By polluting Mars’ atmosphere like we do our own, can we thicken its atmosphere and basically create one like on Earth? If so we would raise the temperature enough to live on it, melt the ice for water, and be able to farm, providing oxygen through photosynthesis.
Scientists call it terraforming, the hypothetical process by which the climate, surface, and known properties of Mars would be deliberately changed with the goal of safe and sustainable colonization of large areas of the planet.
“It’s not going to do any good to land on Mars if we’re stupid.” — Ray Bradbury
Importing ammonia, hydrocarbons, hydrogen and other atmosphere-enhancing compounds is doable. In short, we could build a livable planet with many of the elements that threaten our own.
Trail Mixers know that I’m just trying to find a way to create our ultimate fish camp.
How will we get there? By solar sailing of course.
In an unexpected reversal of fortune, NASA’s NanoSail-D spacecraft has unfurled a gleaming sheet of space-age fabric 650 km above Earth, becoming the first-ever solar sail to circle our planet. — Nasa Science News
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65 Responses to How to Make Mars Livable: Pollution?
Now on The Trail
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So we start mining the asteroid belt for CO2 and other carbon based volatiles?
Cool, when do we start.
It looks to me as if our next rover needs to be in the asteroid belt. Looking and exploring.
Jack
jack, NASA’s Dawn is wandering around the belt as we speak
here’s a gorgeous picture of an asteroid Dawn recently sent back
Found on face book
“Once you have eaten the flesh, your own DNA will transform and you will no longer be an organic human being!”
WOW, is that cool or what?
The poster was talking about the evils of gmo farm raised salmon but It makes me want to go out and buy a chunk.
Jack
Damn it! I didn’t change the date on my watch at the end of the month. Today’s Kumcho’s 76th birthday. Not to worry, I’ll fix her something special.
Craig, I was thinking about some smaller ones that can be landed on and sampled then leave to the next one. If we are going to terraform Mars we need to identify resources.
Jack
agreed jack. the asteroid mission has identified plenty of volatiles with possibilities
Solar winds, thats the ticket.!
But it won’t be Nasa that gets to ride me ( i am solar no?) to the moon….strike that….to our next home planet…..or under this Adm.
By the time we find out how to make Mars inhabitable…we would have found another goldie locks planet, but we won’t start until we get a president that won’t be against it:
Expert panel: NASA seems lost in space, needs goal December
A panel of outside U.S. experts says NASA is adrift without a coherent vision for where it should be going. The report is by the National Academy of Sciences.
But the panel doesn’t blame the space agency. It faults the president, Congress and the nation. President Barack Obama in 2010 told NASA to plan to send astronauts to a nearby asteroid. But the panel of experts says few in NASA or the space community have embraced that destination. NASA hasn’t allocated much money for it and its vague strategic plan avoids mention of an asteroid mission. Veteran astronaut and panel member Bob Crippen, who piloted the first space shuttle mission, said he has never seen the space agency so unfocused. NASA officials contend they have clear and challenging goals.
http://phys.org/news273929253.html
new expert panel report “faults the president, Congress and the nation for not giving NASA clear direction.”
duh! for decades now our political leaders have made such a mess for NASA it’s a wonder the agency gets anything done
ha, solar, i see we were just reading the same report. great minds, and all
Jack,
“Once you have eaten the flesh, your own DNA will transform and you will no longer be an organic human being!”
WOW, is that cool or what?
The poster was talking about the evils of gmo farm raised salmon but It makes me want to go out and buy a chunk.”
Count me in. Evolution is all about adapting…..or about out running the other guy when a bear is chasing you…..later going to the park to see if anything is going on….and no im not wearing my drag uniform….well will put on gym shoes…Solar winds in drag….now that is spacy no?
Craig.
….love it when you go on space trips……
I also love to watch/record all the info about space, the universe, etc, etc……makes my hood a little bit bigger than your hood hahahaaa oooops sorry boss, got a little carried away is all….
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2012/12/Scientists-Plan-to-Ship-Curiosity-Rover-New-Frenemy-to-Torture
Meanwhile, back on Earth…
(Reuters) -- “China led developing nations on Wednesday in demanding rich countries give details of a promised surge in aid to $100 billion a year by 2020 to help the poor cope with global warming.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/05/us-climate-talks-idUSBRE8B217F20121205
Gov Brewer sighted in Buenos Aires?
well i was almost ready to get interested in politics again, but then I saw this headline and couldn’t even click it to see what stupidity is afoot now: “Rubio Admits the Earth is 4.5 Billion Years Old”
back to my cave, maybe next year
I don’t know Craig, seems to me we should view Rubio’s moving away from the ultra-conservative position re creation of our Earth, as potentially good news. Of course, we still haven’t heard what Rubio’s latest clarified position is.
So Rubio begins his quest to make the ‘can’ts be something other than the stupid party. Good luck with that. Anyone placed an order for a 47% t-shirt yet?
Craig… I know how you feel. I try really hard to give the “earthisonly6,000yearsold” crowd the benefit of the doubt and not think of them as stupid… but damn at times it’s hard.
And even though there are days when I don’t want to deal with politics… the fact is, I’m a political junkie. If you hide in a cave for the rest of the year… I’ll have to satisfy my political blogging cravings someplace else. There are some places on the net that have some very good discussions going.
While sailing is something that I love, I’m skeptical of sailing solar winds into the nether reaches of the solar system. Having blown out a mainsail crossing the Delaware Bay, and having to drop into a sail shop in Cape May for repairs, I know that trip interrupting accidents happen, and as far as I know there ain’t no solar sail shops in the asteroid belt.
RR, ah but I’m certainly not standing in the way of any discussions here. Carry on as always. Whatever I post, these are still open threads. You guys talking politics probably the best way to reel me back in.
And please do link some of those other discussions. Perhaps it will inspire. Cable news just so foolish, think that’s my problem. Need other sources. Altho I do like msnbc’s weekend policy shows
Now this is a loss. The man who first taught a young teen to like jazz. Dave Brubeck dies at 91.
well, if we must terraform mars and remake eden, this time let the snake give the apple to adam.
and none of this promising land, ghost writing books via prophets or men only holiness-ness.
The major problem with the “Man has dominion over a young earth and everything therein” crowd is that it makes them unable to admit man may have done anything wrong and has no responsibility to try to clean up the mess he has made.
ha, Quote of the Day!
Huh…I always though the Earth was in the trillions because of how long it takes to evolve.
RR -- That is impossible to do. Since 1000 years before the earth was created (in their minds), we have the first evidence of writing.
reminder for Barbara Stanwyck fans — Turner Classic channel begins showing 55 of her movies tonight at 8p with her breakout film, Frank Capra’s 1930 “Ladies of Leisure” — the great “Stella Dallas” at 3am — Sally Fields-narrated documentary tomorrow night 7pm
Well, I’m back from Publix.
Dinner tonight is Korean rice which I’ve just scrubbed--it is resting before steaming; spicy deep fried chicken wings, a Publix specialty; and the cake: individual beautifully decorated white cake petites fours.
It will be fine.
Sounds yummy Flatus. My parents like those wings from local Publix. I am thawing grouper caught by cousin-in-law Mike in Wilmington. Gonna blacken with buttered homemade cajun spices and flash fry in molten hot iron skillet on grill with last bit of propane until spring. Final grilling of the year always a passage.
Just finished up watching film adaptation of the fantastic Australian musical, Bran Nue Dae — luvin this number, “Listen to the News” (Bill, for you, our new Outback ambassador)
Flatus,
wish I was in the neighborhood, I’d show up around dinner time.
“well, if we must terraform mars and remake eden, this time let the snake give the apple to adam.”
Patd,
Now lets be fair. There were peaches ,pears, plums and cherries in that garden, but nooooo..she just had to have an apple.
Craig, thanks for the link. Bran Nue Dae was sensational and the beneficiary of the fusion music breakthrough which occurred with Yothu Yindi’s “Djäpana (Sunset Dreaming)”. All part of mainstreaming Aboriginal culture. Enjoy.
Mars lost it’s magnetic shield Billions of years ago . Mars is is the future of Earth. Except we will be much warmer.
If we lose our magnetic shield , the solar wind will peel off every atom in our atmosphere . Then we all die.
Viruses to man. We all die.
Lesson here -
Every planet that makes life, needs an iron core . Melted and spinning at it’s heart . The beauty of the cosmos , Iron is one of the great products when stars blow-up.
It also made modern man. No Iron , no modern man.
No blacksmith . We all float on the wings of long dead blacksmiths.
raging monkeys with sharpened iron.
We will not move to Mars , the planet has very little of a magnetic shield . The solar wind will strip every molecule we can make. If we can make a magnetic shield around the entire planet, then we can move to Mars.
We are in very deep shit here, just in New Jersey.
By the way , a typhoon just hit my poorest place to live on Earth. ……
Cat 5 , hundreds dead , appearing where typhoons don’t go.
160 mph max sustained winds at landfall. One month after Sandy.
None of you ever heard of it.
The bill from Sandy tonight is $80 Billion , and rising .
Here’s the question :
Can we deal with these coming every month?
Because one month later , a typhoon where typhoons don’t form at the time when typhoons don’t form . Made 160 max sustained winds.
That just happened . 300 are dead.
As the world warms, nature will become more violent.
It will be 80F here tomorrow, our norm is 56F .
They tell me cool air is coming , and yes I believe them. But it only drives us to 56F , back to normal.
When a cold wave comes to you , you cool off to normal. Never to really cold.
When Cold air comes in , it is not “normal” anymore. It is rare .
Example “A” -
It was 72F on Dec. 2nd or 3rd, when young Crawford made his post about his neighborhood. He could never do that before..
Nothing in the record says 72F in Dec. is a good thing,
Nothing
A bet for Jack’s Trader -
How high is your new warehouse above sea level ?
And what is your insurance bill to do it?
Like our friends on the river . Where are they ?
Jax’s Trader -
How high is your new world ?
Because if your long term plan doesn’t account for sea level rise , you are fucked.
Welcome to the new world of insurance. Sport.
well, dunno CBob, on Tues when the high in my zip code reached 71 degrees I checked the record high for that day. It was 1998 at 76 degrees. The next highest was 73 degrees in 1970. Tues barely earned third place, beating out 1950′s 70 degrees. DC is a southern swamp after all.
now you know I am no climate change denier, but in this particular case the facts don’t seem dispositive
CBob, what is the point of repeatedly attacking someone in the middle of the night who obviously isn’t here to respond? I really don’t get it. You are better than this dude.
Because I am stupid, bitter, and mean.
ah ok but still we can’t stop loving you pal
You have no idea how sick I am of this effort.
Efforts, deeds , we are so screwed, …………
More guns . more fire power.
The whole world agrees with this.
We can kill anybody, at any time, we choose.
Our Hope -
We are smarter than we think.
Years ago , we were pumping the waste from our current war, down hole never to be seen again.
It seems that will never work.
Colorado Bob
Come on deep thinkers , help me solve this mess.
Cbob- you left out honest and lovable in spite of yourself.
So you all have put me to shame for years with all your blogging while i sat on the bleachers. No more, started a blog yesterday. Was out of chocolate.
http://enchantedchocolates.wordpress.com/
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