The Colonization of Mars

Ops, yeah, speeding up the moon is option too. Tough then we need to waste even more resources to put it on the stable orbit.

Surface of Mars is very hostile to humans comapred to Earth, but if we compare it to everyother planet we got in our Solar System, it's most likely candinate for human colonization.

Also, elevator is possible, we got plans and all but we lack the sufficient construction material. What we got now simp,y doesn't work on such project. Additionally, the time it would take from Earth to orbit would be a very long one, with out current "elevator tech". We can build it and we know how, we simply don't because building it now would be near useless.

we currently do not have the type of material available yet to build a space elevator on earth, but we have for Mars since 1970.

Weather or not we would have enough for Mars I do not know, and then add the logistics...

but realistically if we can get the stuff there, we could, today with our current tech, build a space elevator if we got around the problem with the Martian moon in question.

these articles might be helpful, i ran across them when researching for my book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_mars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

Though the case for real life is the same as in my book, the fastest we can EVER get to mars with our current tech is 6 months, 5 months if you want to add some extra rockets. Both times use the good old tried and true Hohmann transfer orbit method.

Man, I forgot how realistic parts of my book's basis was.

as of the 2nd of Nov. has 6 weeks for a broken collar bone to heal and types 1 handed and slowly

It would take about 60 days to get there on a good launch window with an Orion drive. That technology has existed for 50 years. Just one little niggling problem that idiots in the 1960s forgot to account for...

Well, we can get to Mars, problem rises from what to do once we are there.

Not to be rude, but that would never work for practical, regular travel for a few reasons I will not go over, and I do not believe you actually know what you are talking about.

as of the 2nd of Nov. has 6 weeks for a broken collar bone to heal and types 1 handed and slowly

I am not sure if anyone has mentioned it here yet, but there was an animated "documentary" of how Life could be in Mars, and a project to reach and colonize it, that I saw in the Magical World Of Disney TV show when I was a child. Of course the feature itself was older, probably from the 50's, and science has marched on indeed since then. Yet I remember it fondly for the inventiveness of the lifeforms they came up with (birds with roll-up wings, manta rays that ate sand, etc.) Visually it was beautiful! And it introduced me to concepts like power armor and solar sails. Anyone knows what I'm talking about? I'd love to google it up.

Some speculate that in certain conditions microbe life might survive in a film of liquid water deep in Mar's crust.

If we colonized Mars, we would most likely be underground growing plants. I can't see living on the surface without something really innovative or of sci-fi proportions.

Luckily for my book a precursor tech had an ancient electromagnetic generator that made it livable (it was the only one of many that could still work after 6K years of sitting underground). which goes into my next point.

All that is really stopping Mars from being lived on the surface is a lack of 1) a magnetic field and 2) adequate air pressure.

In my book the generator forced all the the air to condense over the Tharasian Plains (the area with the four volcanoes northwest of Valles Marineris). So the air pressure increased as well as temperature. Then, the radiation was stopped, and made a portion about 2000 KM in radius livable.

So based on my research I did for my book way back I suspect that if we could somehow create an electromagnetic field over a couple of miles, an above ground base could be built. But that still leaves the fact that liquid water has about a 1-2 degree F temperature range it can exist in before evaporating at most elevations.

as of the 2nd of Nov. has 6 weeks for a broken collar bone to heal and types 1 handed and slowly

@First page discussion of sea colonization:...Am I only one whose first thought was "If they would colonize ocean, they would ruin the whole ecosystem in progress"?

Nope, I mentioned that too. That's my argument for a Mars colony - instead of destroying an ecosystem, we'd be building one.

Unless it turns out Mars have hidden caves full of Mars people depending on sand storms

Well, there's some argument that if we find bacteria on Mars, terraforming is out as it would destroy the native biosphere.

But the way I feel about it is that bacteria really are more about their chemical composition than actual form - so let's just take the DNA from Martian bacteria and incorporate it into the bacteria of Earth-based life. That preserves the chemical uniqueness of Martian bacteria for all time, and allows us to go forward with terraforming basically guilt free.

Now, if Mars turns out to have either bacteria with completely unique chemical compositions not compatible with Earth-life , or something like a silicon-based creature, and it can be shown that terraforming would destroy this unique organism(for all we know, it would make the environment better for the Martian bacteria), then and only then would I suggest we only habitat in domes on the Martian surface.

edited 24th Oct '11 9:25:39 AM by MyGodItsFullofStars

So, if one of Mars's moons is gonna crash anyways, what if we sent it down now? Would the impact be big enough to impart enough heat and motion to get Mars's magnetic field back online? Assuming of course that we know where and how to bring it down and have the technology to do it.

Edit: It's probably much more effective at least than burrowing nuke spam.

edited 24th Oct '11 11:23:51 AM by CDRW

Smashes head into table.

It has no magnetic field because it has no molten mantle. The reason Earth has a magnetic field is because she has rotating iron core. Mar's can't have a spinning iron core because it's mantle is completely solid (though there is like a tiny itsy bitsy chance some magma might be in parts of it).

So unless you intend on glassing the planet to the core that method will never work, and doing that to the moon will only cause a potential destabilization of things in space nearby (read here: asteroid belt).

It's more like something of "thousands to a million" years. It will probably outlive civilization. I just do not remember any numbers so I guesstimated based on my impression on hearing that it was going to crash into Mars.

Rest assured that it will not fall any time soon though.

as of the 2nd of Nov. has 6 weeks for a broken collar bone to heal and types 1 handed and slowly

Edit: I am aware of the reasons for why mars has no magnetic field, and i would have thought that when you're taking the "smash a moon into the planet" approach it means glassing the planet to the core is a given. Anybody else have an answer that doesn't assume I'm a complete idiot?

edited 24th Oct '11 11:28:55 AM by CDRW

Sure, the same post with the first line removed.

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

I edited my post.

It wouldn't, not by far. It's two moons are extremely small compared to ours. Like 200 miles across small. Neither would nukes, and even if it did work I can safely assume it would take decades, if not hundreds of years for the surface to cool.

All it would do is create a very large creator and make every astronomer in the world die in ecastic joy as the wealth of data from the observations poured in. Me included. Also lots of dust and a fucked up Mars.

Ever heard of Hellas?

it is the really dark blue place at the bottom right surrounded by orange/red on the elevation map.◊

More or less it would just do that. according to Wikipedia it only has a mean diameter of 6.9 miles, so it wouldn't be nearly enough for that. [The moon is only 6.9 miles in diameter that is]

edit:

o.o I was way off, the other moon (Deimos) is EVEN SMALLER. Waaaaay of from 200 miles in diamter.

edited 24th Oct '11 11:51:15 AM by jasonwill2

as of the 2nd of Nov. has 6 weeks for a broken collar bone to heal and types 1 handed and slowly

Thank you for the information. I hadn't heard of Hellas before.

The cooling time isn't an issue though, it's short compared to the time-scale of most other aspects of terraforming.

ya, Hellas is in the "boring part" as i call it. That is, 95% of the southern hemisphere. It's all craters there. It's the only cool thing there. All the cool stuff is is to left of the huge ass canyon that goes like 7 miles deep and 2,000 miles long.

Mar's is fucking awesome, or at least roughly 55% of it is.

as of the 2nd of Nov. has 6 weeks for a broken collar bone to heal and types 1 handed and slowly

My favorite point of interest on Mars is Elysium. If we warmed Mars up and an ocean formed, Elysium would be Mars' only true "continent". Its southern coast would also likely be teeming with kelp forests, and its plains and the wet weather would make it teem with temperate rainforests. You can see it in the middle of this map: http://www.bmeijer.com/gallery/mars_terraformed/index.html

Didn't think of Mars having no magnetic field. Guess we could turn our eyes to Venus, or a planet outside our solar system.

With Venus we'd have to reduce the amount of gases enough to reduce the greenhouse effect enough for it to come douwn to the right temperatures. Then modify the composition of the atosphere to be more suitable.

When traveling in space fuel goes into 1) Getting off the planet and 2) Steering. If you calculate everything correctly you don't need to steer too often.

edited 24th Oct '11 1:39:48 PM by Qeise

Laws are made to be broken. You're next, thermodynamics.

Earth is actually the only "solid" planet in our solar system with a magnetic field. Mercury might have a weak one, we aren't certain yet. Venus and Mars do not.

Thing is, it might not be that big of a deal in the long run. A thick atmosphere does a lot to block out deadly gamma radiation - there may be rare gamma ray storm events that do some biosphere damage, but it shouldn't be enough to wipe out life entirely - especially because such events, triggered by super nova, only hit half the planet. An atmosphere should be sufficient to block out the worst of the UV and beta radiation, so its all gravy. Heck, the boosted radiation levels will speed up mutation rates, so life on Mars might ultimately evolve faster than it does on Earth, which could make it more resilient to mass extinction that the homeworld.

I think the flying cities idea is better; Earth's atmospheric mix is a lifting gas in the atmosphere, so you have a giant "balloon" of it people can live in. The pressure would be about the same inside and outside, so leaks aren't a huge deal. And you don't have to terraform.

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

Venus is a fucking death trap. 900 degrees F! That's hotter than my oven on broil. add noxious storms and you wouldnt even survive 10 seconds in even a space suit.

It's utterly and completely impossible.

I am not familiar with that region. Is that in the depressed part of Mars in the Northern atmosphere were an ocean used to be? That part above Vallis Marinis in the picutre? (crap messed on the spelling)

In my book they just settled this area◊ The area with the white on the volcanoes on the left, mostly in between them but also past them all by at least 200 or so KM.

Seems like a cool place to me, but I do not know how good the place would be in real life, but at the bottom of Vallis Marinis (spelling?!) has been suggested on that wiki article I posted earlier, the air pressure would be greater there and so it would be easier to get liquid water. Considering how large it is you could put an entire nation in there, most likely Chile.

as of the 2nd of Nov. has 6 weeks for a broken collar bone to heal and types 1 handed and slowly

I was under the impression that having a magnetic field would be vital for maintaining an atmosphere on Mars.