/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.1818864]

Hey /sci/
Recently i've been thinking a lot about terraforming mars.
What do you think about it?
Is it possible?
Should it be done?
How long would it take?
Is it possible with today's technology?
How long would it take?

[Anonymous No.1818879]

>>1818864
Crash mars's moons into it with an ice meteor

Won't take long at all.nok

[Anonymous No.1818882]

>>1818864
Hey. I thought this was a rather interesting start off to a thread. I know its wikipedia but it's still a good place to start with information.

I wouldn't quote it, but its useful when you're just interested.

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

This is the page I found.

[Anonymous No.1818883]

It is a bad idea. It will take too long, cost too much, and it won't even last because Mars has too little mass and lacks a molten interior. The atmosphere will leak away and tend towards what it is today.

[Anonymous No.1818893]

It's possible, and with today's technology. It'd simply be incredibly expensive and take a very long time. Also note that we're not exactly space faring here, so the whole deal would be long term; worth it, but still long term.

[Anonymous No.1818918]

how about venus
from wikipedia
Terraforming Venus was first seriously proposed by the astronomer Carl Sagan in 1961. The minimum adjustments to the existing environment of Venus to support human life would require three major changes to the planet:
Reducing Venus's 450°C (850°F) surface temperature.
Eliminating most of the planet's dense 9 MPa (~90 atm) carbon dioxide atmosphere, via removal or conversion to some other form.
Addition of breathable oxygen to the atmosphere.

[Anonymous No.1818938]

sadly terraforming/colonization isn't as important to politicians

[Anonymous No.1818965]

when the sun is exploding will europa be habitable

[Anonymous No.1818999]

bamp

[Anonymous No.1819010]

>>1818918
Are there any extremophile lifeforms here on Earth that could resist the intense heat and pressure on Venus, while converting its atmosphere into oxygen?

[Anonymous No.1819012]

newmars.com bro

[Anonymous No.1819027]

>>1818918
1. Create some kind of device to transform heat into pressure
2. Split CO2 into C and O2
3. Use pressure from step 1 to convert C into diamonds
4. PROFIT

[Anonymous No.1819030]

>>1819010
i don't think there are any that could even survive on mars or the moon either

[Anonymous No.1819059]

>>1819030

some species of lichens survived an experiment that exposed them to hard space vacuum, with all the radiation out there and everything

[Anonymous No.1819065]

>>1818965
bamp for this, when the sun starts dying will europa ever thaw out and become habitable

[Anonymous No.1819099]

>>1818918
if carl sagan said it, it must be true

[Anonymous No.1819131]

>>1818879
obligatory.pcx

>>1819065
see you in 4 billion years

The major problem with mars is no magnetic core, so no field to protect it from the sun. We'll have the technology to make an atmosphere soonish (problem of scale at that point) but the magnetic field will still be an issue. Best we can really do is have localized fields around the settlements.

Also, does Venus have an appreciable magnetic field?

[Anonymous No.1819154]

http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=7767
>RULE 1: Act civilized. This is the internet.
Choose one.

[Anonymous No.1819167]

>>1819131
>Also, does Venus have an appreciable magnetic field?
Not really, it also has a really slow rotation=long ass days

[Anonymous No.1819187]

>>1819167
I suppose living at the poles would be optimal then, if we can ever solve the runaway greenhouse gas problem.

Of course, an orbiting civilization would be functional too. Wait no that's dumb, then we might as well not be near Venus.

animooted but <span class="math">super[/spoiler] slow, anyone know a free program to edit gifs?

[Anonymous No.1819186]

Current Technology: Long time.
Future Technology: Resonable time.
Distant-Future Technology: Fuck yeah.

[Anonymous No.1819200]

>>1819187
don't know about my gimp

[Anonymous No.1819205]

>>1819187
this is better http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/solarsystem/
you feel small and insignificant you lose

[Anonymous No.1819207]

why do people think they can terraform an entire planet when we cant even reverse the small changes we've made to our own?

[Anonymous No.1819215]

>>1819207
like what
our globing warming skills will come in handy with terraforming mars

[Anonymous No.1819225]

>>1819215
We were just practicing all along!

[Anonymous No.1819226]

best gif

[Anonymous No.1819240]

>>1819207
Why the hell would you want to undo all the progress we've been making here on earth.

You fucking like ice and unusable land?

[Anonymous No.1819245]

>>1819226
for best effect watch with this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHn67C5x6A4
inb4 atheist shitstorm its a good song

[Anonymous No.1819266]

this may sound like an idea out of idiocracy but how about we make a new planet out of trash, like how some mountains at ski resorts are mad out of trash, we then make it a moon or another planet in the goldilocks zone

[Anonymous No.1819287]

why don't we terraform the Sahara desert instead?

[Anonymous No.1819296]

>>1819226
It's good, but (spelling errors aside), it says that when the Milky Way and Andromeda collide, "many solar systems are destroyed."

Probably not. Stars are so freaking spread out within the galaxy that most likely none of them will collide. It's very likely that some solar systems will be ejected from the merging galaxies altogether, but their local gravity will hold them intact.

[Anonymous No.1819297]

>>1819266
>implying we have anywhere near enough mass to spare to make this, or that anyone would ever want to live there

[Anonymous No.1819298]

>>1819287
i guess no one has thought about that

[Anonymous No.1819310]

>>1819296
decided to look up stellar density of both galaxies to confirm or deny this, found the following
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast222/lectures/lec19.html

[Anonymous No.1819317]

We should probably control most of the earth...and settle it. Before we start nonperforming other celestial bodies.
E.g desalinize the a percentage of the water in the ocean, and put this water to good use in making deserts more sustainable.

[Anonymous No.1819344]

>>1819310
oh, forgot to mention why I even posted that. Has a really neat explanation for spiral density waves, with a pic about halfway down. I never knew that's how spiral arms formed, always assumed it was just gravity.

[Anonymous No.1819373]

>>1819344
What's interesting is that the collision of the two galaxies will actually CREATE a bunch of solar systems, since the collision of gas between the galaxies will cause star birth.

[Anonymous No.1819376]

>>1819297
>implying implications were made that anyone wouldn't want to visit an extraterrestrial body
seriously who the fuck wouldn't want to leave earth

[Anonymous No.1819390]

bamp

[Anonymous No.1819406]

>>1819287

Because it's owned by a bunch of retards who could do it themselves if they weren't so stupid, and won't even thank us if we do it for them

[Anonymous No.1819418]

>>1819406
I guess. they are pretty busy with their guns and toilets made of gold

[Anonymous No.1819444]

>>1819226
10% brighter sun =/= the earth turning into desert. More heat from the sun = more convection and rain. Tropical paradise.

[Anonymous No.1819448]

>i don't think there are any that could even survive on mars or the moon either

Tardigrades are animals that can possibly survive on both the Moon and Mars for ten years even without a water source. If they can find a source of water perhaps longer than ten years.

[Anonymous No.1819458]

Why not terraform Venus? Just suck out most of that poisonous atmosphere and deposit it on Mercury or somewhere and remove the poisonous gases, and the temperature and pressure will lower greatly. The planet is almost as big as Earth and if we can fix the atmosphere to our liking, the polar areas should become inhabitable.

[Anonymous No.1819467]

>>1819458
>Just suck out most of that poisonous atmosphere
Sucking it out and moving it would be an extremely large undertaking, it would be hundreds of times more ideal if we could deposit some algae or whatever to deal with it, instead of ferrying all that mass somewhere else. I think you're underestimating how much it weighs.

[Anonymous No.1819583]

>>1819458
Put it on mars.

[Anonymous No.1819750]

>terraforming mars

already been said but

>no molten core = no magnetic field
hi2u solar + cosmic radiation anything living there for a long time would either have to be sheltered or able to withstand it

solar winds very slowly bleed off the atmosphere, not at a rate that would be troublesome in the short run but would require a means of replenishment, currently the atmospheric pressure at the bottom of valles marineris is = to 40k feet here

[Anonymous No.1819771]

>>1819010
maby some fungus that can float via gasbags

[Mature Related !K/L9IJgMJY No.1819807]

I can't what to go to Aqua.
They see me pushing my boat...

[Anonymous No.1819844]

>>1819750
Your argument was invented by the man to keep us down. Low level of radiation on mars is low. Also we are more adaptable than that. Also the earth has swapped magnetic fields several times, during the swaps we loose the magnetic field for thousands of years. Earth life did not all die and we did not all move underground.

Also radiation prevents cancer old radiation damage models are broken and contain high levels of herp also some derp.
http://www.jpands.org/vol9no1/chen.pdf

[Anonymous No.1820546]

>>1819583
why the hell would we put it on mars when mars could be another spot for life
i say shoot it at the sun

[Anonymous No.1820551]

>>1819844
Yep true, and earth is in the process of flipping polarity right now.

[Anonymous No.1820554]

>>1819458
Venus is dry man, no water.

[Anonymous No.1820630]

>>1818864
Mars wouldn't look like that if we terraformed it. If the water would be at 9km high the lower half of Mars would be land and the upper half would be ocean. There would be 1 big island just near the coast and a smaller island next to it. Boring i know. It would be cool it it looked more like Europe or something. Water and land evenly here and there.

[Anonymous No.1820636]

>>1819376
i agree, i would visit a moon/planet of trash

[Anonymous No.1821964]

bamp

[Anonymous No.1821987]

>>1819027
>The C is now DIAMONDS

You know that you can't just "separate the C from the O2", right? CO2 molecules are formed like this:

O=C=O

Even if you could separate the C from the Os, they'd be just as likely to combine into ozone than breathable oxygen gas.

[patachu !LULZISTwQI No.1821989]

>>1819750
oh and fuck.
what a bout terraforming venus instead?

[Anonymous No.1822002]

Mars lacks the gravity to hold an atmosphere, and the magnetic field to shield any life on it from the high energy radiation of the sun. once you get past that however it would be very simple.

increase the CO2 content of the atmosphere to levels high enough to cause the ice caps to melt. this releases more co2 into the atmosphere and provides the best part: water! keep an eye on it for a while, let it rain for a few decades to hopefully compact the soil and dissolve w/e it is that causes the soil to be toxic (i would have to look it up and i am don't really feel like it) after that is done you start transplanting stuff and hoping you don't fuck up the ecosystems before they get up and running.

[Anonymous No.1822029]

>>1821989
op here just got back from classes
i wonder how hot it would be, even with an atmosphere like earth

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.1822055]

>>1821989

IT'S RETARDED ENOUGH TO WORK

[patachu !LULZISTwQI No.1822082]

>>1822029
well er... we need to know how to get rid of venus's greenhouse gas. if there was water we could spread many mutant invading plants to convert the whole CO2 into O2, but everything would burn before reaching the ground.

thus said it's an intresting planet, format-wise.

[Ambroid !hyQ/zQyIa6 No.1822121]

>>1821989
I was fascinated by the concept of balloons up in the atmosphere [50km I think, there's the same pressure at on Earth there]. They'd stay there thanks to helium balloons largely extracted from Venuses atmosphere.

You'd only have to invent a new more efficient coating for acid rains and a recycling system for air and water etc.

[Anonymous No.1822265]

> Is it possible?
No.

[Anonymous No.1822337]

>>1822265
if it's impossible why did carl sagan say it was possible and you are a faggot
No one questions sagan

[Anonymous No.1822360]

>>1822337
Argument from authority = fail

[Anonymous No.1822366]

Floating Cities on Venus, motherfucker
In sufficient height, the pressure and temperature is almost earth-like.

[Anonymous No.1822407]

>>1822360
fuck your sage
the point i was trying to make was if it's impossible why is it discussed so much, well i guess that happens all the time (cold fusion etc)
>>1822366
fuck, imagine if a exact replica of cloud city was built

[Anonymous No.1822438]

I think it will be very, very difficult to transplant the number of species necessary for a stable ecosystem and biosphere.

[Anonymous No.1822484]

Mars would be better to just mine to collapse.

[Anonymous No.1822553]

i think there was proposals for giant mirrors over near mars but that sounds like troll physics

[Anonymous No.1822706]

buamap