More News From Mars? Afraid Nasa Funding Could Dry Up?

[Blind groper]

Terraforming Mars has its own issues. Such as maintaining a relatively thick and breathable atmosphere on a low-gravity world, one with virtually no magnetic field to stop the solar wind from stripping it away.

Not a problem, Cali.

There was an item in New Scientist a few years back which stated that an Earth thickness atmosphere on the moon would take a million years to strip away. I would imagine that, on Mars, it would take at least a billion, though that is a guess. Long enough anyway for it not to be a problem from the human perspective.

I see warmth as the real problem. I have not been able to conjure up any speculation on a method of keeping Mars warm that would not require constant human intervention.

[Calilasseia]

One way would be to arrange for greenhouse gases to be part of a terraformed Martian atmosphere. Of course, Mars already has a greenhouse gas forming most of its current atmosphere, but the ambient pressure of that atmosphere is what lets it down in this respect.

[mistermack]

One way would be to arrange for greenhouse gases to be part of a terraformed Martian atmosphere. Of course, Mars already has a greenhouse gas forming most of its current atmosphere, but the ambient pressure of that atmosphere is what lets it down in this respect.

Pressure yes, but that's a sideshow of the real problem, tonnage. How many millions or billions or squillions of tons of nitrogen and oxygen would be needed to produce one bar pressure on Mars? It would take more gas than here on earth, because of the lower gravity. You would need a much deeper layer of atmosphere to give the same pressure.

According to Wikipedia, the atmosphere of the Earth has a mass of about 5x (10 to the power of fifteen) Tons. As you need a deeper layer on Mars, it should need more. But as Mars has a smaller surface area, that would cancel that out. So somewhere near that number would probably do the trick.

As far as warming it goes, you could probably go up to 1% CO2, without making the atmosphere unhealthy.
Maybe that would be enough to keep it warm? It's probably been calculated what you would need.
Once it was warm enough, you would get water vapour circulating, which would increase the greenhouse effect.

So I guess it can be terraformed, if you can produce 5,000,000,000,000,000 tons of nitrogen and oxygen and CO2 to start it off.
Sounds easy. . five million billion tons.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Are we actually talking about giving Mars gas? The War God with flatulence?

[Blind groper]

I suspect that colonies on Mars will be living in sealed underground tunnels for a long, long time, before any terraforming can be done successfully.

[Jason]

I suspect we'd be just as well off building giant spacestations in low orbit to live on. They'd have all the same requirements as underground colonies with all the advantages of being in space: easier delivery of supplies, more solar energy to be harnessed, zero G orgies, etc.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I suspect we'd be just as well off building giant spacestations in low orbit to live on. They'd have all the same requirements as underground colonies with all the advantages of being in space: easier delivery of supplies, more solar energy to be harnessed, zero G orgies, etc.

More exposure to high-energy cosmic rays...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I suspect that colonies on Mars will be living in sealed underground tunnels for a long, long time, before any terraforming can be done successfully.

As I've said before, you don't have to live underground, just have an underground shelter ready when/if you need it.

[Jason]

Exactly - we need photovoltaic cells that can harness those funky rays. build the entire outer surface of the station with them. Viewports could be effectively shielded.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Exactly - we need photovoltaic cells that can harness those funky rays. build the entire outer surface of the station with them. Viewports could be effectively shielded.

We need to see the sky. The cells can be farmed on a wall of a canyon facing the right direction. This will allow dust to fall off more easily than a flat surface would.

[Blind groper]

We need to see the sky.

I disagree.

Humans are the ultimately flexible mammal. We can adapt to anything, including not seeing the sky. Just look at the wide range of conditions humans thrive in here on Earth.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

We need to see the sky.

I disagree.

Humans are the ultimately flexible mammal. We can adapt to anything, including not seeing the sky. Just look at the wide range of conditions humans thrive in here on Earth.

You've never heard of bunker funk?

[Xamonas Chegwé]

We do like gravity though. Prolonged zero-G causes muscle and bone atrophy as a minimum. Living ones entire life without gravity is a very unknown quantity - especially when it comes to the growth of children.

[Jason]

Naturally most of the space station would have artificial gravity from centripetal force, but there should be a few 'fun' rooms where you can play in 'zero G'.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Naturally most of the space station would have artificial gravity from centripetal force, but there should be a few 'fun' rooms where you can play in 'zero G'.

Ever read "The Menace from Earth"?