Good news for biologists...bad news for terraformers

[Zap]

Mars is in fact mostly water.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...ce_030213.html

Since I don't like the idea of terraforming anyways, but like the idea of extraterrestial life, this news is great IMO.

[Glom]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...us_030211.html

Similarly, astrobiologists have hope for Venus as well. Wouldn't it be fun to terraform that planet?

[David Hall]

I have it. A simple solution to both problems.

Scoop up the excess CO2 from Venus and deposit it on Mars.

Why didn't anyone think of this before? [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[informant]

We'll need a pretty big hose... [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[Glom]

And a stretchy hose to compensate for changing distane.

[Donnie B.]

On 2003-02-13 16:00, David Hall wrote:
I have it. A simple solution to both problems.

Scoop up the excess CO2 from Venus and deposit it on Mars.

Why didn't anyone think of this before? [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

I did. Or something close to it.

In a different thread I suggested we simply exchange the orbits of Mars and Venus.

Easy-peazy... [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]


(Picked a nit.)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Donnie B. on 2003-02-13 16:51 ]</font>

[aurorae]

On 2003-02-13 15:34, Zap wrote:
Mars is in fact mostly water.

The article says that the ice on Mars is mostly water. Not that Mars is mostly water.

I wonder if the biggest problem to terraforming Mars would be lack of nitrogen?

[Zap]

On 2003-02-13 17:45, aurorae wrote:

I wonder if the biggest problem to terraforming Mars would be lack of nitrogen?

Probably. But it already has plenty of CO2, so that would help make it much easier, with or without nitrogen to begin with.

I like the idea of possible aerial life on Venus. Our sister planet probably used to have global H2O oceans in the Solar System's youth, making for perfect environment for life to arise. Now if the Earthlike conditions lasted lasted long enough or not remains an open question.

[Zap]

Hmmm this article (released today) has some rather bizzare speculations about life of Venus today.
http://www.100megsfree4.com/farshores/dy01.htm

[Monkey Boy]

On 2003-02-13 18:36, Zap wrote:

On 2003-02-13 17:45, aurorae wrote:

I wonder if the biggest problem to terraforming Mars would be lack of nitrogen?

Probably. But it already has plenty of CO2, so that would help make it much easier, with or without nitrogen to begin with.

Actually the article indicated that there most likely is not enough CO2 to teraform Mars. If it did, then N2 would be major concern.

Another problem would be the natural resources on the planet. In order to set up factories to create greenhouse gases, there needs to be enough fuel on the planet for these factories to run. What types of minerals are on the planet?

It may be that the best chances for colonization of the Red Planet would involve living in large bubbles.

[Kaptain K]

Monkey Boy,
You don't need "fuel", you need a source of energy. Even at the distance of Mars, solar power is on the order of 500 watts/meter^2.

[daver]

On 2003-02-14 13:18, Kaptain K wrote:
Monkey Boy,
You don't need "fuel", you need a source of energy. Even at the distance of Mars, solar power is on the order of 500 watts/meter^2.

And so a megawatt is 2000 meter^2 at 10%. That's peak power; likely you'd need closer to 10,000 meter^2 to average a megawatt over a day.

It could be done solar, but i think nukes are more likely.

[Kaptain K]

I do not disgree. I was merely pointing out that you don't have to go looking for something to "burn".

[traztx]

On 2003-02-14 13:51, daver wrote:
It could be done solar, but i think nukes are more likely.

Who knows. Maybe if our grandkids figure out sustainable fusion power, and if we discover heavy water down in the martian poles, then a whole fusion society might arise.

At the gravity of mars, their olympic events will be... well... unearthly!