Way ahead of you. The next Mars Rover will be a Hummer.
Mars needs global warming and it needs it now.
Mars needs global warming and it needs it now.
maybe it needed more CO 2 before it froze? /s (I think, LOL)
Way ahead of you. The next Mars Rover will be a Hummer.
Not hard to do, just need a big mylar sheet. That will have a two-fold effect. First it will release CO2 sequestered in the regolith, and it will begin to melt the ice. I forget the exact numbers, but very shortly we begin to get very close to 1/3 of an atmosphere of pressure, and at the bottom of the largest valleys, we're approaching shirt-sleeve environment (minus breathing equipment).
Even more importantly, this should hasten the efforts for a manned mission. Having water there means that we DON'T need to bring hydrogen to create methane for propellant, or oxygen. That means that we can launch a mission TODAY with current technology. Build Orion, and get it on top of an Atlas V of Delta IV Heavy.
They have a ridiculous amount of excess production capacity in Alabama. They can build 40 common booster cores per year. That's 10 Delta IV heavies, enough to launch a manned mission to Mars. 10 DIV's are approximately 250 tonnes to LEO. Then there are 10 DIV regulars to launch another 100 tonnes to LEO.
Ugh...why aren't we funding NASA more?
Damn, you stole my line!