Zachary Watson
Mrs. Willet
Astronomy
3/5/13
Terraforming Mars
Terraforming Mars is the process of making mars hospitable to human life and colonizing a safe environment for people to live. Mars, in retrospect, is the most earth-like planet that resides in our solar system, therefore it is the best planet amongst those around earth for us to attempt to inhabit. I would choose to use a timeline of one thousand years to complete the inhabitation process. Most scientist’s timeline is between one hundred and one hundred thousand years, I believe one hundred is much too short and we would be moving to fast and possibly make a mistake along the way. One hundred thousand on the other hand is too long, earths population would be far too high and we would need another environment sooner. Mars has a good amount of resources available for us to use if we make it to mars, these include oxygen, nitrogen, and water.
In order to get humans to Mars, we would obviously fly there in a spacecraft, this spacecraft would be extremely large because it will serve as home to people for the entirety of the journey. The spacecraft would be made up of an amalgamation of other spacecrafts all connected to form one, and represent a human environment, somewhat like a flying house, looking like boxes practically stacked on top of each other and continually getting smaller, like a wedding cake. Each box represents a “floor” in the “house”, the bottom and largest floor would be the living quarters. We would need a hearty amount of fuel to make it to Mars, nuclear thermal would be the best choice. The liquid hydrogen would be heated to a very high temperature in a nuclear reactor, and would expand through the nozzle of the rocket to make thrust...
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... The Mars Global Surveyor was sent as an orbiter to fly around Mars, it took pictures and was able to point out the annual changes in the cycle of Mars, it also pointed out some new craters. The Odyssey monitored the atmospheric and radiation data of Mars. Spirit was a rover that discovered direct evidence of hydrogen on Mars. The Opportunity rover landed shortly after Spirit , and it found a great amount of hematite in its landing site crater.
We obviously could not breathe on Mars, we would need at least a small supplement of oxygen through some type of a mask. We would need to worry about radiation, although the soil would shield heavy amounts from doing too much harm. It will be extremely exciting to see the future humans can make happen regarding terraforming Mars and hopefully in about one thousand years humans will be riding bicycles on the Red Planet.
Curiosity, launched in 2012 has APXS (one of the science instruments on board the rover), which helps analyses rocks and soil samples (this was also contributed by Canada to the exploration project on Mars).
Less than three centuries ago, the entire Western half of North America had been completely unexplored. Today, more than a Hundred-Million people live in the Western states. Most of the oil in America is found on the West Coast, along with dozens of major businesses and institutions. The exploration and colonization of the “Last Frontier” has greatly benefitted humanity. If just a few thousand miles of land could have such a large impact on America and the world itself, imagine what an entire planet of unknown riches could bring for our species.
Did you ever think we should go to Mars? Well, we should colonize to Mars! My reasons are it’s a good back-up plan, it has many minerals and land, and we might even find something there, maybe even life! Let me explain my reasons.
Information about space nasa curiosity is a robotic rover that landed on mars in 2012. Since then, curiosity has been roaming mars, collecting data and looking for signs of microbial life. In this interview, astrophysicist neil degrasse tyson discusses the curiosity mission and the possibility of people traveling to mars.
In 1975s, the first spacecraft which landed on Mars was made which was called Viking 1 and it had both an orbiter and a lander. NASA’s Viking project found a place in history when it became the first U.S. mission to land a spacecraft safely on the surface of Mars. Viking 1 had launched on August 20, 1975 and it’d reached Mars orbit on June 19, 1976.
Spirit and Opportunity rover has now been laid down in Mars but they gave a tremendous amount of information about the soils and rocks in Mars. The soils in Plain discovered to have a mixture of minerals olivine, pyroxene, plagioclase and magnetite, scientists classified them as bassart. Soils in Plain are made up from the break-down of rocks. It is known that Plain’s rock has been altered by tiny amount of water. Most of the rocks are coated by dust and other harder materials. They also discovered a vast amount of rocks in Colombia Hills but only a few of them are actually altered by water. Spirit also found out that the dust in Gusev Crater has a magnetic properties that caused by the mineral magnetite. Layer of dust are suggested to contain chemically bound water. Spirit and Opportunity provide clear evidences about the presence of water in Mars
Easier ways companies could set up profitable operations would be to set up a base or colony on a planet or moon that could bring in a profit. Furthermore, a suitable colony could be set up on a planet such as Mars, whether the colony is there for profit or scientific advancement mars could be a highly successful location. However, one of the biggest arguments against colonization is with the knowledge that international law prohibits any nation claiming land on extraterrestrial bodies. Therefore, the legality of if a country could set up a colony it might upset international relations with other countries. Another big argument against sending a permanent populous to other worlds is the health of the people you send. With little to no atmosphere
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched two similar twin robotic rovers, which were Spirit and Opportunity toward Mars on 10 June and 7 July 2003 (NASA 2012). Spirit and Opportunity landed in Gusev Crater on 4 January 2004 and in Meridiani Planum on 25 January 2004 respectively (NASA 2012). Opportunity is still operating and roving after 10 years on the Martian surface while final communication of Spirit to the Earth took place on 22 March 2010, which is around six years into its mission (NASA 2012). The rovers were thought to last 20 times longer as compared to its original design. As part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, the Mars Exploration Rover mission is a continuing multi-mission effort to study Mars as a possible habitation for past or present life and to look for signs of life as well as to prepare for human exploration. Primary objective of the Mars Exploration Rover mission is to explore and characterize a wide range of soils and rocks that possess clues or evidences to past water activity on Mars (NASA 2012).
Many rovers have been sent to the surface to see if it is in fact capable of supporting life, either unknown to us or us. Scientists have turned toward Mars to search for any life forms to prove humans could actually survive on its surface. While it is possible for us to survive with current technology, if we were to travel to Mars, it wouldn’t be a life of luxury. Michael Gainer in his article “Should We Colonize Mars?” discusses the downfalls of the climate. Mars’s climate is much more hazardous than Earth’s with many long lasting hurricanes, high levels of radiation, and poor, if any, farming soil. Colonists would be living in pressurized bubbles and would need special suits to step outside. It would be difficult to get around and medical supplies may not always be readily available. Outside there would be no trees whispering in the wind, no singing birds, no skin burning summer days. No deep blue oceans, no rapid running rivers, cold refreshing lakes or streams. Looking out the window one would see miles upon miles of reddish-beige sand blowing in the
Colonizing Mars is a huge mistake. Mars one is planning to send humans to settle on the red planet. Colonizing Mars is a dangerous operation because it is a one way trip,there is no food or water currently there,and the toxic atmosphere.
Scientists have dreamt over the possibility that it may be possible to live on another planet. Some think that Mars has that potential to support life, if it's hidden resources are uncovered and exploited to their full potential. There is even evidence that it once contained enough water that it had been possible to hold life. Think about it, what if we could transform it into such a place, even if only our children's children get to see any result? The following will describe Mars, present evidence of ice and water, give possible ideas for the future exploration of Mars, and give reasons for why it is important.
The recent events regarding the NASA Mars probes have renewed the debate of reinstalling manned space missions with the objectives of exploring and landing on foreign worlds such as the moon and the red planet Mars, rather than the use of solely robotic craft and machines. It is my belief that we should return to the days of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, those of manned lunar landings and manned space exploration. Robots simply cannot and should not be allowed to be the sole means of visiting these worlds, nor should humans only be able to witness new findings second hand through the use of computers and machines. It is human nature to be normally curious of one’s surroundings, and it is important that we send one of our own to new worlds. The effects that past missions have had on the world’s people, as well as our political and cultural climates are another valid reason for flesh instead of metal to lay claim to space. Also, the limitless applications and new education that manned flights can bring to us from on site human interactions could lead to another technological and industrial revolution like the original lunar programs had done for us during the Gemini and Apollo programs.
There are many reasons that space exploration should continue. If Earth ever becomes too overpopulated or over polluted, then perhaps people can move to Mars. The world population in 1970 was approximately 4 billion people, and is currently nearly 6 billion people. The world population in 2015 is estimated to be 7 billion people. There is a possibility that there are useful resources on Mars. Scientists have found ice and some other clues, such as craters, volcanoes, and valleys, that have led them to believe that there was once life on Mars, and they believe that sometime in the future, should planet Earth need to be evacuated, humans will be able to live there (Jakosky 142). Many of the rocks on Mars appear to have been formed by gasses, breathable by humans and other creatures. A process called terraforming will allow astronauts to make use of the resources that are on the planet and create an atmosphere that will support life. One method for terraforming is that scientists would convert the gaseous rocks back into gasses, and use gas-eating organisms to eat the gas, which results in the formation of other gasses. If these organisms continue the cycle, then Mars would have a stable atmosphere for humans to live in (Getz 39).
Humans can expect to face some major challenges on an expedition to Mars. It has been proven that humanity can travel in space for over two years. Cumulatively, Sergei Constantinovich Krikalev, a Russian cosmonaut, has spent over eight-hundred and three days in Earth orbit (Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2005). The expedition to Mars would require the crew to endure a six month journey to the planet, a year of living on the planet, and a six months journey back to Earth. Russian cosmonaut, Valery V. Polyakoz, clocking in at four-hundred and thirty-eight days for just one stay in Earth orbit, shows humanity is capable of a twelve month round trip to Mars (Schwirtz, 2009). Earth's orbit has provided some benefits to space exploration, like the magnetic field from cosmic radiation, and the proximity to Earth if an emergency were to arise (Jones, 2009). The further humans travel away from Earth the greater the risks become. The major risks to human health on a flight to Mars, living on Mars, and returning to Earth are: radiation exposure, biological problems induced by weightlessness, spacecraft malfunctions, and psychological problems brought on by isolation.
...ess can make you sick. Meaning that because humans are so adapted to the conditions here on Earth, such a drastic change will make them sick. Adaptation will have to occur, meaning that the stations on Mars might have to some how mimic the conditions of Earth.