You are not logged in.
Pages: 1
I think terraforming Mars is a great idea in concept, but there are a number of reasons why I believe it won't work.
Mars' gravity is too weak to hold onto a decent atmosphere. Escape velocity is below that of water vapor, therefore water would be lost as it escapes into space. Also without a decent Ozone layer, the solar UV will disassociate any water into hydrogen & oxygen, and the hydrogen will quickly escape into space. Earth does not have this problem.
Unlike Earth, Mars is long geologically dead. Therefore it lacks any volcanic activity to recycle the CO?, and also lacks a decent magnetic field to protect it's atmosphere or surface from deadly solar, and cosmic radiation. It is believed the Earth's magnetic field protects our atmosphere as well as life by deflecting the constant bombardment by the solar wind, as well as the occasional solar flares. A solar flare poses NO threat to life on Earth, and only harms telecommunications or power in eastern Canada, but anybody on the surface of Mars would be in serious trouble!
If the surface of Mars was one day successfully terraformed, then the biggest challenge would be containing it's atmosphere from escaping into space, and protecting it from radiation. In the long run, I feel R&D on some kind of effective hyperspace transport to get us out of the solar system alltogether and discover other Earth-like planets elsewhere would be the way to go.
Pages: 1