Posted on 03/10/2005 12:18:15 PM PST by ambrose
Step 1: Go to mars
Step 2: Find bacteria
Step 3: Study bacteria fully
Step 4: F the luddite envirofreaks, terraform mars. Bacteria has no use other than proving life forms elsewhere.
RE: "Wonder how much overbudget this one will come to? "
The overrun will probably be about the same as the Big Dig.
Reduce the solar influx, likely by large, thin-film mirrors, and start seeding algae and bacteria from orbit to reduce the atmosphere. It's an OLD plan for Venusian Terraforming, the REAL trick is the sufficient quantity of mirrors required to drop the effective Venusian solar influx to Earth or lower levels. . . Heat radiating out will fix most of the rest of it. Mind you, ANY Terraforming effort is a multi-hundred-year project at best, thousands of years being possible in the "fine-tuning". . . but the key to Venus is solar influx...
thanks for the corection!
Why not just paint the planet white?
You know it's budget time when you hear this stuff from NASA. I think they've already done their "Life On Mars!" press release for 2005, haven't they?
> go ahead and pass the hat wherever you might hope to find some hardcore sci-fi fans ready to put their money where their hobbies are
Ah. So you're opposed to the Army having technology advanced past... what? World War I levels?
"...We haven't been on the moon since December 11th, 1972...."
Make that December 14th, 1972 when Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt lifted off from Taurus-Littrow. Anyway, Cernan has said that his record for being the last one to set foot on the moon is one that he'd gladly relinquish. He has stated many times that he wonders when that will be.
Where do I go to sign on, I want to go! When I get to Mars I set up the first Freeper Chapter off planet. No dems allowed!
NASA is a relic.
I thought that Mars' atmosphere was mostly CO2.
So... The greenhouse gas is aplenty.
What is needed is more atmosphere. Boiling water out of the soil might help... But possibly some of the natural compounds could be converted to other compounds with lower boiling temperatures.
Dissociating the Carbon form The Oxygen would be expensive but would free oxygen.... and unfortunately lower the CO2, which is needed as a thermal blanket.
What about covering large areas with black tarps?
Blah blah blah.
We've been down this road before. As I recall, you might be one of those Chicken Little paranoid doomsday types who thinks we need to push for space colonization so that we can leave this condemned little rock before it's too late.
Oh, the humanity!
LOL.
About the only big thing NASA has done with the new schedule is award some CEV contracts and a pile of small component contracts. It is not at all clear--looking from outside--that the schedule has been fully detailed at this time.
"What are humans going to do on Mars? We have to protect Mars. Do we want to send astronauts with all their dead skin cells and bacteria? We don't want to contaminate the planet and replace possible extant life."
Oh jeez, its not the prime directive for crying out loud.
Mars had its chance, didnt happen. Sure I want to know if something is living there now but the odds of it becoming sentient at this point are nill.
What are we going to do there? LIVE! explore, colonize, terraform the whole planet! grow mars food, have pets, play ball. Who cares. Its the nature of humankind to expand. Mars though distant to us today will not always be that way.
Is it only paranoid doomsday types who support the government funding the Army?
Why not increase the CAFE standards for Venesians to reduce their global warming.
No, it's only paranoid doomsday types who justify government funding of manned space exploration by citing the need to someday escape this planet in order to avoid the total extinction of the human race. Then, they deem it a matter of "national defense."
I can only guess why you weren't able to figure that out for yourself. Too much time in the comic books? In front of the hookah?
> it's only paranoid doomsday types who justify government funding of manned space exploration by citing the need to someday escape this planet in order to avoid the total extinction of the human race.
So human extinction does not bother you, huh? How does domination by Islamists or Communists grab you? How about losing out on the most lucrative markets since the invention of markets?
> Too much time in the comic books? In front of the hookah?
No. Too much time in reality.
It isn't paranoid or doomsday... It is quite likely (or even certain) that the Earth will one day suffer either a natural or man-made cataclysmic event. It would be nice to know that we won't have all our eggs in one basket.
Yes, I know.. we'll all be dead and gone by the time anything like that happens or before planetary colonies are established... but you know, what... that's part of what makes us humans, and not animals... we actually give a *%*^ about the legacy we leave for future generations, and not just our present material comfort. Or at least that is how it is supposed to be.
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