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They are exploring Mars for a different reason...

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posted on Aug, 26 2004 @ 08:16 PM
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I have a possible theory... The government's/NASA dont really want to explore Mars to see if there is actual life there now (which we all know deep down
) so they say we want to see if Mars previously had life living there, not necessarily inteligent life but any sort of life, that could have existed at all.
Now why would they want or need to know this?
Could it be they want to send humans there to live in the future?

Well this is possible through the use of Terraforming



We have been going to space for nearly 40 years now, but it has always been for temporary stays in orbit. However, three astronauts have now moved into the International Space Station (ISS) for a four-month stay, marking the beginning of a decade and a half of a permanent human presence in space. The arrival of these three astronauts at the ISS on Nov. 2, 2000, sparked one NASA official to remark, "We're going into space forever with people first circling this globe, and then we're going to Mars...."




Why would we ever want to go to Mars? As pictures beamed back from planetary probes and rovers since 1964 have shown, Mars is a desolate, lifeless planet with seemingly little to offer humans. It has a very thin atmosphere and no signs of existing life -- but Mars does hold some promise for the continuation of the human race. There are more than six billion people on Earth, and that number continues to grow unabated. This overcrowding, or the possibility of planetary disaster, will force us to eventually consider new homes in our solar system, and Mars may have more to offer us than the photos of its barren landscape now show.




Recently, NASA probes have discovered hints to a warmer past on Mars, one in which water may have flowed and life might have existed. With fluvial evidence mounting that water may still exist in a frozen state on Mars, there are many who suggest that the human race could one day make Mars its second home. Such an effort to colonize Mars would begin with altering the current climate and atmosphere to more closely resemble that of Earth's. The process of transforming the Martian atmosphere to create a more habitable living environment is called terraforming


Now is this just a coincidence or is this widely know that they want to know more about life on Mars because they want the planet to be habitable for human life? Or have i missed this?

I mean this maybe a waste of time if everyone knows about this kind of technology/understand/possibilities , but its news to me.

We have expert's debating it....


At the Astrobiology Science Conference earlier this year, scientists and science fiction writers -- from NASA researcher Chris McKay to author Kim Stanley Robinson -- faced off on the promises and pitfalls of terraforming Mars.


All the evidence points to terraforming Mars...



There are amazing similarities between the Martian atmosphere that exists today and the atmosphere that existed on Earth billions of years ago. When the Earth was first formed, no oxygen existed on our planet and it, too, looked like a desolate, unlivable planet. The atmosphere was made entirely of carbon dioxide and nitrogen. It wasn't until photosynthetic bacteria developed on Earth that enough oxygen was produced to allow for the development of animals. Similarly, the thin Mars atmosphere today is almost totally composed of carbon dioxide. Here is the composition of Mars' atmosphere:

95.3 percent carbon dioxide
2.7 percent nitrogen
1.6 percent argon
0.2 percent oxygen


Mars would be the perfect place for us to do this!



This week�s launch of the Cassini space probe to Saturn sees another stage in the exploration of our Solar System. But the prime target of both Soviet and American probes in recent years has been Mars, which is seen as the most suitable planet for intensive exploration. NASA�s plans for a series of Mars missions (of which the recent Pathfinder and Global Surveyor missions are just the first) are expected to culminate in a manned landing sometime early next century. They have even longer-term plans, which has brought the SF term terraforming to public notice.


With our current technology its perfectly possible for us to send robots out and start terraforming Mars...

Just check these links out and decide for yourself il post all the sources i have used here and more of what i have found to be related and interesting.

Any opinions on this theory....Be nice


Easy to read explanation of how terraforming would work
www.howstuffworks.com...


The rest are just abit more in-depth but still a good read!

www.hypography.com...

www.space.com...

www.worldwidewords.org...



posted on Aug, 26 2004 @ 10:49 PM
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Originally posted by markjaxson

Could it be they want to send humans there to live in the future?


That is definitely a goal for the future of Mars. In fact, our eventual colonizing of Mars in the future could start the process of terra forming naturally, outside of technological based terra forming.


Originally posted by markjaxson
Now is this just a coincidence or is this widely know that they want to know more about life on Mars because they want the planet to be habitable for human life? Or have i missed this?

I mean this maybe a waste of time if everyone knows about this kind of technology/understand/possibilities , but its news to me.


Yes, a lot of people have been debating this subject for a while on all fronts, technological, ethical, etc. However, I commend you for doing your own research to find out about it. None of us spontaneously form knowledge in our heads, we all have to find it out from somewhere.



Originally posted by markjaxson
We have expert's debating it....


Chris McKay is a genius in the field of finding life elswhere in the universe and has done extensive research on finding forms of life we wouldn't necessarily think of. If anyone is going to find life, outside of an alien popping up and saying 'hi', its going to be him or one of his colleagues. Scientists such as McKay are pushing the boundaries of what we can consider life and he has a genuine desire to do it the right way.

I've always been impressed with him on whole.


Originally posted by markjaxson
All the evidence points to terraforming Mars...

Mars would be the perfect place for us to do this!


Absolutely.


Originally posted by markjaxson
With our current technology its perfectly possible for us to send robots out and start terraforming Mars...


The technology for actually making it happen is more than likely many years off in the future though. We have a hard time getting a rover to Mars much less the type of equipment it would take to achieve this. Even if we could get the equipment there today it would be many decades before the desired end result could be achieved...unless we come up with a better, faster way to do it in the future and that is entirely possible.

Thanks for the links, always interesting to see different sources of information regarding this fascinating topic.

Take care...




[edit on 26-8-2004 by Weller]



posted on Aug, 26 2004 @ 11:48 PM
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Originally posted by markjaxson
With our current technology its perfectly possible for us to send robots out and start terraforming Mars...


We are way off from terraforming a planet the size of mars. WAYYY off



posted on Aug, 26 2004 @ 11:53 PM
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I love the Idea Of Teraforming Mars. I could do so much good for the whole of mankind. I hope that by the time this becomes real we will have learned many things about what we did wrong on earth many of which we are going to learn the hard way.

To start over again with a clean slate
We could turn Mars into a paradise the likes of which we never could on earth

This time I would suggest living things like mosquitoes and ticks on earth. That would be so cool being able to choose what animals you bring to Mars to start a new enviroment.



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 12:01 AM
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you know, actually, there is life on mars - i mean, didn't u just hear that there is water that was born?


or wait......

maybe i'm wrong, maybe media just told me a lie, but mars has no air, does it? because water cannot exist without air, right?

[edit on 27-8-2004 by phyto]



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 07:08 AM
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One problem that I never see focused when people speak of colonising Mars is the light. The sunlight on Mars is aprox. 44% of the sunlight on Earth, so the approach to terraforming must be slightly different.



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 08:18 AM
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Isnt the gravity on Mars less than Earths? If it is, what impact would that have on any plantlife transfered from Earth to Mars? It would be pretty cool to see 1000 foot pine trees!
Maybe oranges as big as Basketballs?



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 09:23 AM
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Needless to say terrafoming of mars is looooonnng way off. I, personaly, am not too keen on the idea of terraforming mars. We as a people are ever so destructive to our own environment that we shouldn't F-up another world. Having said that, mars appears "dead"- it has vitually no magnetic field. A magnetic field due to a molten core is thought to be essential to a viable world. This would mean that a system would be needed to be in place to continuously replenish an atmosphere that constantly is "bleeding" off. I think that would make it too costly to terraform mars and make it work for very long.



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 09:35 AM
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While microbial life likely still exists in some form on Mars (IMHO), and an ancient culture probably developed and inhabited the planet in ancient times (again, IMHO), the atmosphere and lack of magnetic field would prevent any serious attempt at terraforming from ever taking hold. Sure, you may transfer trees, or perhaps begin transplanting oxygen producing bacteria that don't need much to survive, but without serious leaps in our understanding of environmental manipulation, we wil never live outside of 'domes' and 'habitats' on the surface of Mars.

But what about below the surface??



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 09:37 AM
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Originally posted by Der Kapitan
Needless to say terrafoming of mars is looooonnng way off. I, personaly, am not too keen on the idea of terraforming mars. We as a people are ever so destructive to our own environment that we shouldn't F-up another world. Having said that, mars appears "dead"- it has vitually no magnetic field. A magnetic field due to a molten core is thought to be essential to a viable world. This would mean that a system would be needed to be in place to continuously replenish an atmosphere that constantly is "bleeding" off. I think that would make it too costly to terraform mars and make it work for very long.


Im not an expert by any means, but I thought the atmosphere was held in check by a planets gravity, and that the mag field kept out harmful radiation?



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 09:43 AM
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Yeah that is true to a point. My information came from a couple of sources, most notably- The Mars Mystery by Graham Hancock. Now I think alot of Mr. Hancock's ideas are misguided, but he does bother to contact scientists in hope to prove his agenda, anyway the planets Em field is thought to act like a shield against the onslaught of the solar wind and cosmic radiation that can rapidly errode the atmosphere of a given world. No Em field and the atmosphere of a world would "blow" away without a mechanism in place to replenish it. At least that's how I understood it, that may well be wrong, I would be very interested to see an alternate explaination.




[edit on 27-8-2004 by Der Kapitan]



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 09:57 AM
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Originally posted by Der Kapitan
Yeah that is true to a point. My information came from a couple of sources, most notably- The Mars Mystery by Graham Hancock. Now I think alot of Mr. Hancock's ideas are misguided, but he does bother to contact scientists in hope to prove his agenda, anyway the planets Em field is thought to act like a shield against the onslaught of the solar wind and cosmic radiation that can rapidly errode the atmosphere of a given world. No Em field and the atmosphere of a world would "blow" away without a mechanism in place to replenish it. At least that's how I understood it, that may well be wrong, I would be very interested to see an alternate explaination.




[edit on 27-8-2004 by Der Kapitan]


And now I am enlightened!


I wasnt thinking about the effect of solar wind/Radiation blowing the atmosphere away. I was just thinking staticly. Guess I need to use those 3 brain cells I have left!



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 10:02 AM
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I wasnt thinking about the effect of solar wind/Radiation blowing the atmosphere away. I was just thinking staticly. Guess I need to use those 3 brain cells I have left!



Hey ,this could ALL be crap anyhow, don't sweat it.


[edit on 27-8-2004 by Der Kapitan]



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 11:17 AM
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I was watching some movie, cant remember what it was, about the U.S. going to mars set about 30 or 40 years from now. I think Gary Sinise was in it. Anyway, I rember that after they had landed, thier craft was bombarded by golf ball size metorites. Completly pulverized. I know that this movie was probably a fictious depiction of mars, but I always wondered about the metorite factor with mars. Was this actually an accurate depiction af mars? Anybody know?


[edit on 8/27/04 by Kidfinger]



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 11:58 AM
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Wouldn't it be nessecary to transport a LOT of plants, animals and instects and things in order to sustain the ecosystem?



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 12:19 PM
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Seams to me the most important question is, would there be a way to make water there? Is there something there that some kind of organism or nano machine maybe could use to make water? I know very little about turning one element into another or such so no guess as to how complex or possible it would be.



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 12:39 PM
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I thought people knew that there is water beneath the surface of Mars the ones the Mars probe got pictures of?
It has been said that there is enough water beneath the dry surface to fill the whole planet up to a foot high or so.



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 12:40 PM
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I know you can manufacture hydrogen, oxygen , and even water through refinement of helium-3, as is found in abundance on the moon because of teh lack of sufficient atmosphere. Have they found any source of helium-3 on Mars?



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 12:59 PM
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There is indeed abundant amount of helium-3 on Mars this is one of the reasons we are so interested in Mars because earth is running out of it fast




In fairness to the president, I did a little research and found the microscopic grain of truth in what he was saying. It turns out that there is, indeed, an abundant quantity of something called helium-3 just under the surface of the moon. Forget for a second that we still lack the technology to use helium-3 for anything except making your voice sound really high and squeaky. Thanks to nuclear fusion, helium-3 will someday be that long-envisioned clean-burning, limitless energy supply


As the article also says..
The fact is, we're running out of helium...fast. How fast? Let's put it this way, by the year 2104, the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade is going to suck.

msnbc.msn.com...



posted on Aug, 27 2004 @ 01:19 PM
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Thanks for all your comment's especially Wellers...

It seems people are saying that we dont have the technology right now to terraform ,even if its just doing certain minor task's the only reason i said that we have the technology right now was that i saw a link on one of the links i provided that said...

"This page describes an innovative robot which, the authors claim, can be sent to other planets to perform terraforming"

So i thought maybe we do have the technology but i guess i was wrong but here is the link although it doesnt seem to work but il post it anyway so you all know what i meant.

Its on this page...
www.hypography.com...

But here is the direct link that doesnt work ,the only reason i post it is incase it works for someone else therfore its just my pc that cant access it.

www.stellar.demon.co.uk...

If anyone can find the information for this robot if it is plausible could you please let me know as i cant find the information for it anywhere.

Thanks.




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