Terraforming Mars

 

we know how we're getting there but how  on mars are we going to terraform the  red planet  when we look up at the red planet it's  red it looks like it's just  rusty and uh it we found out so far is  it's not  really rusty it's just dust on the  surface that's like that and underneath  it's actually a darker gray in a lot of  places  and that darker gray tells us there's a  different chemistry that's been  preserved  we need to convert it from an  uninhabitable rock full of unbreathable  air and toxic soil to a planet that will  support a flourishing human colony once  it gets there  so how exactly do we terraform mars  welcome to fact nominal today we're  playing no man's sky on the red planet  in terraforming mars why move  the steadfast commitment of establishing  a human colony somewhere other than  earth is  our future for a simple reason forget  the insanely huge cost  unfathomable amount of resources and  technological advancement required to  accomplish it  we've worn out our welcome here on earth  and colonizing a second planet  is humanity's only real chance at  survival  first up the population problem the  industrial age of the 19th and 20th  century meant that we gained the  resources needed for a population  explosion  there were 1 billion humans in 1800  which has blown out to over 7.7 billion  today  scarily this is projected to grow to 9.7  billion  in just 30 years it's not sustainable  each additional birth is another hungry  mouth to feed and we're beginning to run  out  only so many forests can be cut down for  additional farmland before earth loses  its ability to cycle carbon and produce  oxygen  in a way the pollution from this  industrial age and our decimation of  plant life  has led to the terraforming of the earth  greenhouse gases and worsening climate  change  second acts of god it may seem extremely  unlikely that an extinction level event  would mean the end of the human race  only it's happened many times before  if a large asteroid was heading on a  collision course with earth there isn't  a lot we could do to stop it  we effectively share the fate of the  dinosaurs  earth's population could be split  between the two worlds and ease the  pressure on our ailing planets  and survive its destruction  what are the options there are two ways  that human off-planet colonization can  go down  the first is a biodome system where the  structure acts as a communal spacesuit  for everyone living inside  the second is to terraform the surface  mimicking the conditions here on earth  the benefit of the first is that it's  possible right now with current  technology  to fabricate modular dome structures to  form a base or habitat  it's also instantly habitable once it's  built and way cheaper than the  alternative  the only downside is that you're  confined to exploring mars  only as far as the oxygen in your  spacesuit will take you  the other method is the definition of  playing the long game but  the result is so worth it terraforming  is the process required to alter the  conditions of a planet  so that they resemble those found here  on earth we've seen hollywood take the  concept and show us  three dozen different ways it can be  accomplished but  the concept originally based in science  has done a complete 360  and moved out of the realm of science  fiction and back into the realm of  science fact  sounds easy enough but you'd be mistaken  specifically  for a planet to undergo terraforming it  would require its average temperature to  be changed to between 32 and 86 degrees  fahrenheit  this is the goldilocks range allowing  water to exist as a liquid  while at the same ensuring any humans  exposed on the surface  aren't barbecued to a blackened crest or  frozen into a popsicle  by extremes in temperature the average  temperature on earth is 59 fahrenheit  which gives us the ideal temperature  target but that's  only part of the equation we need to  ensure the planet has an atmosphere  similar to earth  that means the same mix of life-giving  oxygen and other gases  that would allow humans to freely roam  the surface and breathe comfortably  oh yeah and not be crumpled into a  condensed pile of meat by the density of  a high atmospheric pressure  lastly the planet undergoing  terraforming would need to have  sufficient quantities of water  already present as either steam vapor  ice or liquid  mankind is dependent on this resource  for a multitude of purposes  but most importantly for drinking and  for the production of food  these conditions are extremely  earth-specific and so  far we've not found a combination of all  three on any discovered exoplanet  let alone within our own solar system  the only way to truly populate a planet  and not just place some domes on its  surface  is to make it earth-like  why mars it seems like moving a whole  bunch of people to mars is not just a  possibility but an  inevitability seemingly it's our fate to  hop from one dead world to the next  leaving a plethora of earth clones in  our wake like the johnny apple seed of  the cosmos  but why mars venus is closer but it's  just no good  the temperature is almost 900 fahrenheit  higher than the boiling point of lead  factor in the sulfuric acid rain lack of  water and runaway greenhouse effects  and the earth's evil twin is struck off  the list  in fact if you were on venus and put a  pizza on the windowsill  it would cook in nine seconds flat an  atmosphere 92 times higher than earth  means forces are acting on you  equivalent to a submersible in the ocean  at 3 000 feet deep instant pancake  mars is way more promising it has a  tipped axis  just like earth a martian day lasts 24  hours and 37 minutes earth time  ideal it has polar ice caps just like we  do  but made of carbon dioxide there's so  much evidence that water ran  through great river systems and deltas  on its surface that it's now widely  accepted that liquid water was not only  present on mars but it now sits  underground  in the form of permafrost and vast  saltwater reservoirs  it's the best candidate out of the list  of crappy candidates  that are the planets in our solar system  how will we do it in the blockbuster  film  the martian matt damon plays a botanist  come astronaut who is forced to become  the space version of macgyver  to avoid enduring death via starvation  he jerry riggs a makeshift martian  greenhouse growing of all things  potatoes fed by good old human dookie  it's not that crazy of an idea as nasa  have conducted experiments in attempts  to grow the humble spud in arid inert  soils  from the most inhospitable parts of our  planet only minus mankind's manure  but first we need to make the air  breathable unfortunately  mars atmosphere is extremely thin only  0.6  the volume of earth's we need to thicken  it up so it can support the large  concentration of oxygen needed for life  and the greenhouse gas is needed to heat  and regulate planetary temperatures  in that ideal goldilocks 32 fahrenheit  to 86  fahrenheit range the polar ice caps  already contain the most useful compound  for creating an atmosphere in abundance  carbon dioxide the red martian surface  also hides a treasure trove of frozen  carbon dioxide and water  that hints at its life-supportive past  and could enable it to do so  again thermonuclear warheads are  satellites that focus the sun's  radiation and heat  could theoretically be used to release  all these subterranean stored reserves  of terraforming goodness  assuming we could the atmospheric  pressure would double a promising start  but still only one 100th needed for  proper terraforming  the crust of mars could be the answer by  under heating the surface  co2 would slowly be released over  thousands of years  to boost the planet up to 5 not bad  good size but nowhere near enough  third time lucky as there is another  source of carbon dioxide on mars  calcium carbonate compounds preliminary  tests have shown that there are veins  that run close to the surface  and likely larger quantities buried far  beneath the surface  the only problem is that we need to mine  several quintillion kilograms of rock  that's a number with 18 zeros  it's impossible with modern technology  but not for a future human civilization  as a long-term project  the calcium carbonate could either be  heated or exposed to harsh acid to act  as the catalyst for the reaction  so we now theoretically have an  earth-like atmospheric pressure the next  challenge is to add enough oxygen to the  air to make it breathable  our little friends cyanobacteria can  help out as they're able to survive in  environments of pure carbon dioxide  using photosynthesis to create oxygen  the same phenomenon happened on earth  2.3 billion years ago these  cyanobacteria could be transported from  earth to mars  once the ice caps have melted and the  frozen underground lakes thawed  once there they would float in the great  ocean of liquid water  using the sun's rays to convert the co2  laden martian atmosphere to something  better suited for humans  but forming this atmosphere isn't the  end we have to protect it as the sun is  powerful enough  to strip entire atmospheres the earth  has its luscious layer of clouds and air  by the grace of the magnetic field  generated by its flowing molten iron and  nickel core  it deflects much of the ionizing  radiation away  think the green aurora of the northern  lights  mars has a cold core which doesn't  generate a magnetic field  a super magnet system would need to  orbit above the planet  to act as an artificial magnetic field  and barrier  against the solar radiation