Fiction? Terra-Forming Mars

The question is: How do you begin Terra-Forming another planet?

First you would need to send many huge machines to pump out CFC and carbon, the same thing thats killing this planet by heat could create another, ironic isn't it. The CFC would need to surround Mars thereby heating up the planet and melting the remaining frozen water, and creating an atmosphere.

[Edited on 17-2-2004 by kinglizard]

Originally posted by Amorymeltzer

Originally posted by ArchAngel
What if the Mars Polar Lander was not really on that rocket? What if it did not fail, but went on to do a different mission?

k. thats all i was askin for, i thought u meant the literal, public image of odyssey
cud be, i dunno, if it worked wud we be seein the effects by now?

This is the grand conspiracy, and it is POSSIBLE. Too many things went right(Wrong) for it to be impossible.

Imagine 'they' realize they have a chance to crash a comet into a planet(other than earth). Would they pass it up?

Originally posted by kinglizard
The question is: How do you begin Terra-Forming another planet?

First you would need to send many huge machines to pump out CFC, the same thing thats killing this planet by heat could create another, ironic isn't it. The CFC would need to surround Mars thereby heating up the planet and melting the remaining frozen water, and creating an atmosphere.

Plants are little machines that turn CO2 and water into oxygen and bio-carbons. They use sunlight as the energy source. Life is the most important part of terra-forming, and it begins with the most simple, and ancient forms. Their actions capture energy from the sun and raise the energetic level of the environment with the same potential chemical energy that poweres higher forms of life.

[Edited on 17-2-2004 by ArchAngel]

"if it worked wud we be seein the effects by now?"

You would have seen them in June of 2000 IF the sun were not in the way....

[Edited on 17-2-2004 by ArchAngel]

Originally posted by kinglizard
The question is: How do you begin Terra-Forming another planet?

First you would need to send many huge machines to pump out CFC and carbon, the same thing thats killing this planet by heat could create another, ironic isn't it. The CFC would need to surround Mars thereby heating up the planet and melting the remaining frozen water, and creating an atmosphere.

[Edited on 17-2-2004 by kinglizard]

that water, mostly isnt water. the tons of polar ice is mainly CO2, which wud help in the atmospheric phase, but not for the whole water-for-life thing.

Originally posted by ArchAngel

Originally posted by kinglizard
The question is: How do you begin Terra-Forming another planet?

First you would need to send many huge machines to pump out CFC, the same thing thats killing this planet by heat could create another, ironic isn't it. The CFC would need to surround Mars thereby heating up the planet and melting the remaining frozen water, and creating an atmosphere.

Plants are little machines that turn CO2 and water into oxygen and bio-carbons. They use sunlight as the energy source. Life is the most important part of terra-forming, and it begins with the most simple, and ancient forms. Their actions capture energy from the sun and raise the energetic level of the environment with the same potential chemical energy that poweres higher forms of life.

[Edited on 17-2-2004 by ArchAngel]

Yes, good point, but you would first need an atmosphere to allow the plants to live. After that algae and mosses would be a good place to start, until the planet was able to support larger plant life.

Originally posted by Amorymeltzer

Originally posted by kinglizard
The question is: How do you begin Terra-Forming another planet?

First you would need to send many huge machines to pump out CFC and carbon, the same thing thats killing this planet by heat could create another, ironic isn't it. The CFC would need to surround Mars thereby heating up the planet and melting the remaining frozen water, and creating an atmosphere.

[Edited on 17-2-2004 by kinglizard]

that water, mostly isnt water. the tons of polar ice is mainly CO2, which wud help in the atmospheric phase, but not for the whole water-for-life thing.

I don't know but. this page talks about water that we could use on Mars.

Yes, good point, but you would first need an atmosphere to allow the plants to live. After that algae and mosses would be a good place to start, until the planet was able to support larger plant life.

Mars already has a CO2 atmosphere. The only thing you really need to add is water.

Originally posted by kinglizard
I don't know but. this page talks about water that we could use on Mars.

thats right, i think i remember hearing something like this, bascially saying that the north is H20 and south is CO2. i think.
so, best of both worlds.

Originally posted by ArchAngel

Yes, good point, but you would first need an atmosphere to allow the plants to live. After that algae and mosses would be a good place to start, until the planet was able to support larger plant life.

Mars already has a CO2 atmosphere. The only thing you really need to add is water.

The Martian atmosphere results in only a weak greenhouse effect that raises the surface temperature by about 5�C. Consequently, most of Mars is well below the freezing point of water for most of the year. Moreover, even when the daytime temperature at low latitudes does climb significantly above freezing, the atmospheric pressure is so low that water ice turns directly into water vapor without first becoming liquid. So you see, we need to create an atmosphere on mars before life is even remotely possible.

Originally posted by kinglizard

Originally posted by ArchAngel

Yes, good point, but you would first need an atmosphere to allow the plants to live. After that algae and mosses would be a good place to start, until the planet was able to support larger plant life.

Mars already has a CO2 atmosphere. The only thing you really need to add is water.

The Martian atmosphere results in only a weak greenhouse effect that raises the surface temperature by about 5�C. Consequently, most of Mars is well below the freezing point of water for most of the year. Moreover, even when the daytime temperature at low latitudes does climb significantly above freezing, the atmospheric pressure is so low that water ice turns directly into water vapor without first becoming liquid. So you see, we need to create an atmosphere on mars before life is even remotely possible.

There are bacteriae that can produce methane and oxygen with water and carbon dioxide, others produce ammonia and oxygen with water and nitrogen.
Both are greenhouse gases, that are far weaker than FCKWs, but far stronger than carbon dioxide.
Let's assume 1% of the surface is covered with such bacteriae and that those use sunlight with an efficiency of 0,1% to produce their greenhouse gas. This would cause one billion tonnes of ammonia and methane to escape into the atmosphere. That is enough to heat up the planet by 10 K in 30 years.
These gases would protect the surface from UV radiation, but would also be destroyed, which doesn't matter, because they'd constantly be replaced by the bacteria.
Through the heating caused by these gases, more carbon dioxide would be released into the atmosphere, which wouldn't only heat up the planet through greenhousing, but also make a much thicker ozone layer (carbon dioxide raises the formation of ozone), which would slow down the destruction of ammonia and methane, which would cause a higher concentration of these gases.

Further heating through organisms can be acieved by letting black organisms grow on the surface of the planet. This would lower the albedo and therefore heat up the planet.
Best would be to engineer organisms (e.g. lynchens) that are able to grow on the polar caps. This wouldn't only heat up the planet directly through albedo change but also through carbon dioxide release.
The major problem with this project is that no plants are known that would live in such cold regions, although there are lynchens that survive temperatures of -100'C and are still photosynthetically active (and therefore grow) at -24'C.
But if such organisms could be engineered, the result would be very helpul.

SOURCE

Originally posted by Amorymeltzer

Originally posted by kinglizard
I don't know but. this page talks about water that we could use on Mars.

thats right, i think i remember hearing something like this, bascially saying that the north is H20 and south is CO2. i think.
so, best of both worlds.

Both poles contain[ed] both water, and CO2.