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In the 2nd century AD Greek astronomer Ptolemy stated that earth was the centre of the universe - most people believed him for the next 1,400 years. |
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People to become Martians this century?
Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2007 (CDT) by Thoth
 Mars will be transformed into a shirt-sleeve, habitable world for humanity before century's end, made livable by thawing out the coldish climes of the red planet and altering its now carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.
How best to carry out a fast-paced, decade by decade planetary facelift of Mars — a technique called "terraforming" — has been outlined by Lowell Wood, a noted physicist and recent retiree of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a long-time visiting rellow of the Hoover Institution.
Lowell presented his eye-opening Mars manifesto at flight school, held here June 20 to June 22 at the Aspen Institute, laying out a scientific plan to "experiment on a planet we're not living on."
Humans: a terraforming species
"I suggest that the
near-term outlook is that Mars will be terraformed," Wood said, and
seriously underway by the middle of this century and essentially
complete by the end of the 21st century.
Wood defined terraforming
as "the purposeful alteration of the physical environment to increase
its habitability for humans." He noted that we homo sapiens are a
terraforming species, pointing to our own planet's alteration over time.
"We're currently in the
tenth millennium of the terraforming era," Wood said. Similarly, Mars
will be terraformed...as will every other piece of the solar system
that we can get to...if-and-as humanity becomes truly space-faring, he
explained.
"The terraforming impulse
in humankind will be quenched only by massive adverse selective
pressure," Wood reported. Terraforming nay-sayers seem to ignore the
fundamentals of population genetics, sociobiology and human history, he
argued.
Mars is far easier to
terraform than the moon, Wood advised. "It's kids' stuff as far as
rendering it (Mars) into something that's human habitable quickly and
easily. The moon is a good bit tougher."
Thermal depression
Wood said that Mars
currently is "stuck" in a semi-permanent "thermal depression." But
there is a multiplicity of design solutions, he foresees, such as
engineering an artificial greenhouse effect at the planet that warms
the world and makes it "a more preferred planet."
Overall, Wood said that a
workable plan can be scripted to raise the average temperature of Mars,
rid the world of excess carbon dioxide, as well as generate soil to
support agriculture.
After roughly one to three
decades of such warming, Wood continued, the "Great Spring" literally
erupts all over Mars. It's all a matter of trimming-and-tailoring a
thawed Mars to the "biospheric optimum," he concluded.
Responded Esther Dyson,
Chairman of EDventure and host of the Flight School: "This is not a
project that would fit the time horizon of any venture capitalist."
But Wood said that the effort is doable, but with a caveat.
"I believe it's roughly a
50-50 chance that young children now alive will walk on martian
meadows...will swim in martian lakes," Wood said. It is not technology,
nor money, he said, the pacing ingredient is marshaled will.
Copyright: MSNBC
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Re: People to become Martians this century?
by cclady on Thursday, June 28, 2007 (CDT)
(User Info | Send a Message) | Emotional overload on this story. A few sci-fi movies come to mind too.
(dripping sarcasm) We humans have done such a wonderful job of respecting and nurturing our Mother Earth, isn't it nice how we'll be able to take all that love to Mars and the rest of the solar system. Hey why stop there, let's take over the galaxy too! |
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Re: People to become Martians this century?
by Dexter on Thursday, June 28, 2007 (CDT)
(User Info | Send a Message) | The idea of terraforming Mars has been first mentioned in the early '90s.
NASA planned on dropping large amounts of a sort of blue algae into Mars' atmosphere which would be able to turn the CO2 into oxygen.
By the time these algae would have produced enough oxygen, other living organisms (mostly small plants and micro-organisms) to help warming up Mars' atmosphere.
After the planet had warmed up enough, it would then be time to send a manned craft there, who's inhabitants would begin working the ground and planting some small trees and other plants. This would help making Mars' atmosphere a little thicker.
At first these 'kolonists' would be living in special buildings with an earthlike atmosphere, until it would be save to walk outside without a space-suit.
By that time other kolonists would be arriving at Mars to begin populating this planet. (Of course the richest people and military personnel would be the first ones to get a ticket to a new life).
This process takes up so much time that it would at least take a couple of hundreds of years to realise, but it's not impossible to do; even with our present technology level.
About terraforming other planets in our solar system: there aren't many other canditates to it. Except from Europa and Io maybe, but it would take a lot more time to realize.
Sounds pretty convincing, doesn't it. I hope I live long enough to see the start of this program.
Greetz
Dexter |
Attack Mars! (Score: 1)
by denzo on Thursday, June 28, 2007 (CDT)
(User Info | Send a Message) | | The terra forming has already been started. The machines we send to mars are in the process of terra forming now. Moon base for stopover for mars. Our future lives will witness many things! I hope we as a species can S.M.I.L.E. Respectfully, Denzo. |
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