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| The fourth "stone" from the sun provides good opportunities for colonization. (NASA photo) |
As humanity's population continues to grow, the only logical place to find more real estate lies in its own celestial backyard. Out of the solar system's eight known planets, only Mars gives humanity its best chance of life outside the confines of our own blue cradle. The red planet contains the right ingredients to make this possible. But in order to make Mars more Earth-like, scientists must step in with all their knowledge and imagination to sculpt this new world through a process called terraforming. Terraforming, or planetary engineering, means enhancing the capacity of an extraterrestrial planet to emulate all the functions of Earth's own biosphere, according to terraforming advocate Martyn J. Fogg. NASA scientist Christopher McKay and aeronautic engineer and Mars enthusiast Robert Zubrin devised three methods to transform the planet's red soil and thin atmosphere into green fields and cool Martian breezes. All three ideas use 21st century technology, grounding them in fact, and not fiction.
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| Large mirror arrays could reflect light onto Mars' surface to melt its polar ice cap, providing ample water. (NASA photo) |
One idea dreamed up by Zubrin involves constructing large mirror arrays, about 78 miles wide, and keeping them in a stationary orbit above the planet. Light reflecting from the array will reflect down on the planet's southern pole where permafrost containing frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice, exists. The light beaming down onto the pole's surface unlocks the dry ice, releasing it and any water into the atmosphere. This creates a warmer atmosphere and provides an ample water supply for future colonists. The biggest problem lies in mirror construction. Because of the mirror array's size, construction must take place in outer space with astronauts guiding construction. Once built, the mirror can act as a solar sail, gathering up light particles for fuel, and launch itself towards Mars.
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Capturing an asteroid containing ammonia and crashing it into
Mars would create a greenhouse gas shield to protect it from radiation, warm its surface, and release tons of water. (NASA photo)
"Mr. Clean" asteroids
Another idea involves finding asteroids outside our solar system containing ammonia and hurling them towards Mars. In theory, such asteroids would crash into the planet, releasing ammonia gas into the atmosphere, forming a greenhouse gas shield to protect from harmful ultraviolet radiation and warm the planet surface. The blasts would also release about 1 trillion tons of water. The difficult part of the plan requires locating the asteroids, attaching four nuclear powered engines to each asteroid, and then calculating orbits around surrounding planets to slingshot them into Mars' trajectory.
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| Manufacturing Freon on Mars would also create greenhouse gasses, making it possible to work without pressure suits. (Malacara photo) |
Making Freon soup
The final and probably most efficient method of terraforming Mars involves actually landing on its surface and constructing factories to pump out manufactured greenhouse gasses such as cloroflurocarbons, or CFC's, also known commercially as Freon. The U.S. and other countries banned the use of CFC's because of their detrimental effects on the ozone layer, which filters out harmful ultraviolet radiation, and their dubious contribution to global warming. But if created properly and carefully on Mars, CFC's would heat up the planet faster, making it possible for colonists to work on the surface without pressure suits and only the simplest of breathing gear. Colonists would then introduce genetically engineered plant life to absorb the CFC's and carbon dioxide to produce a breathable atmosphere. This and the other plans could easily happen within the next 50 years, according to Zubrin and McKay.
A New Frontier
As we venture further into the 21st century, we do so with the powerful tools of science and technology at our disposal. After a little more than a decade, science has finally cracked the code to the human genome, the basic genetic blueprints responsible for our evolutionary state. Not only can humanity see secrets for symmetrical facial beauty; it can also peer past our own planet via images from the Hubble, and newer space telescopes. With these capabilities, coupled with lessons learned from nuclear and particle physics, scientists can now reach out to our celestial neighbors and sculpt not just a new home, but a new frontier.
© 2013 Martin Malacara
