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I believe that the only way humans will advance in planetary terraforming is a little patience and idealism. I have an idea that if space exploration was more prominant and more people had the interest in space then anything is possible. Imagine this scenario and include the timeline when you picture it. Around the year 2050 space travel between Earth and Mars is down to a two week trip. We now have three space stations surrounding earth and one around Mars. One of the space stations is mainly for construction of interplanetary vehicles. We soon have a docking station for both planets and ecodooms are booming up everywhere on the surface of Mars by 2100 AD. By the time 2200 AD rolls around we now have four Earth to Mars docking stations that go around the equador. Then, we also have two Mars to surface docking stations that are at each pole. The next century starts and we have been transporting materials for the past 200 years and finally have enough to start construction of our planetary greenhouse. With the docking stations in place we can start piecing 6 foot in diameter tubing so that they look like we are building the Epcot around Mars. Keeping maintance on parts and replacing the broken. The year is 2400 and we just completed putting on our extreme solar blanket around the structure. Well you might be asking what is with the solar blanket for. In the mean time of all this; we have been building stratically place bunkers of ammonia nitrate around the entire planet. Each with a very huge rod of plutinium on top. By each bunker we have electric conductors of great magnitude. It is now the year 2500 AD and the temperature of Mars surface is at 800 degrees celcius. As all space stations and the planet is evacuated we throw the biggest New Year party of all times by igniting the ammonia nitrate and causing it to turn into nitrogen gas and water. As fusion with the carbon dioxide takes place from the heat and say we don't blow up the planet, and hopefully the explosion will dismantle most of the greenhouse. Next all we have to do is give it a little nurture as when temperature returns to normal. It is now 2750 AD and algae and bacteria are growing rapid, and we have decided to start planting shrubs and bushes. By the time 2800 is there we are growing trees and laying out the landscape. Could you imagine landscaping an entire planet.
At 2900 AD we start cloning the DNA of animals of Earth and putting into colonies and herds. Of Course it would have to be things as bacteria and germs because some things need those and then with insects and birds. Doing the same with aquatic animals and I'm not for sure of the content the waters will endure from Mars until NASA as done more research. But my dream is that on January 1, 3000 AD people could be plotting their land and building their houses on the new two mooned Earth. This is what I call my Thousand Year Plan starting late. Any Questions or Comments please e-mail me at Marsin3000ad@hotmail.com
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Cool terraforming theory. I'm not sure if raising the temperature to such hellish heights though would be good if all that water actually does exist under the surface. It would cause all of it to evaporate and hang out in the atmosphere creating a lot of additional pressure on the dome and no telling what will happen to the water once the planetary cover is blown off. Will a significant portion of it just fly off into outerspace as steam? Another thing about it is that people won't be able to live on the planet for a very long time under those severe greenhouse conditions and I don't know if it's a good idea to evacuate people from Mars. I think we should try to keep a continuous human presence on Mars and just do huge engineering projects in place of terraforming.
To achieve the impossible you must attempt the absurd
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I given my thought on terraforming some different turn of events and throwing out the planetary dome. Which I have been thinking about for a long time. Here is my new version and see what you think. I still believe the ammonium nitrate is the way to go and maybe this would work if it could be done safely. Lets say the dome is gone and we are colonizing the planet. What source would we use on our colonies? I would have to say nuclear power. Well, what if the rods were cooled off with ammonium nitrate, and to say this was safe due to certain precautions. And then a process was done to where the solution was turned into water and nitrogen gas. That way the water would collect the radiation and the gas would escape. By means of this on a large scale and for quite a few years would in turn start building the atmosphere. Because we all know that without nitrogen terraforming is partically a waste. Anyways the carbon dioxide is already in abundance on Mars. Next all we need is some nice clean water and if their really is some under the surface than the puzzle would be complete except for the life of course. That would be strictly our part. Not for sure the attributes of nuclear science but i know anything is possible.
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Wow, I truely admire your ability to think in abstract with original ideas, not to mention the sheer scope of what you suggest, that relm of thinking is far beyond most people...
However, there are some terraforming theories (arg, it should be called Areoforming) that could accomplish a shirt/oxygen mask & goggles environ in as little as a hundred years using nothing more intense than letting all heat they can afford to let go, go. As well as the extensive seeding of lifeforms altered to survive.
As for the nitrogen bit, I think Odyssey is in the middle of taking readings of most of the chemical elements so we outta shortly find out what the story is regarding that. But I'm sure we'll be safe to say that there isn't much.
I don't really know how we could rectify this. (excepting that the atmosphere contains somewhere between 0.5-1.0% Nitrogen gas. So, assuming you have a filter that works at near 100% efficiency, you could cycle 100-200 cubic meters of atmosphere through the machine and take about 1 cubic meter of nitrogen)
However I'm sure that with the spacefaring capabilities required to build your planetary blanket, those people would also be able to either make nitrogen in the lab by controlled fusion or something else fantastic like that, or a little less magically, they could just send huge "tankers" to Titan, the biggest source of nitrogen gas in the solar system...
I do like your theory though, despite its complete destruction of the original planetary surface {; ), maybe it or something very much like it is in practice by some other race of planetary engineers.
Your friendly neighborhood Martian...
-Matt
By the way, anyone know what the current solution is for the nitrogen scarcity on Mars?
"...all matter is merely energy condensed into a slow vibration. We are all one consiousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves." -Bill Hicks
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Interesting ideas. My own thinking on the subject has been somewhat more mundane, but perhaps practical.
1. Construct a mirror making facility on the Moon using aluminum primarily, which would use mass drivers or other means to launch them into Mars orbit.
2. The mirrors would unfurl into large low mass solar sails after launch and use solar radiation pressure for attitude control and station-keeping. The orbit would be polar and the sail/mirrors would manuver to remain in constant sunlight and would orient and shape themselves to reflect the sunlight to the surface of Mars.
3. As the mirrors first accumulate in orbit, they will not reflect sunlight onto Mars so that a comprehensive decade long effort to map and scientifically catalog Mars in its present state can be completed. Some of the mirrors could double as solar power sattellites, sending power via microwaves to the science teams and "wiring" Mars from the start.
4. Depending on the rate of mirror production, after a decade insolation can be reasonably increased by 10 to 50 percent and this figure can continue to grow as needed.
5. Shortly after the mirrors begin to reflect sunlight onto Mars, the planet will experience massive floods, aquire a CO2 and water vapor atmosphere, and have incredible windstorms and rain. With an oxygen supply, a human could walk around once the weather settled down.
6. With such control over insolation, people might be able to not just talk about the weather, but actually do something about it!
7. Plants would slowly complete the job.
Steve Mickler
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