Terraforming Mars?

[JMCx4]

What will they think of (or see during a Hulu binge session) next?
____________________________________
From: Science.org

Terraforming Mars could be easier than scientists thought

Tiny rods made from martian ingredients could trap heat and warm planet

7 Aug 2024
2:00 PM ET
By Hannah Richter

One of the classic tropes of science fiction is terraforming Mars: warming up our cold neighbor so it could support human civilization. The idea might not be so far-fetched, research published today in Science Advances suggests.

Injecting tiny particles into Mars’s atmosphere could warm the planet by more than 10°C in a matter of months, researchers find—enough to sustain liquid water. Although the scheme would require about 2 million tons of particles per year, they could be manufactured from readily available ingredients found in martian dust.

“It’s not that often you get some really quite new, innovative idea for terraforming,” says Colin McInnes, a space engineer at the University of Glasgow not involved with the work. “The gap between where Mars is and where Mars could be for habitability is narrower than we might think.” ...


Read more Science-faction at:

https://www.science.org/content/article/terraforming-mars-could-be-easier-scientists-thought

| Science.org

Click to read more...

 

[beowulf]

 

[Blitzkrug]

Still doesn't matter. You need a magnetosphere to retain any atmosphere you create/build. Unless they have some gigabrain plan to re-heat the planets core of to build a forcefield of some kind, this is pointless.

There's also evidence to suggest you might just die on the way there anyway.

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2024-06-12/any-trip-to-mars-might-destroy-astronauts-kidneys-study#:~:text=These%20new%20studies%20instead%20found,than%20a%20month%20in%20space

 

[JMCx4]

... There's also evidence to suggest you might just die on the way there anyway.

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-...o-mars-might-destroy-astronauts-kidneys-study

This will all be resolved in the script of an upcoming blockbuster ...

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Easier than we thought? So merely a million times more difficult to do than to fix our planet rather than a billion times more difficult?

 

[beowulf]

Easier than we thought? So merely a million times more difficult to do than to fix our planet rather than a billion times more difficult?

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Yup, big fan of kurzgesagt. If we ever get the technology and capital to ever terraform Mars or Venus, fixing Earth would still be infinitely cheaper, easier, and faster, and would be done before any other mission of the like is done offworld.

Terraforming is something we may do when we get our ducks sorted on Earth, it won't be a last ditch effort to save humanity as even if we nuked the planet a hundred times over, post-apocalyptic Earth would still be more habitable.

 

[beowulf]

Yup, big fan of kurzgesagt. If we ever get the technology and capital to ever terraform Mars or Venus, fixing Earth would still be infinitely cheaper, easier, and faster, and would be done before any other mission of the like is done offworld.

Terraforming is something we may do when we get our ducks sorted on Earth, it won't be a last ditch effort to save humanity as even if we nuked the planet a hundred times over, post-apocalyptic Earth would still be more habitable.

He does mention it at the start saying something about getting Earth in order.

 

[JMCx4]

... Terraforming is something we may do when we get our ducks sorted on Earth, it won't be a last ditch effort to save humanity as even if we nuked the planet a hundred times over, post-apocalyptic Earth would still be more habitable.

20th & 21st C Earthlings have developed a keen tendency to fill up a hole in the ground with detritus, cover it up, and move on to the next hole. Humanity also has a remarkable propensity to move "forward" rather than correct past behaviors. So my bet would be on that trend being extended to planetary-sized scales, unless/until some external factors bring us to our senses.