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Terraforming Tuesday! (because I was lazy and no other reason)

RazzyJam

Entry posted by RazzyJam

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Well here it is! A whole topic on terraforming! i feel like a lot of alliteration is about to go down.

 

Because this is such a large and broad topic, im going to start with defining terraforming processes and then talking about the ethics of it all and then I will talk specifically about terraforming Mars, as it is the easiest to do and requires the least amount of work to type about and also to literally terraform

 

So first things first, what is terraforming? Well, it is exactly what it sounds like; the latin root terra means Earth, and then the verb to form follows, so terraforming literally means 'to shape like Earth'.

Terraforming is a lengthy process depending on the planet in question. It would involve creating a proper atmosphere for the plannet, allowing for liquid water to form by melting ice caps or cooling temperatures to allow for condensation of water. Basically, one would have to recreate the conditions of earth on another planets surface. This is not limited to the whole surface of the planet, there are other forms of terraforming, such as the construction of a large geodesic dome and then the monitoring of that areas internal atmosphere. This obviously requires much less work, but at the same time, it costs more resources, especially in the sense of terraforming Mars. But before we get to into detail on that, lets talk ethics.

 

Normally one would assume, "This is great! We are creating new areas to sustain life! What could possibly be unethical about this?". Well, basica biology has proven that life is extremely adaptable. There is life at the hottest, most pressurized depths of the oceans, and scientists have brought organisms into the vacuum of space and found that they can survive the harsh environments there as well. With this knowledge, we need to consider what exists on the planet being terraformed. For example, recent studies of the martian surface have shown methane leaks from vents in the ground. Theories have sprouted about this being anything from a geological to possibly a biological occurrence. Methane is a gas produced by some bacteria here on earth as a biproduct of biochemical processes. So if the environment on mars were the be changed, how could this effect the possible organisms that already exist there?

Of course, there are other minor arguments against such action, such as the human race taking on the role of God and other similar arguments. However, all religious scripture points out that our Gods have made us the rulers and protectors of life on Earth, so perhaps it is our duty to terraform other planets in our quest to protect life. Let me know your thoughts on this below.

 

Now, we have discussed that terraforming is a rather simple concept, and we have analyzed the arguments that involve such processes. But how would such a task be done?

There are many lengthy descriptions on how such a thing could be done, but Im going to spoon feed this to you in the most simple Way I can, and I will start with a pretty picture:

152px-MarsTransitionV.jpg

Everyone at once: "Oooooh... Aaaahhhh..."

There are a bunch of ideas out there to make something like this happen on mars, such as wrapping the plannet in tin foil, shooting it with lasers, and other such ridiculous sounding suggestions to heat the planets surface. Such a feat is already plausible given the atmosphere, the frozen water on the surface, and the possibility of liquid and semi-solid H2O under the martian surface, the problem is heating the planet to get that water to appear on the surface. There is one solution that is already proven to work at terraforming planets, and could possibly produce a pristine environment on Mars. Care to take a guess?

 

The greenhouse effect, caused by the production of CO2 that traps solar heat in atmosphere is already in action on Earth. It has been for millions of years mind you, so keep your pants on. But the idea that releasing CO2 on the martian surface could cause an earth-like environment is very possible. One would not have to burn fossil fuels, but rather there is already carbon dioxide gas trapped beneath the martian surface, a small heating of this planet could cause some gas to escape, and start a chan reaction that would alter the surface of Mars. This is where the giant mirrors and tin foil starts to sound logical. But still heating the planet from orbit would be quite a challenge. An alternate, cheaper solution would to be to start mineral extraction and processing on the planet surface. Mining operations could increase heat and yield mineral resources that could better the economy and be utilized in sustaining a martian mining operation. This is just my own personal Idea, as I love the concept of taking apart celestial objects for mineral resources, and Mars seems like a logical first step, as a biproduct could be another biological habitat.

 

So what are your opinions of the terraforming process? Do you think it is possible to be done in your life time? Post any thoughts in the comments below and leave a suggestion for next week. This Wednesday's topic will be communism! Dun Dun Dun! Thanks for taking the time to read this and as always, Brohoofs to you!

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Evilshy

Possible? Of course. In my lifetime? Hell no.

 

We haven't even been sending landers to Mrs for very long, and it will be much longer before we can get enough equipment there for any large scale operations. While warming up the planet is possible from space (although I think a greenhouse approach would take and impractically long time), doing other things isn't. We can't just make the planet technically habitable and call it good; for it to truly be habitable, there would need to be an ecosystem in place as well. Waiting for one to evolve on it's own would take many billions of years, so the (relatively) more practical approach would be to take plants and animals there, which has its own problems, the main one being a way to get significant amounts of biomass to Mars.

 

Of course, we could take the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri route. Choose University and take Eco Eng as your free tech. Build your first base somewhere with either lot's of minerals around, or somewhere with high altitude. If you have minerals, mine it up and spam colony pods, if you have altitude, divide it between solar collectors and mines, build more bases in the high altitude. With all the energy you're getting, it's easy to open up the Soc Eng window, throw some extra energy to your labs, and quick tech to Adv Eco Eng, and then you have full access to terraforming options, no matter the circumstances :)

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RazzyJam

Possible? Of course. In my lifetime? Hell no.

 

We haven't even been sending landers to Mrs for very long, and it will be much longer before we can get enough equipment there for any large scale operations. While warming up the planet is possible from space (although I think a greenhouse approach would take and impractically long time), doing other things isn't. We can't just make the planet technically habitable and call it good; for it to truly be habitable, there would need to be an ecosystem in place as well. Waiting for one to evolve on it's own would take many billions of years, so the (relatively) more practical approach would be to take plants and animals there, which has its own problems, the main one being a way to get significant amounts of biomass to Mars.

 

Of course, we could take the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri route. Choose University and take Eco Eng as your free tech. Build your first base somewhere with either lot's of minerals around, or somewhere with high altitude. If you have minerals, mine it up and spam colony pods, if you have altitude, divide it between solar collectors and mines, build more bases in the high altitude. With all the energy you're getting, it's easy to open up the Soc Eng window, throw some extra energy to your labs, and quick tech to Adv Eco Eng, and then you have full access to terraforming options, no matter the circumstances :)

 

You bring up some fair points, we have not been very involved in the space exploration world recently, but an increase in funding by a mere penny off the tax payer dolar could pay for this, and an operation to colonize Mars and the moon could begin and end in the next 50 years.

 

Establishing an Ecosystem would require both natural evolution and some human intervention. We would have to bring species best suited for the environment with us and then populate the planet accordingly. From there its a "keep the thermostat constant and keep your fingers crossed" kind of deal, similar to what you suggested. The transportation of biomass would require some evolution in the realm of space transit, which I will adress in another topic on another date.

 

And of course, Sid Meyer's games remain the greatest strategy games Ive played, give or take a few live action rounds of Halo Wars and Starcraft II.

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RazzyJam

Eh, even with adequate funding, it's still a long ways off :(

 

I guess its one of those things that we will have to wait and find out :)

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Evilshy

 

I guess its one of those things that we will have to wait and find out :)

 

Well of course. Juts because I think it's highly unlikely to happen any time soon doesn't mean I don't want it to :)

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K3WRO

Well, til then we gotta take care of earth itself amirite?

 

We live in a fragile world, everything we do will effect everyone and everything around us, so take consideration, it'll be a couple more centuries before we can say "Welp, we can still terraform another planet....right?"

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RazzyJam

Well, til then we gotta take care of earth itself amirite?

 

We live in a fragile world, everything we do will effect everyone and everything around us, so take consideration, it'll be a couple more centuries before we can say "Welp, we can still terraform another planet....right?"

 

of course! Keeping our earth in stable conditions will also prepare us for such a gross operation. If we are unable to sustain the environment here, how the hay will we be able to do it on another planet?

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A Blithering Div

As much as I would love to see Mars settled in my lifetime, the only way I see this happening is when we figure out how to make a cold plasma shield or some other force field. Space junk and radiation being the 2 biggest problems we face for a trip to Mars or any interplanetary destination. So in the meantime, lets set up shop on the moon. It has massive temperature extremes. The dust is like fine shards of glass. It doesn't even have an atmosphere and its bathed in deadly radiation! So if we can engineer a setllement on a moon, then the only thing we'd have to figure out is how to get to Mars. Or we could take the Lawrence Krauss approach and make it a one way trip.

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