ourselves or unmanned scientific insturments against for any reasonable amount of time. Our sh*t just melts a few hours after landing.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
Given this Administration's obsession with unmanned robtic drones for the military (not a bad thing, I do support such research), is it not reasonable to assume that either the government or private sector will develope the means to robotically mine out there or even just bring the rocks closer to Earth/Luna or Mars to make them easier to mine manually?

There's nothing to mine on Mars that we don't have large quantities on earth, and it's much more cost efficient to do it here. So the best thing to do is to just to have pretty flowers and fluffy bunnies on it.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


Not ice?



We could drop lots of algae if there's liquid water.

One of the caps is believed to mostly be water ice, the other is believed to mostly be dry (carbon) ice.

And again, algae is a drastic form of terraforming. We have to satisfactorally determine if native Martin life has existed or currently does before we deliberately introduce foreign biological matter. Landing probes and ourselves, while deliberate, is an unavoidable contamination if we wish to go to the planet to study and exploit it.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Dissident
mining.

why do people always bring up mining mars? What company would choose to mine mars when it's far cheaper to mine Earth?

It's like outsourcing work to Mexico or Southeast Asia: Loose environmental laws. Mars has none currently. Although the Outer Space Treaty signed a few decades ago prohibits making claims of territory, I doubt it will be enforced in current form once we start getting the means to ignore it.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
And again, algae is a drastic form of terraforming. We have to satisfactorally determine if native Martin life has existed or currently does before we deliberately introduce foreign biological matter.

If there are any native lifeforms, which is a highly unlikely event, they won't survive any form of terraforming.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
It's like outsourcing work to Mexico or Southeast Asia: Loose environmental laws. Mars has none currently. Although the Outer Space Treaty signed a few decades ago prohibits making claims of territory, I doubt it will be enforced in current form once we start getting the means to ignore it.

The energy cost is huge.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


There's nothing to mine on Mars that we don't have large quantities on earth, and it's much more cost efficient to do it here. So the best thing to do is to just to have pretty flowers and fluffy bunnies on it.

As I said with Diss' post, the lack of environmental laws will be a strong draw for venturous companies. I can't imagine small companies or private individuals leaving this planet in some 21st Century "Gold Rush" but can easily see Halliburton and other giganormous companies making industrial alliances and such to try to exploit virgin resources.