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Terraforming Mars

Terraforming Mars. Fact or Fiction By: Sarah Lee PHYS-1040-007. Current Features. Mars today is a cold, dry, and lifeless planet. Mars contains all the elements needed to sustain life Water Carbon Oxygen (as carbon dioxide) Nitrogen The physical aspects are similar to Earth

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Terraforming Mars

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  1. Terraforming Mars Fact or Fiction By: Sarah Lee PHYS-1040-007

  2. Current Features • Mars today is a cold, dry, and lifeless planet. • Mars contains all the elements needed to sustain life • Water • Carbon • Oxygen (as carbon dioxide) • Nitrogen • The physical aspects are similar to Earth • Gravity • Rotation Rate • Axial Tilt • It has an acceptable distance to the Sun.

  3. Beliefs • It is believed that primitive Mars had a greenhouse effect. • Cycling water caused volatile CO2 to form into the carbonate rock. • CO2 still exists in the regolith and southern polar cap. • May be used to thicken the atmosphere to about 30% of Earth’s pressure • May be able to heat the planet with an artificial induced greenhouse effect.

  4. Atmosphere • There are three reservoirs of CO2. • Atmosphere • Dry Ice in the polar caps • Gas absorbed in the soil • If the polar temperature should rise, the cap will disappear and the atmosphere will be regulated by the soil reservoir.

  5. AtmosphereChanges • Atmospheric pressure would increase to 400 millibars. • Earth’s surface pressure is an average of 1000 mbs. • This would be enough pressure to eliminate the need for pressure suits. • The year round climate would be above freezing for half of Mar’s surface. • Plant life could be introduced, particularly plankton.

  6. Proposed Methods • There are three methods that seem the most promising. • Use of orbital mirrors • Importation of ammonia rich objects • Production of artificial halocarbon gases

  7. Orbital Mirrors • Would be most practical to construct a modest mirror capable of warming limited areas by a few degrees.

  8. Orbital MirrorsDesign • Would need to have a minimum radius of 125 km in order to reflect enough sunlight to raise polar regions by 5 K. • If made of solar sail type aluminized mylar material, would need a density of 4 tonnes/km2 and would have a mass of 200,000 tonnes. • May also be constructed from asteroidal or Martian moon materials. • 120 Mwe-years of energy are required to process the materials for the reflector. • Required operating altitude would need to be 214,000 km.

  9. Orbital MirrorsPosition • Device would not have to orbit the planet. • Solar light pressure could be made to balance the planet’s gravity. • This would allow mechanism to hover as a “statite”. • Statite is an artificial satellite that uses solar sails to modify it’s orbital positioning, optimizing the use of sunlight. • Power output would be focused on the polar region.

  10. Ammonia Asteroids • Ammonia is a powerful greenhouse gas. • It is theorized that asteroidal objects in the outer solar system may contain large amounts of frozen ammonia.

  11. Ammonia AsteroidsCollision Course • It would be easier to move an outer solar asteroid than to do so from the Main Belt. • Laws of orbital mechanics state that objects farther away from the Sun orbit at a slower rate. • Objects that move slower, take a smaller amount of V to change trajectory. • V or Delta-V: It is a measure of the amount of "effort" that is needed to change from one trajectory to another by making an orbital maneuver.

  12. Ammonia AsteroidsThrust and Time • Consider an asteroid with a mass of 10 billion tonnesorbiting the Sun at 12 AU. • Using Saturn’s gravity, it would require a V of 0.3 km/s. • Using a quartet of 5000 MW nuclear thermal rocket engines that would use some of the ammonia to produce an exhaust velocity, it would use 8% of asteroids material. • It would take 10 years of steady thrusting, followed by 20 years of coasting until impact.

  13. Ammonia AsteroidImpact • One asteroid, upon impact, would release enough energy to be about 10 TW-years. • Enough to melt 1 trillion tonnes of water. • Ammonia released would raise planet temperature by 3 degrees centigrade. • Would help form a shield that would mask the surface from ultraviolet radiation

  14. Ammonia AsteroidContinuous Mission • Forty such missions would double Mars’ nitrogen content. • If one mission launched per year, it would take 50 years to melt enough water to cover a quarter of the planet with a 1m deep layer of water. • Lifetime of an ammonia molecule on Mars is less than a century • Ammonia objects would have to be continuously imported, but with less frequency, in order to maintain supply • Continuous impacts could make Mars unsuitable for human settlement.

  15. Ammonia AsteroidsOther Options • After ammonia importation begins initial greenhouse conditions, it may be possible to set up a bacterial ecology. • This would recycle the nitrogen and release ammonia back into the atmosphere. • It would eliminate the need for further impacts.

  16. Halocarbons Amount of halocarbon gas needed to create a given temperature rise. Power that would be needed to produce required CFC’s Over a 20 year period

  17. HalocarbonsIndustrialization • Typical nuclear power plants used today has a power output of 1000 MWe, and provides enough energy for a medium sized American city. • This would produce a trainload of refined material every day. • Would require a crew of several thousand people • Project budget would be several hundred billion dollars.

  18. HalocarbonsTime • In several decades, Mars would transform into a warm and slightly moist planet • The air would not be breathable, but humans could wear scuba type breathing gear instead of space suits. • Would be possible to live under huge domelike inflatable tents • Hardy plan life could be introduced • After a few centuries plants would produce enough oxygen for atmosphere to be breathable

  19. Activating Hydrosphere • Halocarbon gases can be produced using in-situ but will take centuries. • In-situ: Using the planets own resources as a means of production. • Faster methods would be doing some violence to the planet i.e: • Use of asteroidal impacts • Thermonuclear explosives (will most likely leave the planet unacceptably radioactive) • Alternative to hydrosphere activation is the use of orbiting mirrors • Triple the power from the impact of 1 10 billion tonne asteroid per year

  20. AtmosphereDifficulties • Lack of magnetic field leaves Mars atmosphere unprotected. • Has a small remnant of magnetic field at the polar regions which protect ice caps. • Super wave solar winds will strip any atmosphere off. • Super waves are caused when the Sun emits two waves of different speed. One wave will crash into the other and amp it up.

  21. Oxygenating the Planet • Though the technology needed for terraforming is still speculative, it may not be impossible. • Who is to say, that if the first steps are taken, that development of these technologies will not follow. • Who knew that someday humans would be able to fly?

  22. References • Technological Requirements for Terraforming Mars • Robert M. Zubrin. Pioneer Astronautics. • Christopher P. McKay. NASA Ames Research Center. • NASA - Consequences of Exploration: Learning from History • NASA's Chief Historian, Steven J. Dick • Martian Air Blown Away by Solar Super Wave • By Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News

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