Terraforming Mars

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Terraforming Mars

Could people live freely on Mars one day? Today, Mars is a frozen desert with a carbon dioxide atmosphere that is too thin for liquid water to exist. Water may however, exist deep underground in subsurface aquifers.  Spacecraft images show what appear to be flood channels and valley networks which may be billions of years old, originating in a time when liquid water flowed across the surface of Mars.

In that time, Mars would have possessed a thicker atmosphere and its climate and environment were more like Earth's. So, where did the atmosphere and all the water go? What caused the environment to change? Could we change it back again? Could we make Mars a warm, wet, habitable planet like Earth? This process is called terraforming (terra = Earth).

The first task would be to thicken the Martian atmosphere. Much of the ancient Martian atmosphere and water are believed to have been frozen into the Martian polar caps as the planet cooled off over time. The ice caps are composed of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) and water ice. Some of the atmosphere may be in permafrost below the surface. How could we evaporate the ice caps into the atmosphere and begin to increase the temperature? Both water and carbon dioxide are greenhouse gases. That is, they trap heat from sunlight, which would increase the surface temperature. This would begin a cycle that would melt more ice, warm the planet, and increase both air pressure and temperature. The process could become self-sustaining and could lead to a runaway greenhouse effect. Even though it would increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, this is a mandatory step towards increasing atmospheric pressure and density.

July of 2004, I presented a PowerPoint presentation (with quiz) using a series of images showing the greening of Mars from the IMAX film, Destiny in Space, The Terraforming Art Gallery, and NASA. This was one of my favorite Humanities courses I ever had the pleasure of taking.

Edited

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How could we accomplish this?

The sunlight that hits a planet's surface arrives primarily as visible and ultraviolet light. The planet absorbs this solar energy, and then radiates warming infrared energy back out into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere work as a global layer of insulation, trapping that infrared radiation and preventing it from escaping into space.

But, how could we accomplish this? In the 1970's, astronomer Carl Sagan suggested covering the polar caps with dark material - such as carbon black from a pulverized asteroid - to a depth of 1 millimeter. Sagan estimated that over 100 million tons (or a 600-meter asteroid) would be necessary to cover the ice caps. This cover would have to be replaced each year due to frequent dust storms. Since this would be a very arduous task, Sagan also proposed using plants that are capable of growing on ice. 

In the 1980's, Planetary scientist Chris McKay suggested that we could seed the Martian polar caps with green plants or genetically engineered microbes that extract the liquid water they need from ice. These organisms would be dark and, thus, would absorb more sunlight that would warm up the ice and increase the overall rate of evaporation. If the surface temperature was high enough, more carbon dioxide might be released from the Martian soil, permafrost, and polar ice and would flood the lowlands. This process could take from 100 to 10,000 years.

The benefit of using plants or microbes is that they are self-reproducing. Research has shown that some microbes can survive in a simulated Martian environment, similar to Earth's polar regions. Such organisms could spread out over the ice caps in a relatively short time. This process would take a few hundred years to free the ancient atmosphere of Mars. The increased surface pressure and temperature would then allow liquid water to condense on Mars. There would be rain, rivers, and perhaps even oceans. Other green plants would grow on Mars, getting nutrients from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air just as they do here on the Earth.

Edited: Images of the "Tharsis" and "Hellas" hemispheres of a terraformed Mars, rendered as if viewed from the altitude of Deimos's orbit. Created by Darren Glidden using MOLA data manipulated in Adobe Photoshop.

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Greenhouse Effect

In 1989, scientist Martyn Fogg suggested carbon dioxide might be located in its carbonate rocks. He suggested using 10 million fusion bombs to vaporize the rocks and free the carbon dioxide. In 1992, scientist Paul Birch suggested building large mirrors and lenses in space to reflect sunlight onto the Martian ice caps melting them. 
 
Releasing large amounts of chlorofluorocarbons (greenhouse gases) by the use of factories on the surface of Mars is another possibility. Some scientists suggest this process could take 100,000 years.
 
The introduction of green plants would remove some of the carbon dioxide and they would give off oxygen, but it would take many thousands of years to build up enough oxygen to make the atmosphere on Mars breathable for humans and animals. The oxygen would produce an ozone layer protecting the surface from solar ultraviolet rays. Animals and insects could then be introduced to the environment. 

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Atmosphere

Once most of the atmosphere of Mars was restored, the air pressure would be high enough to allow people to walk around without space suits. We still might need oxygen tanks and respirators (similar to scuba gear), however, because we can't breathe carbon dioxide. The thick atmosphere would shield the surface from cosmic radiation. We also would still need to protect our skin and eyes against ultraviolet rays from the Sun because the atmosphere would not have any ozone layer to shield us such as ours on Earth does.

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Life on Mars

On August 7, 1996, a team of scientists lead by David McKay at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, announced their discovery of microscopic evidence of possible Martian fossil life in a meteorite recovered from Antarctica. How might this affect future Mars exploration and settlement? What are the practical and ethical issues of the discovery of life on Mars? What should our course of action be toward possible Mars life? How much time and effort should we make towards searching for life before we declare Mars to be lifeless? Martian life could be almost anywhere.

We will need to decide, as a planet, how long we should spend searching Mars for evidence of life. What about contamination if life does exist on Mars? Humans on Mars will be exposed eventually to any Martian life that exists. Returning spacecraft and astronauts could also introduce alien organisms to Earth. Many scientists think it is unlikely that independently evolved Mars life would have enough in common with life on Earth to cause harm; but it is impossible to know for certain. 

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Water

Mars, as terraformed by Michael Carroll. If we really could come up with all that water, it would drain to the northern plains and form an ocean covering up to 25% of the planet. In 1991 this image was used on the front cover of the 'Making Mars Habitable' issue of Nature.

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A terraformed Mars

A terraformed Mars as seen from Phobos, by David A. Hardy. This picture was used for the front cover of Arthur C. Clarke's book 'The Snows of Olympus: A Garden on Mars.'

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Aerial exploration

Aerial exploration of a dry valley on Mars. This painting, by David A. Hardy, depicts the dirigible airship Arrowhead described in Kim Stanley Robinson's novel 'Red Mars'. Designed as a cover, the picture graced the front of Interzone as well as that of an edition of the novel itself. Stan Robinson described the Arrowhead as being 100 m long and 120 m wide across the wings, with a pencil-shaped gondola extended under most of the length of the underside. Flight is achieved in the thin air on Mars by buoyant hydrogen within the body of the craft, lift from the wings and turboprops at each wing tip and under the gondola.

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Terraforming Survey Team

This well known painting by Michael Carroll depicts a "Terraforming Survey Team" examining an ecosystem taking root on Mars. Planetary engineering is evidently boosting the atmospheric pressure: hence the wearing of masks instead of full pressure suits.

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The ultimate dream

On the shores of the Great Boreal Ocean, beneath a blue sky. The ultimate dream of some terraformers: making a home of Mars.

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The Mars Worldhouse

The Mars Worldhouse: a quasi-global building conceived by Richard Taylor as a rapid solution for "paraterraforming " Mars.

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Research vehicle exploring the South Pole of Mars

A research vehicle explores summer at the South Pole of Mars by venturing into one of the wind-eroded canyons in the ice cap.

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Terraforming proceeds

A valley system on Mars begins to flood as terraforming proceeds. Fluvial erosion is seen on the Red Planet again for perhaps the first time in a billion years.

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A cylindrical projection of a terraformed Mars

A cylindrical projection of the terraformed Mars that results in Kim Stanley Robinson's novel "Blue Mars". For the detailed full sized image, visit Frans Blok's "Red, Green and Blue Mars Site".

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The beauty of terraforming

Superb rendering of a terraformed Mars showing Tharsis, the North Polar Cap and the flooded Chryse Basin to the East. Notice the light of settlements on the dark hemisphere. Image by University of Southern California student Eric Anderson.

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Warming of the South Pole of Mars

A Zubrin statite mirror cluster warms the South Pole of Mars in order to liberate its frozen atmosphere.

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What’s possible during terraforming

It is possible that substantial water reserves might be released during terraforming by drilling into pressurized aquifers beneath the northern plains. Here, from the crest of the southern uplands, we see a huge geyser erupting in the distance. frost is already condensing nearby.

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Englobe the entire planet the size of 316 Earths

A supramundane planet under construction over Jupiter according to the concept of Paul Birch. The vast habitable strip over the tropical regions, supported by a cage of dynamic compression members, could be extended to englobe the entire planet. Built at the 1 g level, its surface area would be up to 316 Earths.

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Quiz
Not necessarily from the information already provided.

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Question 1

Pioneers and explorers have colonized new places because of:

a.  Depletion of resources
b.  Overcrowded living conditions
c.  Economic freedom
d.  Religious freedom
e.  All of the above

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Question 2

The most critical aspect of developing a colony on Mars is the development of a:

a.  Propulsion system
b.  Life support system
c.  Transportation system
d.  Communications system
e.  None of the above

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Question 3

An air revitalization system based on bioregenerative processes would use what to produce breathable air for humans:

a.  Plants
b.  Microbial life
c.  Waste water
d.  Scrubbers
e.  Water

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Question 4

Water that has been used for washing or showers is called:
a.  Waste water
b.  Used water
c.  Dirty water
d.  Gray water
e.  White water

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Question 5

Sunlight on Mars is what percent that of sunlight on Earth?

a.  63%
b.  15%
c.  43%
d.  90%
e.  50%

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Question 6

A human colony on Mars could use:
a.  Solar power
b.  Nuclear power
c.  Wind power
d.  Geothermal energy
e.  All of the above