Terraforming Mars, The Noble Experiment?

Space Daily ^ | July 13, 2004 | Interview w/Robert Zubrin

[RockinRight]

I'm basically interested in Freeper's opinions on this concept. Can we do it? Should we do it? Is it anti-God, unethical? Since global warming is probably bunk, does that negate this entire concept? I don't know what to think myself. Part of me is intrigued by the idea, part of me is skeptical...

OTOH, Robert Zubrin had several talks with Newt Gingrich who seemed to at least support going to Mars.

[Bikers4Bush]

Yes we can and yes we should.

[orionblamblam]

> Can we do it?

Yes.

> Should we do it?

Yes. (What, you wouldn't amke a desert island bloom if you could?)

> Is it anti-God, unethical?

No more than turnign a desert into a farm is unethical.

> Since global warming is probably bunk, does that negate this entire concept?

A: "Global warming" isn't bunk. Human-created global warmign may well be.
B: The greenhouse effect is well understood. Ask anyone with a greenhouse.
C: The requirements for global warming on the scale of Mars are *vast*, and wholly unlike a bunch of belching SUV's.

> Robert Zubrin had several talks with Newt Gingrich ...

Do not overestimate the relevance of Zubrin. He has burned just about every bridge he has ever come near.

[RockinRight]

It is intriguing. There are enough similarities between the two planets-both have a 24 hour day, seasons, an axial tilt...

[af_vet_rr]

Is it anti-God, unethical?

If it was "anti-God, unethical" then all of the stuff we put in the air, the trees we cut down, the coal we dig up, etc. would be "anti-God, unethical", and I don't think any of us here believe that (I do know of some Christian sects that do think along those lines...but they aren't on the internet I'm guessing).

In regards to the overall questions..could we/should we...I think it's eventually going to happen. We can't limit ourselves just to one planet - if something happened, the human race would be screwed. There's also that contingent that thinks we've screwed up here, let's go somewhere else - of course that'll just end up screwed up as well, lol.

It's in our nature, at least in the nature of the American culture to do things like this (and by proxy the cultures that make up what we call American culture - Spanish, English, German, Dutch, etc.). We've supressed it for a long time time now, and various groups want you to believe that it was all a big mistake, but I think we are almost ready to make the next leap.

If I were a younger man, I'd very much be interested in actually going when the time came. My family first came to Florida and later Texas, from Spain 400 and 500 years ago, and I think it would be fitting for somebody in the family to do the same when it comes to Mars.

[sc2_ct]

I didn't think that Mars had a molten core, and thus no strong magnetic field to protect it. Would the increased distance from the Sun be sufficient, or would terraforming and colonizing Mars simply lead to a civilization of Anemic pale guys with Melanoma?

[RockinRight]

I'm 27-if I could go in my lifetime, I would.

[RockinRight]

There are several theories on how to remedy this. One is an artificial magnetic field, can't find the URL but there is info on this.

[Scythian]

We should only do it if we make sure all people who wish to migrate to Mars swear an oath to the martian constitution, if later they turn lefty, we float them off into space ...

[Bikers4Bush]

Or we could develop a way to "fire" the core up so to speak.

[mvpel]

You should read the book - I've got a few extra copies that I picked up a few years back through a California Mars Society chapter, Freepmail me your address and I'll mail you one.

We can certainly do it, and without the wasteful stopover at the space station that NASA seems to have wedged in to the Mars Direct plan in order to justify that particular white elephant. We went to the Moon approaching forty years ago with computers that were essentially glorified calculators.

How could it be anti-God? He commanded us to be fruitful and multiply, and fill up the earth, how much more godly is it to bring God's gift of life and mind to a barren planet! Imagine a human society, centuries from now, that spans three planets and the asteroid belt, and consists of a trillion humans living in prosperity and peace. What could be more godly than that?

Global warming isn't bunk, it's the idea that human CO2 emissions are the main cause of global warming that's bunk. The scientific principles of trapping infrared radiation near the surface of a planet with CO2 and other greenhouse gasses is well-established, on Venus and elsewhere.

[Straight Vermonter]

Mars' day is a liitle but you can buy cool clocks that keep Mars time now.

Now you can keep track of what time of day it is at the Mars Rover landing sites. A Martian day is very close to an Earth day --- about 24 Earth hours plus 39-1/2 minutes. This means a normal quartz clock can't keep Martian time. We have created a quartz clock with a timebase adjusted to conform to mean Mars time. The clock divides the Martian day into 24 hours. Once you have set the clock to the local Mars time at one of the Mars Rover locations, you can tell at a glance what time of Martian day it is for the rovers.

[af_vet_rr]

C: The requirements for global warming on the scale of Mars are *vast*, and wholly unlike a bunch of belching SUV's.

It would take a vast fleet of SUVs so large that they would need a crew of dozens just to navigate and maneuver ;-)

There is a trilogy of books about Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson that gets into this. They were going to use things like bacteria/plants, and what not to do it, and it was going to take quite a while before it was noticeable. He made the point that you wouldn't necessarily have to go whole-hog - that you could work on an atmosphere for low-lying areas, or work with large domes over craters.

It's interesting to think about it. I think we'll see people on Mars in our lifetime - people like Burt Rutan are going to make it happen.

[eagle11]

Our descendents will do this, unless we discover Earth-like worlds around other stars, and a technology to travel there.

I like Carl Sagan's concept (the subject of his doctoral thesis) of terraforming Venus. This would take centuries, far longer than Mars.

[RockinRight]

How could it be anti-God? He commanded us to be fruitful and multiply, and fill up the earth, how much more godly is it to bring God's gift of life and mind to a barren planet! Imagine a human society, centuries from now, that spans three planets and the asteroid belt, and consists of a trillion humans living in prosperity and peace. What could be more godly than that?

Interesting, and you make a good point.

[mvpel]

Various designs for habitats on Mars involve using hills, martian-made bricks, and other geological aspects to provide shielding from the much higher level of radiation on the surface.

Terraforming - thickening the atmosphere - would do much to cut down the flux.

[Soliton]

I don't want them marsiforming us, so maybe we should leave them alone.

[RockinRight]

Venus would be much more difficult. There's no water on Venus (Mars has some in the icecaps and probably underground) and has 1000 times the atmosphere we'd need, not to mention it's all CO2. Plus, since it is closer to the Sun, it would be difficult to cool it off enough to be habitable.

[RockinRight]

Hehehe...

[green iguana]

I don't want them marsiforming us, so maybe we should leave them alone.

What 'them' are you talking about?