Posted on 12/29/2004 7:42:52 AM PST by vannrox
This sounds like a joke to me, heck the probes we send now are scrubbed clean of any living thing so we won't screw up an alien planet, its silly to think we would now try and grow trees on mars. Plus the first attempt at any production of life on mars would be algae and tiny forms of life
with little oxygen
How will my chainsaw run?
When will the Mars version of "Earth First" object to this violation of the virgin land of Mars?
At night, the photosynthesis stops but the respiration continues burning the carbohydartes as they use oxygen and produce carbon dioxide.
(Not a correction, just added for clarification)
WHY?? What a waste of money.....
I just REALIZED WHY they are going to do this. They figure in a hundred years or so, there will be no more trees here on earth....population is growing at a fast rate. They will have to be transported from Mars to build things. Companies will be formed...like SPACE TRUCK LINES....or SPACE MOVERS. Buy your stocks now.
I thought there was evidence of frozen water in the Martian soil. A tree (or other vegetation) which can grow in a permafrost environment on earth, might stand a chance on Mars. I think this article is fiction, but I think it's entirely possible that we will introduce plant life to Mars within our lifetimes -- probably something genetically engineered for the task.
Sounds interesting but I'm pretty skeptical. Planting trees in an environment that lacks liquid water doesn't sound practical- everything I've read about terraforming Mars suggests starting with microbes and waiting anywhere from a few years to a couple of centuries. I think trying to transplant something as big as a tree, or even a houseplant for that matter, is a bit too ambitious given how little we know.
Algae and other forms of photosynthesizing organisms found in places like Antarctica should be selected and included in any future Martian probes. In addition, engineering of organisms by genetic engineering to beef up particularly important metabolic pathways that would either 1) allow them to adapt to the Martian environment or, 2) to initiate a human-friendly change such as Oxygen-production in the environment, should begin.
yeah but not the mexican trees pal....they use either one.
Well, at least it would make a good plot for a movie ;-)
This isn't something some unknown researcher could do. I think it would literaly have to be a policy directive from the whitehouse. Until I hear the NASA admin or the president announce this, I think I'll take it with a grain of salt.
this is NOT---I repeat NOT April 1st.
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