/sci/ - Science & Math

Under traditional capitalist economics it will likely never be economical to do any more than kinetic bombardment through comets.

Assuming a blank cheque was given to Robert Zubrin:
- Manned missions to Mars within 4 years
- Asteroid mining and refining capability developed within 6 years
- Upscale and refinement of said refining capability for slightly photovoltaic lightweight mirrors by 2020
- Mars has 1% extra sunlight redirected on polar caps by 2025
- 5% extra sunlight by 2030
- Outgassing of CO2 and other volatiles leaves Mars with 100 millibar thick atmosphere and an average temperature quickly approaching 0'C by 2040
- 20% extra sunlight by 2050, equatorial melting is now demonstrated across much of the planet
- 250 millibar thick atmosphere by 2075, Hellas Basin becomes Hellas Ocean, Acidalia now has temperatures high enough for oceans to begin appearing even in the northern latitudes
- Bioengineered algae are seeded across the entire planet by 2080
- Asteroid manufacturing is sufficiently advanced by now to allow entire spacecraft to be produced, allowing for CO2 importation from Venus and nitrogen importation from Titan
- Mars now has a 350 millibar thick, largely CO2 atmosphere with an average planetary temperature around 7'C. Habitable with only the need of oxygen masks/CO2 scrubber masks. All by 2100.

>>3986984
Mars has entire continent-sized regions that are 60% water ice by mass.
It has all the minerals required to support life and by extension technological civilization.
And it's dusty state can be changed.

>>3974029
Early life created this atmosphere, and the soil. It could be said that life is destined to make inhospitable places into garden worlds.

>>3816848
>No, it's a desert without any appreciable atmosphere or water.

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/04/mars-south-pole-holds-nearly-an-atmospheres-worth-of-co2
.ars
Much is also thought to be frozen in the regolith at higher latitudes. In combination with higher temperatures and the presence of water, much more could outgas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_on_Mars#Evidence_of_frozen_water
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars#Hydrology
The two polar ice caps appear to be made largely of water.[47][48] The volume of water ice in the south polar ice cap, if melted, would be sufficient to cover the entire planetary surface to a depth of 11 meters.[49] A permafrost mantle stretches from the pole to latitudes of about 60°.[47]

Zubrin has stated that entire continent-sized regions of Mars are 60% water ice by mass. There is more than enough to support a vibrant technological civilization there.

>We don't have anywhere near the machinery needed to mold that into anything.

>2011
>thinking that this is the pinnacle of our technology and engineering abilities
ISHYGDDT

>If you want to build a paradise, start on earth where there's a fucking hydrosphere.
Mars is a 2 minute noodle version of a garden world. Just add heat and water, and stir until oceans.

>>3661550
>>3661524
We need to modify Mars to not be a hellish shithole.

>>3523903
Haven't heard of terraforming, have you? It is on the outskirts of the habitable zone. What we define as the Goldilocks Zone is actually quite hazy. Even with Mars' incredibly thin atmosphere we have witnessed that water exists on Mars in at least two forms, ice and water. And yesterday in a Mars-related thread, someone suggested that Mars' core is TOO HOT to have a magnetic field due to the sulfur drastically lowering the freezing point of the FeNi core.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars#Climate
>. Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about −87 °C (−125 °F) during the polar winters to highs of up to −5 °C (23 °F) in summers.[44] The wide range in temperatures is due to the thin atmosphere which cannot store much solar heat, the low atmospheric pressure, and the low thermal inertia of Martian soil.

As I've said before, we will become gods. The creators of worlds.

United States dissolved into separate, smaller nations in 2088. Remarkably, all the new nations benefited from decreased meddling from the other side of the former nation. They all have thriving space programs, however what you would call the West Coast nation has teamed up with Martians on a terraforming project which is drawing many great members of the space industry.

>>3299371
Remember when /sci/ was panicking about the possibility of catastrophic amounts of methane clathrates being released into the atmosphere because of the Gulf Oil spill disaster? Shit like that had the potential to perhaps cause a major extinction event. Oh, and what about the oceans already warming up from our massive CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions destabilizing methane clathrates and ocean ecosystems across the entire planet?

We need a backup, badly.

>or would it be a novelty for rich people requiring massive import from earth?
You say that as if its a problem with space travel and not a problem with rich people and/or the system that would perpetuate such problems.

>>3299364
Beforehand launch costs were just a bit too expensive. Now we're getting SpaceX shit and Skylon spaceplane developments with many other prospective companies and corporations jumping into the game. It's only recently that it would of jumped on the table as a practical, potentially quite profitable plan.

>>3127031
Let's ring up Mr. Bob Zubrin.

Though I suspect he'll say it is unnecessary since the thin Martian atmosphere is adequate for solar flare shielding.