DARPA Study on how to Terraform Mars

[Tom Kalbfus]

Turn off the oil money and you could almost watch the golf courses turn back to sand.

One important aspect to terraforming is sustained terraforming. It can't be a high maintenance project but rather exist on its own once the systems are in place. Doesn't help if a new Earth standard Martian atmosphere bleeds off relatively quickly or the treated soil decontaminates from the lands beyond.

That said, there are reasons why Mars is the way it is and Venus is the way it is. The main thing about Venus is that its too close to the Sun and it receives too much sunlight as a result, you need a way to permanently cut down on that Sunlight to maintain it as an Earth-like planet, to do that you need to move Venus further from the Sun, unfortunately that means bringing Venus closer to Earth. Compared to moving the planet to a wider orbit, spinning it up to a 24-hour day and giving it the proper axial tilt is trivial. It is much easier and requires less energy to shade the planet where it is, and create an apparatus where the planet may enjoy a 24 hour day/night cycle without spinning it up.

 

[AndrewW]

I would expect nothing less of you, ever the technological optimist. Maybe we should practice by turning the Sahara desert into a golf course. That should be easy, it's 14 times smaller than Mars

There are lots of golf courses in the Palm Springs area which is located in the desert...

 

[dragoner]

There are lots of golf courses in the Palm Springs area which is located in the desert...

None with .38G, which could either be the attraction or downside, after all the effort, that's what you get. Venus might be a better candidate with .91G.

 

[Anonymous]

You may need some kind of enhanced golf ball, something you can see thru all the clouds...

And won't melt at 462 deg C...

What is the melting point of a golf ball?

 

[dragoner]

Would you still call it terraforming if the end result wasn't liveable?

 

[Anonymous]

Me?

I might call it folly forming...

With all due respect to Phavoc, I'm not sure the source was the most scientific. It's fine to speculate for game purposes, we don't have to make anything make sense, just hand wave it but if we're talking science and actually terraforming another planet I think maybe we should feed everyone first on this planet and do our best to not mess it up any further...

 

[dragoner]

If the end result wasn't livable, I wouldn't call it terraforming. It is a pipe dream, which is what all this is about anyways. You'll have to settle for not going extinct in a nuclear war, most likely.

 

[Condottiere]

Basically, somewhere where guinea pigs once released can thrive and multiply without intervention, and not asphyxiate and/or implode.

 

[dragoner]

lol

That's scientific, the guinea pig test. Hey, at least they're edible.

 

[Anonymous]

And at 462 degrees, really well cooked...

 

[Reynard]

Technically terraforming isn't livable, it's habitable. You are altering the planet to make it less dangerous in one form or another. The one example here is removing the perchlorates from the soil so it's less toxic in a usable area but life support facilities would still be needed for other needs.

 

[Condottiere]

So we live under domes, which may happen in China, and when they start making underwater habitats.

So we'll treat Mars as if we were living underwater. I think though, this would be moot if you can't grow Earth crops on Martian soil. Maybe massive hydroponics.

 

[Reynard]

That's why I mentioned cleaning Martian soil. Once toxins are removed it's the basis for soil and nutrients are added. Cheaper to ship in a seeding supply of nutrients. As crops are harvested, the waste become more nutrient possibly expanding the agricultural facility as needed. Aquaculture is the other route as long as the large amount of water can be accessed.

 

[Condottiere]

I see Mars as possible the next Florida, where the elderly could retire in a very comfortable gravitated, if sealed, environment.

 

[Anonymous]

I see Mars as possible the next Florida, where the elderly could retire in a very comfortable gravitated, if sealed, environment.

If they can survive the high G launch to orbit from Earth or die on the year plus journey...

 

[Reynard]

Sounds like a fantastic bucket list to me.

 

[simonh]

There are lots of golf courses in the Palm Springs area which is located in the desert...

Oh well, in which case the Sahara is practically done already. If Mars would take Tom 100 years to terraform, the Sahara which is closer, smaller and not toxic should take commensurately less time. Let's say 1/14 of the time due to the smaller area and Half that due to non toxicity and easier access to resources. Should be doable in about 3 years say?

Simon Hibbs

 

[dragoner]

Hey, I almost died here on earth from dihydrogen monoxide inhalation when I was a kid.

 

[simonh]

Hey, I almost died here on earth from dihydrogen monoxide inhalation when I was a kid.

Disgusting stuff. You know what fish do in it?

It's all dinosaur pee anyway*.

Simon Hibbs

* Read the last half for the bit about dinosaurs. It's a classic.

 

[heron61]

So we live under domes, which may happen in China, and when they start making underwater habitats.

So we'll treat Mars as if we were living underwater. I think though, this would be moot if you can't grow Earth crops on Martian soil. Maybe massive hydroponics.

I'll believe the idea if someone can manage to keep an artificial closed ecosystem going for a couple of years - no one has managed this yet and it's essential for living on Mars. Nothing like that is remotely necessary for living in an undersea dome - oxygen is simple, desalinization is known and reliable tech, and there's lots of food available just outside the dome. Also, essential spare parts and emergency assistance are hours or at absolute most days away, not months away.

W/o tech well more advanced than anything we have, I'm expecting that the first colony further away than the moon to have a significant chance of failure (in the everyone dies sense of failure). I'd also bet that the second distant colony would have a much higher chance of survival because of lessons learned (regardless of whether the first colony fails or not).