The planet's current problems include a very weak magnetic field, almost no atmosphere whatsoever, frozen water, no o-zone, and no breathable air for humans. There are numerous ways to fix these problems. Humanity's current technology would not be able to fix our neighboring planet, but it could be very possible in the near future. Primarily scientists around the world are figuring out ways to solve these problems, though it isn't limited to just scientists. Average day people also have wonderful ideas to solve these problems. I myself will present some in this post.
Currently, Mars looks like this:
Imagine from wikimedia.org
It's a desolate place about 1/3 the mass of Earth where the only living organisms on it are bacteria. Though it's not an intelligent life form, it is life. This fact is how scientists believe intelligent lifeforms once existed on Mars, but due to some catastrophe, ceased to live as the magnetic field weakened and solar winds swept the atmosphere away. This is, of course, only one theory to why Mars is no longer able to sustain life, and there are many others. No one will ever know exactly why it cannot currently sustain life. Notably, some of the religious communities think that is how the planet should remain while others think we should terraform, or change, Mars. Because of this, it is widely discussed whether or not the planet should be terraformed, let alone even possible to terraform. I believe that humanity should try to terraform the planet for multiple reason. Such reasons include over-population problems could be easily solved, it could be used to expand as the land on our home planet is pretty much used up or protected, and could be used for gathering more minerals and ores (as long as it's done conservatively to not destroy the planet like Earth is to some people).
Of course, the problems need analyzed first and solved. As stated before, these problems include a weak magnetic field, dangerously low atmosphere, frozen water, no o-zone, and no human-sustainable air.
Weak Magnetic Field
First, the magnetic field needs amplified or no o-zone can be put into place, which is extremely important in protecting most forms of organic life. The reason the magnetic field has ceased to be powerful enough is that the core of the planet has become frozen. When talking about a planet, that means the core has slowed down so much that the magnetic field can no longer be sustained, not literally frozen like ice. The core actually remains at extreme temperatures.
The solution I devise is the simplest that I honestly think will work: Using electro-magnetic amplifiers to sustain and boost the magnetic field to sustainable levels to hold an o-zone in place. These would have to be maintained extremely efficiently, however, and cannot risk any power-loss. These problems are solved by themselves, however. There would be a need for jobs to run the facilities, and since the core of Mars is still hot, geothermal energy to power the facilities is easily accessed to keep them powered at all times, even without human interference for extended periods of time, if necessary.
No O-Zone
O-zone of a planet (made up of three Oxygen atoms in a molecule, O3) protects the planet's ecosystems from deadly solar radiation. Mars' o-zone is currently non-existent, blown away with the atmosphere from the solar winds, which are given off from our sun, Sol. There are only two ways to fix this problem:
A) The o-zone molecules can be made by properly combining oxygen atoms to create the deadly gas and get enough of it released into the new electro-magnetic atmosphere to start reforming Mars' o-zone.
B) Place bacteria on Mars that creates the o-zone molecules, or even just regular oxygen, and let time combine the atoms into the proper molecules needed to form an o-zone.
The latter takes centuries, even millennia, to achieve. The former, however, could be done in a matter of decades. It just takes a chemical reaction to preform. Though I do not know too much about this subject, however, I do know scientists could easily figure out how to do this using the planet itself to even aid in making the o-zone. Until then, however, the other way to get an o-zone is to use glass domes, build up the o-zones inside them, and then release the o-zone into the new electro-magnetic atmosphere and the o-zone would now be in placed. This could also help the next step in that some plants and breathable air would be put into the atmosphere and protected by the o-zone.
Low Atmosphere
With a magnetic field and o-zone to protect the planet from solar radiation, we can now move onto the next step. We can now start adding gases into the atmosphere. These gases could be created using chemical reactions or with bacteria. After a while of both, there could be enough breathable gas in the atmosphere to be something like Denver, Colorado. That means plants and animals would be able to sustain in the atmospheric conditions. Of course, without a few other steps, they wouldn't survive, such as water and food sources, but this is a start toward need for that. Food sources (plants and the animals that need the plants) could start existing with a proper atmosphere. However, the next problem would be the soil. But that is also a different problem.
After those steps are taken care of, the atmosphere could possibly get enough gases in a few decades more of work and the atmosphere would be suitable for humans in general.
Frozen Water
Soil Fertility
Finally, to properly sustain plant life, we need fertile soil. Mars is naturally fertile, but it has to be a correct fertility to grow Earth plants for a food source and vegetation. With human interference, that wouldn't be much of a problem. There are many ways to fertilize the land, which are all common here on Earth. One is taking trees to Mars and burning them to fertilize the land. Of course, then planting fully grown trees and just keeping them watered until natural weather starts occurring is also important to keep the oxygen in the atmosphere. That would also allow for farming the soil to grow plants, and thus Mars gains a food source.
With all these things done, the planet would start to "reactivate", in a sense. The planet is forever dead, but humans can terraform the planet and life can start again on the planet. Of course, if humans stop maintaining the planet, it would very quickly fall again and decades of work would be lost. If we want to achieve terraforming our neighboring planet, we must push and work to do our parts. Together, the dream of going to another planet as another place to live can be achieved!
Image from googleusercontent.com
No comments:
Post a Comment