Should Mars be terraformed?

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no "bye-bye Mars"...Letticia...

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If Earth falls, Mars will stand because computers will store the information we need to rebuilt the civilization. The sooner we start to becoming a space faring civilization, the better for us.

 

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My point exactly. Preventing these wars from happening does not require terraforming Mars AND should take priority over it. Because otherwise there will be no terraforming -- or much of anything else, for that matter.

 

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But it is also very cold there getting to -250 F at times and the "average" temperature is -50 F!

 

Yes, we should send the majority of people there at once.

 

Sorry, but you are extremely naive. You have no idea how to build things -- and the difference between information (which can be stored) and skills (which can not). All computers in the world won't do you much good if there are only a thousand people on Mars and no way to manufacture crucial components.

 

Siberia is much closer and easier for them to get to, I will provide the maps to it.

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But they might survive

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oh really??? how about having real engineers being those 1 thousand people? Computers can have instructions on how to build machinery needed to build other machinery. How to extract metals from Mars and use them to build facilities.

 

But there's no oxygen on Mars so nothing could be heated up enough to melt it down in a refinery to make the slag in order to make the machines.:shrug:

 

Lets us only supply them with airplane foods and see what happens.

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I am an engineer, and I know quite a lot about computers -- and a little about building machinery. If a thousand smartest engineers and biologists in the world are placed into an environment that requires enclosed artificial biosphere and no possibility of resupply, they will be all dead within a few years. I repeat, you have no clue about the magnitude of problems involved. Or how little things like rubber seals or electric insulation can bite you after being exposed to temperature swings and vacuum for a few months. Or how to keep track of all things going wrong. Or how to grow sufficient food (with no sunlight to speak of!) and prevent some vital component of biosphere from dying out or runaway breeding. Or about psychological pressures and people just plain giving up.

 

cosmic...oxygen can be gathered through electrolysis from water on Mars. And water can be melted from the soil (which at times has as much as 60% of it) and on North Pole its just water ice!

 

That takes allot of energy to extract all of that oxygen. Where does all of the energy come from?

 

Well Letticia...I am an engineer too. And yes I have a clue on the magnitude of problems something as Mars colonization and terraforming would require.

You say no possibility of ressuply...you are thinking in terms of Earth! this is wrong, I am telling you Mars can have an in-situ utilization of resources, Mars has the soil with components for life and metals needed for machinery. Oddysey 2001 results have showed it has aluminum and magnesium and silicon...these are enough for many large scale electronics components.

 

1) geothermal
2) solar power
3) partial wind power (even though it would be really ineffective there)
4) magnesium extracted from soil using melted water would react with carbon dioxide...the reaction would be exothermic and heat would further be used to drive the reaction and melt water...

http://www.universetoday.com/2004/04/14/magnesium-could-be-a-source-of-fuel-on-mars/

5) hydrogen can be used for fuel...from electrolysis of water
6) nuclear fuel cells

 

Really? You already have a degree and are working "in real world" on actual design projects? Correct me if I am wrong, but I suspect you are still in school.

I know all that. I also know (well, have general idea) about all machinery that went into building everyday objects around us, and the number of people with specialized skills needed to make them -- and it is in the millions. No amount of computer files can replace those skills -- not to mention you seem to think anything the colony will need could be manufactured at once -- with no limits on energy, transportation, or just plain workload. As for self-contained ecology, NOBODY has done it yet, except on very very small scale.

Everything you describe can be done, given enough time and energy. But you are the one who claims we don't have time and energy. You may be wrong on that, but assuming you are right settling, let alone terraforming, Mars simply won't happen.

I suggest you read Dragonfly by Brian Burrough. It's about space station Mir (remember that one?), and it gives you some idea about in how many different ways even relatively small amount of machinery can fail in vacuum, and what are the implications. Frankly, that book should be required reading for every aspiring engineer.

 

If we do end up using green house gases best and most simplist way, without transporting the gases from earth to mars, would be to somehow make Mars' largest volcano erupt, Mon Olympus, the volcano is 3x larger than mount everest and would surely spew enough green house gases into the "atmosphere".

 

Terraform Mars in the next 40 years and grow strawberries there first.

 

What if native life is discovered on Mars and terra formation would kill native life forms. Should we then not terraform the planet? What if these life forms were simple one or two cell life forms or more advanced life forms, would that effect the answer?