Terraforming of Mars is a hypothetical process of planetary engineering where the surface and climate of Mars will be deliberately altered to create large areas of a human-friendly environment, thus making Mars colonization safer and more sustainable.
There are several proposed terraforming concepts, some of which present very expensive economic and natural resource costs. In 2018 not feasible, using existing technology, to perform activities that significantly increase atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO
2 ) pressure or provide significant warming of the planet. Any induced climate change in the near future will likely be driven by greenhouse warming produced by an increase in atmospheric CO 2 and a consequent increase in atmospheric vapor. These two gases are the only source of greenhouse warming available in large quantities on Mars.
Video Terraforming of Mars
Motivation and ethics
Future population growth, resource demand, and alternative solutions to Doomsday's arguments may require human colonization of objects other than Earth, such as Mars, the Moon, and other objects. Colonization of space will facilitate the harvesting of Solar System energy and resources.
In many ways, Mars is the most Earth-like planet of all the other planets in the Solar System. It is thought that Mars has a more Earth-like environment in its early history, with a thicker atmosphere and abundant water lost for hundreds of millions of years. Given the foundations of similarity and closeness, Mars will make one of the most reasonable terraforming targets in the Solar System.
Terraforming ethical considerations include potential for displacement or destruction of indigenous peoples' lives, even if microbes, if such a life exists.
Maps Terraforming of Mars
Challenges and limitations
The Mars environment presents several terraforming challenges to overcome and the extent to which terraforming can be limited by certain key environmental factors.
Gravity and low pressure
Surface gravity on Mars is 38% of it on Earth. It is not known if this is enough to prevent health problems associated with weightlessness.
Mars CO
2 The atmosphere has about 1% of Earth's pressure at sea level. It is estimated that there is enough CO
2 ice in regolith and south polar caps to form 30 to 60 kilopascals [kPa] (4.4 to 8.7 psi) of atmosphere if released by planetary warming. The re-emergence of liquid water on the surface of Mars will add to the heating effect and atmospheric density, but the lower Martian gravity requires 2.6 times the Earth's column air to obtain optimal 100 kPa (15 psi) pressure on the surface. Volatile additions to increase atmospheric density must be supplied from external sources, such as directing some massive asteroids containing ammonia ( NH
3 ) as a nitrogen source.
Breathe on Mars
The current conditions in the Martian atmosphere, less than 1 kPa (0.15 psi) of atmospheric pressure, significantly below the Armstrong 6 kPa (0.87 psi) limit where very low pressure causes exposure to body fluids such as saliva, tears, and fluid wetting the alveoli in the lungs to boil. Without pressure settings, no oxygen can be inhaled in any way that will sustain life for more than a few minutes. In NASA's technical report Explosive Decompression in Violent Pressure Subjects, after exposure to pressure below Armstrong's limits, a survivor reports that his "last conscious memory is water on his tongue" Boil. "Under conditions this man dies in a matter of minutes unless the pressure setting provides life support.
If Mars's atmospheric pressure can rise above 19 kPa (2.8 psi) then the pressure setting will not be required. Visitors only need to wear masks that supply 100% oxygen under positive pressure. A further increase to 24 kPa (3.5 psi) atmospheric pressure will allow a simple mask that supplies pure oxygen. It may look similar to a mountain climber who plunges into a pressure below 37 kPa (5.4 psi), also called the death zone, where insufficient oxygen bottle count often results in hypoxia with death.
Fighting the effects of space weather
Mars does not have a magnetosphere, which poses a challenge to reduce solar radiation and maintain the atmosphere. It is thought that the local plane detected on Mars is the remains of a collapsing magnetosphere early in its history.
The lack of magnetosphere is considered to be one of the reasons for Mars's thin atmosphere. Solar-induced ejection of Mars's atmospheric atoms has been detected by Mars-orbiting probes, suggesting the solar wind has stripped Mars's atmosphere. While Venus has a dense atmosphere, it has only a water vapor footprint (20 ppm) because it does not have a magnetic field. Earth's ozone layer provides additional protection. Ultraviolet light is blocked before it can separate water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Restoring the Martian magnetic pole or providing an artificial magnetosphere between the Sun and Mars is considered essential to restore the Martian atmosphere and drain the liquid water.
Benefits
According to modern theory, Mars exists on the outer edge of the habitable zone, the area of ​​the Solar System where life can exist. Mars is on the border of an area known as an extended habitable zone where liquid water on the surface may be supported if concentrated greenhouse gases can increase atmospheric pressure. The lack of magnetic field and geological activity on Mars may be due to its relatively small size, allowing the interior to cool faster than Earth, although the details of such a process are still poorly understood.
It has been suggested that Mars once had an Earth-thick atmosphere during the early stages of its development, and that its pressure supports abundant liquid water on the surface. Although water seems to have existed on the surface of Mars, water ice seems to exist at the poles just beneath the surface of the planet as permafrost. The soil and the atmosphere of Mars contain many key elements essential to life, including sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon.
Any induced climate change in the near future will likely be driven by greenhouse warming generated by an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO
2 ) and a consequent increase in atmospheric water vapor. These two gases are the only source of greenhouse warming available in large quantities in the Martian environment. A large amount of water ice is below the surface of Mars, as well as on the polar surface, where it is mixed with dry ice, frozen CO 2 . Significant amount of water is located at the south pole of Mars, which, if melted, will correspond to the planet's 5-11 meter depth of ocean. The frozen carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) at the poles sublimes into the atmosphere during Martian's summer, and a small amount of water residue is left behind, whose swift wind sweeps the pole at speeds approaching 400 km/h. (250 mph). This seasonal incident carries large amounts of dust and water vapor into the atmosphere, forming clouds like Earth.
Much of the oxygen in Mars's atmosphere is present as carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), the major atmospheric component. The oxygen molecule (O 2 ) exists only in trace amounts. Large amounts of elemental oxygen can also be found in metal oxides on the surface of Mars, and in the soil, in per-nitrate form. Analysis of soil samples taken by Phoenix landers indicates the presence of perchlorate, which has been used to liberate oxygen in chemical oxygen generators. Electrolysis can be used to separate water on Mars into oxygen and hydrogen if sufficient water and electricity are available.
Proposed methods and strategies
Terraforming Mars will require three major interlaced changes: building a magnetosphere, building the atmosphere, and raising the temperature. The atmosphere of Mars is relatively thin and has very low surface tension. Since the atmosphere is largely composed of CO 2 , known greenhouse gases, once Mars gets hot, CO 2 can help keep the heat energy near the surface. In addition, when heated, more CO 2 must enter the atmosphere from the frozen reserves at the poles, increasing the greenhouse effect. This means that two atmospheric and heating processes will add to each other, supporting terraforming. It would be difficult to keep the atmosphere together, due to the lack of a global magnetic field.
Importing ammonia
One complicated method of using ammonia as a powerful greenhouse gas. It is possible that such large numbers exist in frozen form on small planets orbiting in the outer Solar System. It is possible to move this and send it to the atmosphere of Mars.
Importing hydrocarbons
Another way to create the atmosphere of Mars is to import methane or other hydrocarbons, which are common in Titan's atmosphere and on its surface; methane can be released into the atmosphere where it will act to unify the greenhouse effect.
Use of fluorine compound
Because long-term climatic stability will be necessary to sustain human populations, especially greenhouse gas-containing greenhouse gases, possibly including hexafluoride or halocarbons such as chlorofluorocarbons (or CFCs) and perfluorocarbons (or PFCs), have been suggested. These gases are proposed for introduction because they produce a greenhouse effect several times stronger than CO 2 . It can be imagined to be done by sending rockets with payloads of uncompressed CFCs on a crash program with Mars. When rockets hit the surface they will release their charge into the atmosphere. This stable sequence of "CFC rockets" needs to be maintained for more than a decade while Mars changes chemically and becomes warmer. However, their lifetime due to photolysis will require an annual increase of 170 kilotons, and they will destroy the ozone layer.
To sublime the southern CO 2 polar jar, Mars will require the introduction of about 0.3 microbars of CFC into the Martian atmosphere. This equates to a mass of about 39 million metric tons. This is about three times the number of CFCs produced on Earth from 1972 to 1992 (when the production of CFCs was banned by international treaties). The Martian mineralogy survey estimated the presence of fluorine elements in the Martian mass composition at 32 ppm with mass vs. 19.4 ppm for Earth.
The proposal to mine fluorine-containing minerals as a source of CFC and PFC is supported by the belief that since these minerals are expected to be at least as common as Mars on Earth, this process can maintain sufficient quantities of production from optimal greenhouses. compound (CF 3 SCF 3 , CF 3 OCF 2 OCF 3 , CF 3 SCF 2 3 sub , sub <3 OCF 2 NFCF 3 , C 12 F 27 N) to maintain Mars at 'comfort', as a method of maintaining Earth-like atmospheres previously generated by some other means.
Use of orbital mirror
Mirrors made of thin aluminized PET film can be placed in orbit around Mars to increase the total insolation it receives. This will direct sunlight to the surface and can increase the surface temperature of Mars directly. Mirrors can be positioned as statite, using their effectiveness as a sun screen to orbit in a silent position relative to Mars, near the poles, to sublimate CO
2 ice sheets and contribute to the greenhouse warming effect.
Albedo Reduction
Reducing albedo from the surface of Mars will also make the use of incoming sunlight more efficient. This can be done by spreading the dark dust from Mars, Phobos and Deimos, which is one of the darkest objects in the Solar System; or by introducing life forms of extrinsic microbes such as lichens, algae and bacteria. The soil will then absorb more sunlight, warming the atmosphere.
If algae or other green life is established, it will also contribute a small amount of oxygen to the atmosphere, although not enough to allow humans to breathe. The conversion process to produce oxygen is highly dependent on water. CO 2 is mostly converted to carbohydrates. On April 26, 2012, scientists reported that the lichen survived and showed remarkable results on the adaptation capacity of photosynthesis activity in a 34-day simulation time under Mars at the Mars Simulation Laboratory (MSL) managed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
Research funded: ecopoiesis
Since 2014, NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) and Techshot Inc. have worked together to develop a sealed biodoma that will use colony cyanobacteria and oxygen-producing algae for molecular oxygen (O 2 ) production in Mars. But first they need to test whether it works on a small scale on Mars. This proposal is called the Mars Ecopoiesis Test Bed. Eugene Boland is Chief Scientist at Techshot, a company located in Greenville, Indiana. They intend to send a small tube of photosynthetic algae and extreme extreme cyanobacteria on the mission of the future explorers. The blades will clog the 7 cm (2.8 inch) tubes to certain locations that may experience transients of liquid water, pull some Martian soil and then release the oxygen-producing microorganisms to grow in the sealed soil. The hardware will use Martian underground ice as the phase turns into liquid water. The system will then look for the oxygen that is released as a metabolic byproduct and report the results to a relay satellite orbiting on Mars.
If these experiments were successful on Mars, they would propose to construct some large and sealed structures called biodomes, to produce and harvest oxygen for future human missions into Martian life support systems. Being able to create oxygen there, will provide substantial cost savings for NASA and allow human visits to Mars longer than is possible if astronauts have to haul their own heavy oxygen tank. This biological process, called ecopoiesis , will be isolated, in contained areas, and not intended as a type of global planetary engineering for terraforming the atmosphere of Mars, but NASA states that "This will be the first major leap from the study laboratory to the most experimental (analytic analytic) experiment in situ that is most appealing to planetary biology, ekopoiesis, and terraforming. "
Research at the University of Arkansas presented in June 2015 shows that some methanogens can survive under low Martian pressure. Rebecca Mickol found that in her laboratory, four methanogen species survive from low-pressure conditions similar to submarine subsurface aquifers on Mars. The four species he tested were Methanothermobacter wolfeii, Methanosarcina barkeri, Methanobacterium formicicum and Methanococcus maripaludis . Methanogens do not require oxygen or organic, non-photosynthetic nutrients, using hydrogen as a source of energy and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) as their carbon source, so they can exist in the subsurface environment on Mars.
Protect the atmosphere
One of the key aspects of terraforming Mars is protecting the atmosphere (both present and future built) so as not to be lost into space. Some scientists hypothesized that creating an artificial planetary magnetosphere would be helpful in solving this problem. According to two NIFS Japanese scientists, it is feasible to do so with current technology by building a cooled latitudal superconducting ring system, each carrying enough direct current.
In the same report, it is claimed that the economic impact of the system can be minimized by using it as well as energy transfer and planetary storage systems (SMEs).
Another study proposes the deployment of magnetic dipole shields on the Mars L1 Lagrange point, thus creating an artificial magnetosphere that will protect the entire planet from sun and radiation.
Magnetic shield in orbit L1
During the Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop in late February 2017, NASA scientist Jim Green proposed the concept of placing a magnetic dipole field between the planet and the Sun to protect it from high-energy solar particles. It will be placed in an L1 orbit around 320 R ? . The field should be "Earth is proportional" and retain 50 000 Ã, nT as measured on 1 radius of the Earth. Abstract papers cite that this can be achieved by magnets with 1-2 test powers (10,000-20,000 gauss). If built, the shield allows the planet to recover its atmosphere. Simulations show that within a few years, the planet will be able to reach half the Earth's atmospheric pressure. Without the solar wind off the planet, frozen carbon dioxide on the polar ice cap will begin to sublimate (change from solid to gas) and warm the equator. Ice caps will start to melt to form the oceans. The researchers further argue that volcanic outgassing, which at some level balances the current atmospheric loss on Earth, will fill the atmosphere over time, enough to melt the ice sheet and fill 1 / 7 of the prehistoric sea of ​​Mars.
Terraforming thermodynamics
The overall energy required to sublimate CO 2 from the polar ice cap is modeled by Zubrin and McKay in 1993. If using an orbital mirror, an estimated 120 MW-year of electrical energy will be required in order to produce an adequate mirror great for evaporating the ice sheet. This is considered to be the most effective, though least practical, method. If using a strong halocarbon greenhouse gas, it takes 1,000 MW-year electrical energy to achieve this warming. However, if all CO 2 is fed into the atmosphere, it will only double the current atmospheric pressure from 6 mbar to 12 mbar, amounting to about 1.2% of the Earth's mean sea level pressure. The amount of heating that can be produced today by placing even 100 mbar CO 2 into the small atmosphere, roughly of the order of 10Ã, K . Additionally, once in the atmosphere, it is likely to be removed rapidly, either by sub-surface diffusion and adsorption or by re-condensing to the polar cap.
The surface or atmospheric temperature required to allow liquid water remains unspecified, and liquid water may occur when the atmospheric temperature is as low as 245 Â ° K (-28 Â ° C; -19 Â ° F). However, heating 10Ã, K is much less than it takes to produce liquid water.
In popular culture
The novel series by Kim Stanley Robinson known as the Mars trilogy chronicles colonization and terraforming Mars. These novels are titled according to the dominant color in terraforming stages achieved in each volume: Red Mars (1992), when Mars is still in its natural state; Green Mars (1993), when plants are able to grow in the atmosphere; and Blue Mars (1996), when atmospheric and temperature pressures have risen high enough for marine and rivers to form.
Sponsorship and combat games 1993 Frontier: Elite II , as well as its sequel
The Real-time PC game game 1997 Dark Colony is based on a human Mars, featuring wars between colonizing humans and attacking aliens from various life forms, with many uses of biological warfare. Alien tries to colonize the terraformed planet for its resources.
Video games 2009 Red Faction: Guerrilla is set on a partially reformed Mars, where humans can walk and breathe in the open without pressure suit or breathing apparatus.
See also
- Mars Colonization
- Human mission to Mars
- Mars to Stay
- Terraforming Venus
- Mars Habitat
References
External links
- NASA - Aerospace Intelligence: Terraforming Mars on Wayback Machine (archived September 15, 2007)
- Interview Arthur C Clarke recently mentions terraforming
- Red Colonies
- Terraformers Society of Canada
- Research Paper: Technology Requirements for Terraforming Mars
- Peter Ahrens The Terraformation of Worlds
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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