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Terraforming Mars

Terraforming Mars. 9 November 2016. What is terraforming?. Terra = Earth Make it habitable Implant life Humans could live there. How to terraform. Darken surface Use mirrors to melt polar caps Increase atmosphere and greenhouse effect: Microbes Plants and photosynthesis

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Terraforming Mars

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  1. Terraforming Mars 9 November 2016

  2. What is terraforming? • Terra = Earth • Make it habitable • Implant life • Humans could live there

  3. How to terraform • Darken surface • Use mirrors to melt polar caps • Increase atmosphere and greenhouse effect: • Microbes • Plants and photosynthesis • Factories to produce CFCs as greenhouse gases: CO2, H2O, NH3, O3 • Comets as water source and trigger to release frozen gases

  4. Factories produce CFCs

  5. Microbes • Microorganisms that munch on Mars's natural resources could not only transform the red planet's soil, but could pump out gasses to bolster the Mars's embarrassingly thin atmosphere to boot. • We owe allour planet's atmospheric oxygen to microbe photosynthesis.

  6. It will not be quick • “No fundamental, insuperable limitation of the ability of Mars to support a terrestrial ecology is identified. The lack of an oxygen-containing atmosphere would prevent the unaided habitation of Mars by man. The present strong ultraviolet surface irradiation is an additional major barrier. The creation of an adequate oxygen and ozone-containing atmosphere on Mars may be feasible through the use of photosynthetic organisms. The time needed to generate such an atmosphere, however, might be several millions of years.”

  7. Is it worth it? • Given all of these arguments, one has to wonder what the benefits of terraforming Mars would be. While the idea of utilizing the resources of the Solar System makes sense in the long-run, the short-term gains are far less tangible. Basically, harvested resources from other worlds is not economically viable when you can extract them here at home for much less. And given the danger, who would want to go?

  8. Summary • It is possible to imagine terraforming Mars • It would not be cheap or quick • It would provide a future refuge • Problems: low T, low P, no oxygen, too much CO2 • Use mirrors, paint, plants, microbes, factories, comets • Trigger global change and melt polar caps • Should we do it? Cost, ethics?

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