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#1 2004-07-09 05:38:08
- Pete Collins
- Banned
- From: Norwich, England
- Registered: 2004-07-09
- Posts: 1
Re: What masters should a budding Sax Russell do?
I am currently casting around for a masters to do next year in the area of environmental science or ecological engineering. My BSc was in Ecology, and it included some environmental chemistry, soil sciences and microbiology, amongst other things. Suppose that a permanent Mars colony was just a few years away and I wanted to study something that would get me on track to be part of the crew as a terraformer or closed ecological system engineer. What should I study, and where? Obviously, career choices based on the above assumption should be viewed with extreme scepticism (and then some!), but I would nonetheless be interested in any suggestions people may have.
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#2 2004-07-09 06:40:07
- Shaun Barrett
- Member
- From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
- Registered: 2001-12-28
- Posts: 2,843
Re: What masters should a budding Sax Russell do?
Welcome to New Mars, Pete!
Wish I could be of some use in answering your question but, alas ... 
It's good to have you here, though, and I think you'll enjoy many of the topics we discuss.
The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down. - Rita Rudner
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#3 2004-07-09 06:40:14
- Rxke
- Member
- From: Belgium
- Registered: 2003-11-03
- Posts: 3,669
Re: What masters should a budding Sax Russell do?
Hi, Pete, and welcome to NewMars!
Great question... What would Sax do?
Firstly, I think you'd have to keep an eye open to a wide field, study as much as you can, to be 'overqualified' in the real world, but not for a Mars mission.
A 'Sax' would be equally at home with computers running simulations, energy-systems on micro and macroscale (what will life speading on the surface do with the albedo, subsurface, water cycle etc, )
I'm not a biologist, so my advice will be worth little, if anything, but what about the rapidly expanding field of extremophiles? Esp. High-altitude variants, maybe... Those should arguably be adapted (if maybe only slightly) to higher UV, fairly low relative humidity and lower atm. pressure, so those traits can come in handy for terraforming in its earlier stages... Or you could go for CO2-resistant lifeforms,..
There's also recently big-budget work being done on low-pressure environments effects on higher plants, there was a topic about this on the board, some time ago...
So many possibilities, the mind reels...
I hope someone comes up with more productive ideas than mine! 
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