Mars' Atmosphere

This is probably a very stupid question, but since Mars' atmosphere is
predominantly Carbon Dioxide, would it be possible to put plants on the
planet with a long-term view to begin the generation of some sort of oxygen
based atmosphere?

I think that's one of the general ideas behind terraforming. Take thousands
of years though, right guys?

--
Michael Anthony


"Jase" wrote in message
...
This is probably a very stupid question, but since Mars' atmosphere is
predominantly Carbon Dioxide, would it be possible to put plants on the
planet with a long-term view to begin the generation of some sort of
oxygen
based atmosphere?

Michael Anthony wrote:

I think that's one of the general ideas behind terraforming. Take thousands
of years though, right guys?

Not inside a pressurized greenhouse... But it's that nasty radiation
that seems to pose the biggest problem. I'm not expert enough on that
to comment though.

Clear skies,
Greg

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

"Greg Crinklaw" wrote
Michael Anthony wrote:

I think that's one of the general ideas behind terraforming. Take thousands
of years though, right guys?

Not inside a pressurized greenhouse... But it's that nasty radiation
that seems to pose the biggest problem. I'm not expert enough on that
to comment though.

Well most of terraforming is generating an atmosphere, and it's partly
our atmosphere that saves us from radiation. The other thing is our
magnetic field. I'm not sure Mars has much of a magnetic field, does it?

Not sure how necessary our magnetic field is, though. I think a decent
atmosphere would go a long way. It would just need a real whopping proportion
of greenhouse gases to compensate for the greater distance of Mars from the
sun compared to Earth, to get a comfortable temperature and maintain
the ability of liquid water to exist on the surface.

I think thousands of years would be a minimum, though. Where's all that
carbon dioxide or oxygen going to come from?

If there's LOADS of water hiding as ice under the surface, solar power
could be used to electrolyse the water into H2 and O2, and the latter
could be released to form an atmosphere, but you don't want a pure
oxygen atmosphere, so where do you get all that nitrogen from?

And you don't want to use up all the ice generating atmospheric oxygen,
because you need a plentiful supply of water left over in rivers and
seas.


Martin
--
M.A.Poyser Tel.: 07967 110890
Manchester, U.K. http://www.fleetie.demon.co.uk

"Jase" wrote in message
...
This is probably a very stupid question, but since Mars' atmosphere is
predominantly Carbon Dioxide, would it be possible to put plants on the
planet with a long-term view to begin the generation of some sort of
oxygen
based atmosphere?



Thats the standard terraforming plan, first they have to discover if there
is existing life already, and more importantly... how to get water

"Jase" wrote in message
...
This is probably a very stupid question, but since Mars' atmosphere is
predominantly Carbon Dioxide, would it be possible to put plants on the
planet with a long-term view to begin the generation of some sort of
oxygen
based atmosphere?


Yep. But not many plants can live in temperatures reaching a low of ~-100C
in poisonous 'soil' void of both nutrients and water. Probably the only
thing that could survive is some sort of geneered algae, bacteria, lichen or
moss... or something like that.

Even then, it would take an inordinately long time, and it wouldn't
introduce any atmospheric pressure, so it would still be unbreathable.

The biggest problem with modifying Mars' atmosphere into a breathable form
is introducing nitrogen. As far as I'm aware, there are virtually no
nitrates in the Martian regolith, so nitrogen must be imported. And the
biggest supply of nitrogen is Titan (or is it Triton? I always get those two
confused) but I'm pretty sure that all that sort of thing will happen
WAAAAAAAAAAAY in the future, if it even happens at all.

If you are interested in Mars and its terraforming potential, and you also
like science fiction, then I can highly recommend the trilogy by Kim Stanley
Robinson; Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars. He spent about 17 years
researching/writing the series and it shows. It's almost like he's been in a
time machine into the future and actually seen how it'll all be... Amazing.

Anyway... I'll stop babbling now : )

Plankmeister.

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 21:47:50 -0000, "Jase" wrote:

This is probably a very stupid question, but since Mars' atmosphere is
predominantly Carbon Dioxide, would it be possible to put plants on the
planet with a long-term view to begin the generation of some sort of oxygen
based atmosphere?


Not stupid, and the subject of much debate. The first thing you need
is water, after that you could introduce some genetically modified
microbes better able to thrive in the conditions, and also able to
covert CO2 to free O2 faster than common terrestrial plants. Given the
ability to do that, you then have the debate as to whether you should
go ahead and do it.

ChrisH

UK Astro Ads: http://www.UKAstroAds.co.uk

"Jase" wrote in message
...
This is probably a very stupid question, but since Mars' atmosphere is
predominantly Carbon Dioxide, would it be possible to put plants on the
planet with a long-term view to begin the generation of some sort of
oxygen
based atmosphere?

A more fundamental problem is that the atmospheric pressure on Mars is only
~1% of Earth - so plants could not live since they could not retain any
water (if there was any in the first place) as it would "boil" off. This is
because the atmospheric pressure there is less than the vapour pressure of
water at any temperature above freezing (and for several degrees below as
well).
cheers
Bill

Fleetie wrote:

"Greg Crinklaw" wrote

Michael Anthony wrote:


I think that's one of the general ideas behind terraforming. Take thousands
of years though, right guys?

Not inside a pressurized greenhouse... But it's that nasty radiation
that seems to pose the biggest problem. I'm not expert enough on that
to comment though.


Well most of terraforming is generating an atmosphere, and it's partly
our atmosphere that saves us from radiation. The other thing is our
magnetic field. I'm not sure Mars has much of a magnetic field, does it?

Sorry, I was a little unclear. I wasn't talking about terraforming, but
something much more practical: an indoor (probably underground) colony.
Now that's intersting!

Clear skies,
Greg


--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

In article ,
Jase wrote:
This is probably a very stupid question, but since Mars' atmosphere is
predominantly Carbon Dioxide, would it be possible to put plants on the
planet with a long-term view to begin the generation of some sort of oxygen
based atmosphere?

They would need to be very unusual plants, given the extremely low
temperatures, the very low atmospheric pressure (which, in particular,
makes it hard to hang onto liquid water), and the extreme scarcity of
water vapor (ditto). Nor would an oxygen atmosphere that thin be very
useful, alas.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |