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Could we use materials from the asteroid belt nearby to terraform Mars?
Which types of asteroids would we want and for what benefits?
I'm thinking that if Saturn's rings are made from ammonia chunks, then there might similarly be some ammonia chunks in the asteroid belt near Mars. If we could hurl some of those ammonia rocks at Mars, then it could help increase the nitrogen content in the atmosphere and on the surface, so that we could use it for agriculture.
What are everyone's thoughts on this?
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the closest "asteroids" Near Mars are it's own moons phobos and deimos perhaps they could be used to make a giant space mirror that could heat up mars or local portions of it (there are nowhere near the volatiles in it to perhaps it could be used for impactor material hitting certain CO2 deposits could increase the density of the martian atmosphere with at least 80% http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/04/co2-ic … -mars.html placing almost all of the martian surface above the triple point of water (meaning likuid [pure] water is possible). Using to much asteroids is dangerous because in almost all cases the usefull ones are over 50% water ice and mars would seem to be covered for 30% with water if no more water is imported. Still if you mine them and bring them over mostly pure then it should work. But perhaps not from Titan there is a ethnic debate abouth terraforming and taking the nitrogen from Titan would take almost everything and destroy the planet as we know it, other sources are more open
People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.
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Hmm, but it would seem too energetically expensive to lift large amounts of anything off Titan. Why not just look for frozen ammonia chunks in the asteroid belt nearby? It would be nice if we could scavenge ammonia from Saturn's rings, but its gravity makes that energetically expensive. If we could find ammonia sources nearby Mars which are easy to get, then wouldn't it be worth it to drop them onto Mars?
It seems to me that Mars needs lots of ammonia. We need nitrogen for life, and Mars seems low on it - especially if we want an Earth-like atmosphere. How else can we get ammonia? The Kuiper belt maybe? But again that's quite a long distance away. If there were large quantities of ammonia available in the asteroid belt, I'd be inclined to go for that.
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Nearness of location does mot means nearness of approach. The asteroid belt is probably the worst place to drop asteroids on to Mars from. Far better to get them from the Jupiter Trojans, or Saturn where you can use a gravitational flyby to put you on your trajectory.
There's also the problem with having ammonia asteroids in the belt - at those temperatures, it would be more of a comet.
"I'm gonna die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy." - If this forum was a Mars Colony
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neptunes trojans would probably be even better http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune_trojan they are probably covered in nitrogen Ice (similar to triton) in mid to late 2013 the new horizon probe will aproach one of these bodies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_HM102 and measure it's phase curve hopefully shedding some light on it's composition If it's mostly nitrogen then I would say these objects are golden candidates.
People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.
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How about scavenging near-earth objects and objects near Mars for processing on Mars ? If nitrogen are available in these rocks as nitrates or ammonium, hurray!
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