
How to Give Mars an Atmosphere, Maybe (2017) - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/blog/-how-to-give-mars-an-atmosphere-maybe-
======
_wzsf
There is not enough CO2 or any other such gas on Mars to make an atmosphere
better than 5% of Earth's, even if you razed the surface kilometers down and
boiled the ice caps and installed an artificial magnetosphere.

[https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0529-6](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0529-6)

20 millibars is essentially the long-term limit without piping in gas from
other planets or comets.

There's plenty of science and exploration to be done on Mars, and efforts
towards getting people there are admirable, but let's keep it red. Non-
scientists (like Elon) should at least consider not ignoring the data we've
spent billions of dollars collecting and confirming over the past 50 years.

------
fsh
I just don't get the point of humans living on Mars. Literally the entire
surface of the earth, including the seafloor, is more habitable than Mars and
can be reached without having to fight the rocket equation. Sure, thinking
about space travel and terraforming is fun, but what compelling reason is
there for mankind to invest unbelievable amounts of resources in actually
doing it?

~~~
Already__Taken
off-site backup?

Seriously though, another independent human colony would lend some much needed
perspective to the worlds political problems.

Also what if just because we can might be enough reason? Maybe we can't, that
would be quite important to know too.

~~~
fsh
These are the standard arguments people bring in favor of human spaceflight. I
don't find them compelling enough to justify the enormous cost of such a
project. A serious attempt at colonizing Mars would probably consume a
significant fraction of the GDP of whichever country/ies is/are doing it.
Currently, we are not even close to investing such amounts of money in order
to solve much more pressing issues, such as climate change.

~~~
Already__Taken
None of that is money problem though. Your (I presume) country has like 11
aircraft carriers? + 2 being built and 2 ordered
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_of_t...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_of_the_United_States_Navy))

What can 11 do that you can't with 8? & the matching carrier group.

Having somewhere else that none of that applies to would be incredible.

~~~
maxerickson
There's a more or less linear relationship between the number of carriers and
how much time you have them deployed. They require an awful lot of
maintenance.

Which I'm not weighing in on whether more are necessary, just that more
carriers does mean more time deployed.

------
carrozo
This terraforming Mars argument always sounds a bit “mechanical horse” to me.
By the time we’d be able to do this, we would have merged our “survival
machine” human body with technology and would not require the incubator of
earth’s environment to survive. Feels more likely that in a century or two
we’d have essentially immortal carbon nanotube exoskeletons wrapped around
human brains going wherever the hell they want across the solar system and
beyond.

------
gdm85
Would have appreciated if someone noticed the spell-checker underlining in the
slide screenshot and...fixed it.

------
imjasonmiller
If terraforming Mars were to be successful, wouldn’t the long-term livability
of Mars still be hampered by having about a third of Earth’s gravity?

I imagine it to dramatically affect human physiology, making it perhaps
impossible for Martians to ever return to Earth.

~~~
goatlover
Also, the lack of a magnetic field to protect from solar radiation.

~~~
rusk
I think this is the crucial point. When I heard this I gave up hope.

~~~
garmaine
Why? You’re not going to be spending most of your time out on suits anyway.
Put some sandbags on the roof.

~~~
jacobush
Because the atmosphere will be stripped away by the Sun. But see comment about
generating a magnetic field.

~~~
wongarsu
Yes, over billions of years the atmosphere will be stripped away. But the
process is way too slow for us to worry about.

~~~
jacobush
[https://phys.org/news/2017-03-nasa-magnetic-shield-mars-
atmo...](https://phys.org/news/2017-03-nasa-magnetic-shield-mars-
atmosphere.html)

NASA estimates, given Mars was given a magnetic field, it would only take a
century (give or take) to start to melt oceans. So your estimate seems to be
off by a bit.

~~~
garmaine
Did you reply to the wrong comment?

~~~
jacobush
No - it means that the solar wind is affecting the atmosphere enough that a
greenhouse effect on Mars is not getting started, even though it could if
there was a magnetic field on the planet.

This means the solar wind effect is not negligible. An artificial magnetic
field plus other means could have a drastic and extremely rapid (in geologic
terms, hundreds of years) effect on Mars climate.

------
hutzlibu
Isn't the problem with a artificial atmosphere also the low gravity? How to
solve that? Or is it strong enough that the loss can be compensated?

------
_wzsf
Why is this marked as (2017) when it's dated November 15, 2019?

------
Synaesthesia
Let’s fix our own planet first before fixing another one ha

~~~
bufferoverflow
This is a silly argument. We can do more than one thing at a time.

~~~
pvaldes
Not so silly. Resources are limited

~~~
bufferoverflow
Are you in charge of all the resources? If not, it's a silly argument. People
will do whatever they want to do. You might as well propose herding cats.

~~~
pvaldes
Maybe is silly for you.

"If you are not (put some impossible random requisite here) then you are
wrong"

Well... As other billions of people, I don't need to be "in charge of all the
resources in the planet" or "to be Santa Claus or Jesus" to talk about the
problems of humankind (or to be aware that neglecting earth conservation, to
put five machines more or less in Mars none less, is a terribly stupid idea).
If you equal asking more resources for nature conservation with proposing
herding cats, then your logic has some serious loopholes.

~~~
ripsawridge
Those loopholes are features, not bugs. They allow the mind to close the door
to consideration of reflexive problems. Those with a feedback loop back to the
self. It really simplifies existence! xD

