Feo: Dust Storm brewing up on Mars, right now.
Posted by Feo Amante on Dec 18, 2003 at 16:51
(206.72.67.158)Re: Dust Storm brewing up on Mars, right now. (Uncle Al)
For openers, when I use the term, "self-sustainable" in this post, it means a biosphere complete enough to support human life and its needs.
Ok.
>"Mars is utterly valueless real estate. It is too cold, even at its Equator. It is too dry."
On the other hand we have the Kuiper belt and the Oort Cloud. In addition to minerals, we also have plenty of ice in that region. Ice made up of water, amonia, etc. (we think and are probably right. In all likelihood, there is more there than we think, not less). We also have the many planetoid strays passing through (never to return) or orbiting through our solar system by the possible millions a day. Lots of base resource out there to do with as we please while not affecting our environment in any harmful way.
The math required to launch these puppies out of their paths and on a direct collision course with a specific area on Mars is easy enough. The ability to move these masses from their orbits and actually accomplish the launch is trickier. Although, what our tech level will be by the time we reach the Kuiper and Oort is X. I can easily visualize a modified idea of O'Niell craft as having entire cities in space that also perform as trade ships, creating their own economies by flying out to the Kuiper Belt and preparing various rock/ice bergs for a smash rendevous with Mars.
Why this would be necessary is for the purpose of colonization.
Increasing Mars mass is vital to holding on to an atmosphere dense enough to support humans without the need for suits. It is not neccessary to make mars as big as the earth, just large enough to retain more heat in it's atmosphere; create weather; build lakes that will eventually become seas and then oceans; and make it fully sustainable so that about 100+ years of terraforming will create open air living conditions.
Our current technology would be looking at several hundred years for terraforming. But that is only because we have no experience with it. Terraforming on earth hardly counts since we are already living on a self-sustainable planet whether we farm or not. I think that, once we are committed to the project, timetables will go through remarkable reductions every few years. What is propositioned for centuries, will be knocked down to decades in relatively short time.
The pitch to get this rolling is why we want to go to mars in the first place. Whatever we plan is beyond any one person's expected lifetime. Investor's cannot expected to be very keen on this (but your great-great-grandchildren may see a return!) and so - for good or ill - governments may have to get involved. What is it about going to mars? Do we plan to colonize or is this just another stupid race?
I think the Chinese are serious about colonization. I hope we will be as well. There is so much more we can learn when we do.