Terraforming Mars

[Michael Kieth Adams]

Well here is another wild and crazy idea.  The main problem with Mars is not producing an atmosphere but in keeping one.  Mars does not have much of a magnetic field.  The theory that made the most sense to me is the one that there was a huge impact that had an effect  on the internal structure of the planet, thus no magnetic field , no volcanism, little atmosphere.    What if we built Mars several moons in stable orbits.  By playing billiards with the asteroids. We send thousands of small asteroids to Mars orbit where they are placed in stable orbits that maximize tidal flexing in Mars.  I know that this is a very long term project, but we can start work on building the atmosphere by increasing the heat by means of orbiting mirrors carved in thin sheets from metallic asteroids and placed in orbit to heat up Mars frozen oceans.  We might also arrange for a few comments to land on Mars.  Bacteria can be used to adjust the gasses to suit us once there are enough of them.  Admittedly we can’t do this now, but We build robots that do our bidding for years at a time.  We just need to change. Their purpose a bit and set them to it.  
 

 

The purpose of the moons is to get the core of Mars moving again to create a protective magnetic field.    The only other idea I can come up with is an orbiting ring of magnets but I haven’t been able to think of an arrangement that would protect the planets atmosphere.  Also I think that volcanism is important in maintaining one.

 

This is definitely pie in the sky thinking, but what better place to put pie?!?  Big dreams are the most satisfying when achieved.p. Looking forward to all the reasons why it can’t and shouldn’t be done, and maybe a few on how to do it better.

[Michael Kieth Adams]

Not comments but comets dang my eyesight, I can’t wait to get these consarned cataracts removed!

[ollypenrice]

Since we cannot terraform the Earth I think our chances are not good...

lly

[Paul M]

Until a commercial interest, say BlackRock, find a way to monetise Mars, there'll be no incentive.

The technology is all fantasy right now so, I don't see any gold rush in the offing.

The technology is ikely beyond the life expectancy of existing technological civilisation on Earth. 

[Michael Kieth Adams]

When I was born airplanes were a relatively new technology, now robot drones fly Martian skies.  Humans have changed the climate of our world, not on purpose of course.  The Mongols did it by killing a few millions.  We currently  use fossil fuels.  The Earth is a delicate basket, and our survival on it is always iffy.  Volcanism has almost done us in, at least once.  Climate change has probably come close a time or two also.  We are fragile eggs in  a very changeable basket.  We need to expand to other baskets.    We do not currently have the technology to do this,  we do have the imagination to figure out what we need to do to do it.  People are already planning an elevator to space even though we do not quite have strong enough materials to make one.    Space habitats may be the way to go but apparently Mars was once similar to earth.  Making it so again would be a very exciting project.  I am not saying  that proper care for our planet should not occur, that is an obligation for all intelligent life, but so is making life of all kinds safer by finding it new places to exist.  Mars is a good opportunity we cannot afford to ignore.  I am an old man, I will not live to see any of this, but I believe we can do it if we try.

[saac]

As a flight of fancy it's fine and a fun thought  but personally I think this notion of "terra forming" will forever remain the stuff of science fiction. It's easy to suggest what may be done, to let the imagination have a free hand, the hard realities of engineering however are a little more sobering. We can barely land on Mars, we can't control weather here from the comfort of our own benign environment, it took the treasure and industrial might of the richest nation on Earth just to get two people to the Moon. Anyway, should we want to practice at terraforming we have an excellent and urgent practical case waiting to be solved closer to home.   As a fun exercise in imagination though I would go with building a wrap around shield around Mars - kinda like a Christmas tree bauble .

Jim 

[Michael Kieth Adams]

When my Grandfather was born, flying machines were balloons.  He lived to see men on the moon.  We live amongst flights of fancy, from television to cell phones.  We are only limited by our imaginations.  A super volcano eruption could kill us all tomorrow and there are quite a few of them.  We have changed the climate significantly, we have dramatically changed life in our oceans and have been doing so since the Middle Ages.   We can have an effect on planetary scales.  We are a long way from going to Mars but I believe we will get there.  We are a stubborn bunch.  Are there difficulties?  You bet!   Next to impossible has been our middle name for  a million years,  but we have gone from hand axes to cell phones in a hundred thousand years.  Next to no time at all in the history of our planet.  Humans are amazing animals, don’t bet against us.

[saac]

Sadly we are limited by more than our imagination - there are limits imposed by the laws of physics and engineering. Heavier than air flight, rockets in flights to the moon,  hand axes to mobile phones happened not because we could imagine it but because they were within the boundaries imposed by physics and engineering. Terraforming, while a nice storyline for sci fi novels together with manipulation of wormholes, teleportation and faster than light space travel, I think will remain forever denied to us by the boundaries of physics if not firmly beyond the boundaries of practicable engineering.  My grandmother was also born before manned flight (heavier than air) and lived to see the moon landings - from an engineering perspective, both were comparatively easy.  Reversing the effects of climate change will dwarf each of those accomplishments in terms of challenge and complexity.  To conceive that we could achieve that on another planet, before we have achieve it here, is best left to science fiction. 

Jim 

Edited February 7 by saac

[Sunshine]

I’m not a subscriber to the terraforming idea, Mars is the way it is due to millions of years and countless variables. Thinking we can somehow change that in some way which will be sustainable is a stretch of the imagination, at best. Even if we could somehow affect Mars in such a way to benefit us, it will be a constant struggle against those forces which made mars the way it is. We can introduce whatever gases we want but they’ll just end up stripping back into space, same with anything else we do, it would be a futile, loosing battle to reverse a process which is not understood to begin with.

Edited February 7 by Sunshine

[Mr Spock]

We can't even fix the climate on this planet let alone terraform another.

[ONIKKINEN]

PBS space time video on the topic:

 

Terraforming is pure science fiction, and will remain that way for most likely thousands of years. But given enough time and money maybe some future descendants of modern humans could make that happen.

I still think it would be easier to re-terraform Earth in the case of a disaster. Even just staying underground in bunkers for a few hundred years after a catastrophic dinosaur killer type asteroid hit is easier than a complete martian overhaul.