To Terraform or not to Terraform?

[Atheist-Lite]

I'd suggest pumping part of the atmosphere onto the ocean floor here and terraforming parts of this planet under the sea first. This would act as a test bed for technology without having to worry about expensive rocket fuel. And lets face it not much could go wrong compared with things as they stand already?

Domes? Where would the sunlight come from?

Optic cables?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'd suggest pumping part of the atmosphere onto the ocean floor here and terraforming parts of this planet under the sea first. This would act as a test bed for technology without having to worry about expensive rocket fuel. And lets face it not much could go wrong compared with things as they stand already?

Domes? Where would the sunlight come from?

Optic cables?

Enough to equal the sun? Impressive bundle.

[JimC]

I have heard the idea put about of altering the orbits of comets (with much water and carbon), sending hundreds of them creashing into Mars, giving it a Greenhouse effect from extra water vapour and carbon dioxide...

Would want the orbits to be damn accurate, though...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I have heard the idea put about of altering the orbits of comets (with much water and carbon), sending hundreds of them creashing into Mars, giving it a Greenhouse effect from extra water vapour and carbon dioxide...

Would want the orbits to be damn accurate, though...

Zubrin promotes this, I think.

The Mars Society was something of a joke when they started, but when NASA found their facilities equal or better than anything we could come up with they started borrowing them for testing.

[mistermack]

I have heard the idea put about of altering the orbits of comets (with much water and carbon), sending hundreds of them creashing into Mars, giving it a Greenhouse effect from extra water vapour and carbon dioxide...

Would want the orbits to be damn accurate, though...

I can't see how that works. There's plenty of water and CO2 on mars. It's too cold for it to work, the water just freezes. I thought the mars atmosphere WAS mostly co2, I'll have to check that now.

I can't see a future for terraforming anything. If you lived on mars for too long, your health would suffer, and your bones would weaken. Might be a good place for old peoples rest homes though. Lower gravity would be nice for them.

I see Mars and the Moon as mainly a minerals source in the future, with space colonisation being done in gigantic revolving space stations that can simulate gravity with centrifugal force. That way, your time in space could be unlimited.

Mars and the Moon would have to provide the raw materials, as it would take less energy to get them into space due to the lower gravity. We could mine comets etc for raw materials as well.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"Plenty" is a relative term, I think. We don't know accurately how much water there is there, and much more will be needed to get standing oceans.

[Coito ergo sum]

Timescales ... Therein lies the downfall of any such project. When you consider how long it would take to install a biosphere, with sufficient life to sustain itself such that it will feed the human population, no-one is going to live to see the profit in it. If it doesn't make money to make a bunch of chief execs rich in their lifetime, it's not going to happen. If humanity was sufficiently altruistic to be able to do terraform another planet, it would be sufficiently motivated to do something about the long-term problems on this planet - and it won't do that because there's no profit in doing so: who's gonna cry for the third generation after us?

That's why government run space programs are important. Private industry needs to make a profit. Government don't.

[mistermack]

"Plenty" is a relative term, I think. We don't know accurately how much water there is there, and much more will be needed to get standing oceans.

It's there somewhere. It does have polar ice caps. And there were clear pictures of sedimentary rock sent back from the probes, so there must be frozen oceans there, under the dust.

[Animavore]

If we could do it I say why not? I can't think of one good argument against it.

[mistermack]

I can't see any moral argument against it. We seem hell-bent on DEterraforming the Earth. If we don't care about making highly evolved species of plants and animals extinct here on earth, who cares about a few bugs on Mars?

[Coito ergo sum]

The problem is, a this rate we'll not even walk on Mars, let alone terraform it.

[Animavore]

Yes. I don't see it happening. I just have no objection to terraforming the shit out of it if we could.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"Plenty" is a relative term, I think. We don't know accurately how much water there is there, and much more will be needed to get standing oceans.

It's there somewhere. It does have polar ice caps. And there were clear pictures of sedimentary rock sent back from the probes, so there must be frozen oceans there, under the dust.

"must be"

[Coito ergo sum]

Is terraforming just George Bush's way of saying "terror" forming?

[Pappa]

I think the concept is impractical. The fine balance required to make another planet fully habitable would be an immense technical challenge. Plus the timescales involved would mean politicians committing to something due for completion after their deaths... unlikely.

Besides, we can't even sucessfully control the environment on this planet. Why would we suddenly do better on a new one that required far more changes?

I don't have any ethical objections to killing microbes though. I do it all the time when I wash my hands.