Category Archives: Terraforming Mars

Can we terraform other planets so that the human race can spread around the Solar System? Xander, aged 14, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Of the eight planets in the Solar System, we live on Earth, and for good reasons. It has the perfect conditions for life.

Right now, though, we are sculpting Earths surface by deforestation, and changing its atmosphere by adding carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases. These changes have resulted in global warming, which might lead us to worry that in the future, Earth may not be such a good place for us to live.

Curious Kids is a series by The Conversation that gives children the chance to have their questions about the world answered by experts. If you have a question youd like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.com and make sure you include the askers first name, age and town or city. We wont be able to answer every question, but well do our very best.

Perhaps this ability to change a planet could make somewhere else in the Solar System suitable for us to live. This planet engineering is called terraforming.

In our Solar System, the most similar planets to Earth are Mars, which is a bit further from the Sun, and Venus, which is a bit closer to the Sun. However, they are still very different to Earth.

There are a lot of ways in which these planets are different to Earth. One is the gases that are in the atmosphere. Both the atmosphere of Mars and that of Venus are mainly made of carbon dioxide. Neither planets atmosphere contains any amounts of oxygen to speak of, which means that right now, we wouldnt be able to breathe on either planet.

Mars is generally considered the most promising planet to terraform. However, as well as being made mostly of carbon dioxide, the atmosphere on Mars is very thin. It doesnt press down on the planet with the same weight that the atmosphere on Earth does.

This pressure from the atmosphere is what keeps water on Earth liquid so we can drink it, and plants can use it to grow. Nearly all of the water on Mars is ice, except for a bit of water vapour in the atmosphere.

In order to create an atmosphere that we could breathe in, and to create enough pressure to keep water liquid, we would need to pump a lot of air into Mars atmosphere a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen until the atmosphere was about as heavy as Earths.

It might be possible to find this nitrogen and oxygen on Mars, which has soil that has been found to contain significant amounts of nitrate a molecule of one nitrogen and three oxygen atoms.

But there would be problems with doing this, including taking nutrients out of the soil that might be needed to grow plants.

Mars is also a very cold place, with an average temperature of about -60.

To change this, we would need to help its atmosphere trap heat. This is called the greenhouse effect. We could do this by pumping more carbon dioxide and methane into it (methane has been found on Mars). This would warm Mars and melt much of its ice, creating a water cycle like in Earths climate. Mars would have seas, rivers and rainfall like Earth.

Alternatively, we could think about terraforming Venus. The gravity of Venus is quite similar to that on Earth, but for reasons not fully understood it has an atmosphere almost a hundred times heavier than Earths. The weight of the atmosphere pressing down on us would crush us.

To reduce the weight of the atmosphere on Venus to be more like Earths atmosphere, we would need to remove the carbon dioxide and some of the nitrogen.

Unfortunately, if we knew how to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on such massive scale, we would be better off doing that on Earth in order to slow down global warming.

Mars and Venus have reached a natural state that differs from Earths. If we turn them into Earth-like planets it means taking them out of balance. Left alone, they would change again. A terraformed Mars or Venus would require constant effort to maintain.

It would be far simpler and easier to build an artificial space colony, big enough to hold a whole ecosystem made up of plants, animals and other forms of life. We could then even possibly travel to another star system, where we might find a planet more like Earth. But we do not have the ability to do this, yet.

Until then, the best kind of terraforming would be to reduce humankinds imprint on Earth.

Originally posted here:

Curious Kids: could we change other planets in the Solar System so we could live on them? - The Conversation UK

Of the eight planets in the Solar System, we live on Earth, and for good reasons. It has the perfect conditions for life.

Right now, though, we are sculpting Earths surface by deforestation, and changing its atmosphere by adding carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases. These changes have resulted in global warming, which might lead us to worry that in the future, Earth may not be such a good place for us to live.

Perhaps this ability to change a planet could make somewhere else in the Solar System suitable for us to live. This planet engineering is called terraforming.

In our Solar System, the most similar planets to Earth are Mars, which is a bit further from the Sun, and Venus, which is a bit closer to the Sun. However, they are still very different to Earth.

There are a lot of ways in which these planets are different to Earth. One is the gases that are in the atmosphere. Both the atmosphere of Mars and that of Venus are mainly made of carbon dioxide. Neither planets atmosphere contains any amounts of oxygen to speak of, which means that right now, we wouldnt be able to breathe on either planet.

Mars is generally considered the most promising planet to terraform. However, as well as being made mostly of carbon dioxide, the atmosphere on Mars is very thin. It doesnt press down on the planet with the same weight that the atmosphere on Earth does.

This pressure from the atmosphere is what keeps water on Earth liquid so we can drink it, and plants can use it to grow. Nearly all of the water on Mars is ice, except for a bit of water vapour in the atmosphere.

In order to create an atmosphere that we could breathe in, and to create enough pressure to keep water liquid, we would need to pump a lot of air into Mars atmosphere a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen until the atmosphere was about as heavy as Earths.

It might be possible to find this nitrogen and oxygen on Mars, which has soil that has been found to contain significant amounts of nitrate a molecule of one nitrogen and three oxygen atoms.

But there would be problems with doing this, including taking nutrients out of the soil that might be needed to grow plants.

Mars is also a very cold place, with an average temperature of about -60 degrees Celsius.

To change this, we would need to help its atmosphere trap heat. This is called the greenhouse effect. We could do this by pumping more carbon dioxide and methane into it (methane has been found on Mars). This would warm Mars and melt much of its ice, creating a water cycle like in Earths climate. Mars would have seas, rivers and rainfall like Earth.

Alternatively, we could think about terraforming Venus. The gravity of Venus is quite similar to that on Earth, but for reasons not fully understood it has an atmosphere almost a hundred times heavier than Earths. The weight of the atmosphere pressing down on us would crush us.

To reduce the weight of the atmosphere on Venus to be more like Earths atmosphere, we would need to remove the carbon dioxide and some of the nitrogen.

Unfortunately, if we knew how to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on such massive scale, we would be better off doing that on Earth in order to slow down global warming.

Mars and Venus have reached a natural state that differs from Earths. If we turn them into Earth-like planets it means taking them out of balance. Left alone, they would change again. A terraformed Mars or Venus would require constant effort to maintain.

It would be far simpler and easier to build an artificial space colony, big enough to hold a whole ecosystem made up of plants, animals and other forms of life. We could then even possibly travel to another star system, where we might find a planet more like Earth. But we do not have the ability to do this, yet.

Until then, the best kind of terraforming would be to reduce humankinds imprint on Earth.

For all the latestParenting News, downloadIndian Express App.

See more here:

Curious Kids: Could we change other planets in the solar system so we could live on them? - The Indian Express

If there is any concept from her books that Palmer hopes will catch on, like robot and cyberspace did for other authors, it is a model of living called a bash'. The word is derived from a Japanese term, ibasho, which means a place where you can feel like yourself. A bash' is any combination of peopleadults, children, friends, couples, polyculeswho have decided to live together as a chosen family. Historically speaking, the nuclear family is a very recent invention, which makes it, in Palmer's view, an unstable isotope. The family of the future, she thinks, will include a far more diverse set of molecular arrangements.

Late last year, in a moment when the pandemic seemed to be ebbing, Palmer invited me to stay at her real-life bash'house, a ninth-floor apartment on a leafy block in Chicago's Hyde Park. When her building was constructed, in the 1920s, the units were pitched as bungalows in the skya vision of modern family living cut short by the stock market crash. An elevator deposited me directly into the apartment, where Palmer greeted me with a stiff hug. She was tall and slightly stooped, with brown hair down to her waist, her presence both monumental and demure, like a weeping angel presiding over a cemetery.

The room we were standing in, which Palmer calls the library, could have been a wing of a Florentine villa. It was flooded with an inviting golden light that illuminated the ripple of thick spines on shelves and the profiles of Grecian busts. At its center was a nest of monitors and servers, a pandemic setup that seemed borrowed from the pages of Palmer's books, where people do futuristic work amid cluttered domesticity. One bash'mate typed away at her computer there. Down the hallway, another practiced trumpet.

Palmer led me to a neighboring room, where the manga, board games, and anime figurines appeared to be quarantined. She reclined on a lumpy chaise draped in Totoro blankets. She looked over my shoulder at a multitiered aquarium and worried aloud about a recent water change. Her father kept dozens of fish tanks, and she had learned just how difficult it is to manage the balance of species, chemicals, and greenery. I'm playing plants on hard mode, she said.

Palmer had spent recent weeks mostly in this recumbent position and would not stray far from it during the next 24 hours. Her blood pressure was chronically low, she explained, and she felt dizzy whenever she stood up. She had just filed the paperwork to take a medical leave from the university. But lying down, her brain worked just fineas you can see, she declared to me later, after a few hours of talking about Norse metaphysics.

Palmer speaks in complete paragraphs and occasionally what feel like complete lectures. (She was happy that I was recording, she said at one point, because it would save her the trouble of writing everything down.) Her voice is like the sound of an English horn, nasal and resonant, a breathy h forming when she says while or where. When she grows excited, pantomiming this or that haughty misreading by an old fogy of some ancient text, it rises in pitch, culminating in an incredulous laugh.

Read more:

Ada Palmer and the Weird Hand of Progress - WIRED

Lately, a flurry of Square Enix remasters and remakes have brought its classics onto modern platforms for a new generation to enjoy. It wasnt always like this, though. Square was one of the more adventurous Japanese studios in the 1990s when it came to localization, but plenty of titles it (and Enix) published never made it out of the country. However, with the announcement of the Live A Live remake, Front Mission 1 and 2 remakes, and Chrono Cross remaster (plus Radical Dreamers), the flood gates have opened for even more of Squares Japan-only titles to get official Western releases.

With a Live A Live, Square Enix has gone entirely off the script. It was a flop in Japan, and although its gained a cult following, its a very risky proposition for a remaster, much less a remake. So, the sky is the limit now when it comes to Square Enix remasters.

Weve compiled a list of five Japan-only games we hope Square Enix brings to modern platforms soon. These have all received fan translations, but itd be great to have them available in an easy-to-access, officially localized release.

Bahamut Lagoon came out amongst a flurry of excellent JRPGs from Square. Unfortunately, it was released at the end of the SNESs lifecycle, which was likely a significant contributor to it never receiving a localization.

Front Mission has been done dirty by Square Enix, and were hoping the Front Mission 1st and Front Mission 2 remakes will put the series back on the right track. Unfortunately, Front Mission 4 didnt sell that great in the West, which made the studio decide to make Front Mission 5 Japan-only.

This is likely the most obscure title on this list. Planet Laika is about an expedition to Mars at some point in humanitys future. Its an RPG-lite that centers around a character with multiple personalities and their investigation of a Mars terraforming colony. Its a trippy psychological horror game that sometimes borders on nonsensical, but the story is engrossing and sticks with you. Unfortunately, since it was developed by the long-defunct Quintet (but published by Enix), its unclear who actually has the rights to this game.

This racing RPG is one of the most unique titles released for the PS1. Its brimming with style and is a celebration of the Japanese illegal street racing scene of the time. The racing itself is okay. Its a very difficult and unforgiving game, but theres nothing else like it. It also has a fantastic soundtrack.

So, this one isnt Japan-only, but were gonna cheat a little. Terranigma is one of the rare titles that got an English localization for Europe but was never released in North America. Unfortunately, Enix had closed up shop in the United States by the time the game was translated, and the Nintendo 64 was on its way. Rights issues may hold this one up since its another Quintet title.

What games do you hope Square Enix brings over next?

Read more here:

The Live A Live Remake Gives Us Hope That These Japan-Only Square Enix Classics Will Make it West - PlayStation LifeStyle

Its possible it could work, he said. Worst case, you have to descend with headlamps.

They conferred with each other, and Robinson turned to Biagioli, resuming the conversation about Galileo. A little while later, I saw the hikers waving to us from a distance. They had started their traverse.

What I wanted was reassurance. As we picked our way through the Sierras, I asked Robinson lots of questions; one loomed behind them: Will it be all right? Of course, Robinson has no idea how the future will really go. He does believe that there is a futurean unknown place yet to be explored. He thinks that attitudes shift, that progress exists, that necessity drives invention; but also that progress is slow and easily reversed, that money talks, and that disorder is the norm. In 2002, he published The Years of Rice and Salt, a novel imagining what might have happened if the Black Death had killed all the Europeans instead of a third of them. (Jameson has taught it to his students in a class on historiography.) In a fanciful conceit, the same characters take us from the fourteenth century to the present by means of reincarnation. During every epoch, they engage in theceaseless work of improving civilization. Toward the end of the book, a feminist scholar attends an archeological conference in Iran. As she listens to the presentations, shes struck by an impression of peoples endless struggle and effort. A sense of endless experimentation, of humans thrashing about trying to find a way to live together, deepens in her. In a subsequent incarnation, she works for the international Agency for Harmony with Natureher worlds version of the Ministry for the Future.

Climate work will be the main business of this century. Its basic outlines are already clear. Build wind farms, solar farms, and other sources of clean energy. Start an Operation Warp Speed for clean power: improve energy storage, and make small, cheap power systems for rural places. Tax carbon, reform agriculture, and eat less meat. Rethink construction, transportation, and manufacturing. Study the glaciers, the permafrost, the atmosphere, the oceans. Pilot some geoengineering schemes, in case we need them. Rewild large parts of the Earth. And so on, and so on, and so on. How will all this happen? In The Ministry for the Future, societies start to make good choices, in part because citizens revolt against the monied interests that preserve the status quo. But people also thrash about. They grow frustrated, angry, and violent. Some survivors of the Indian heat wave become ecoterrorists and use swarms of drones to crash passenger planes; no one can figure out how to stop the drones, and everyone gets scared. People fly less. They teleconference, or take long-distance trains, or even sail. They work remotely on transatlantic crossings. Its not how we want change to happen. But, in the end, the jet age turns out to have been just thatan age.

We made our camp near a shallow, glassy lake in a hollow, where a single shelf of granite tilted into the water, like a hard beach. While we built our rock stove, Robinson and Biagioli talked about sailing. Biagioli had crossed the Atlantic twice, once with his wife and once with friends; Robinson was an amateur freshwater sailor of long standing.

Robinson said that when he was invited to COP26, the climate-change conference, he thought, Well, I gotta do it like Greta Thunberg. (The summer before, Thunberg had sailed across the Atlantic instead of flying.) Hed been surprised to learn that there was no way of signing up in New York to sail, as a passenger, to the U.K. My books have convinced me that its so obviousI thought, its surely gonna come. Its low carbon, and youre still doing world travel!

Except, what Greta didshe sailed in a super-fancy, sixty-foot carbon-fibre monster, Biagioli said. It can do thirty-five knots. She needed to go fast, otherwise it wouldve taken a month.

But why arent there lots of those boats? Robinson asked.

I think theyre incredibly uncomfortable, Biagioli said. They bounce. I mean, people wear helmets inside the boat.

But what if they were bigger? Robinson persisted. What if they were like clipper ships?

Well, then, that would be fantastic, Biagioli said. He shared some cubes of Parmesan from a small container. And they would be stable, and you could have sailing ships that blow by diesel ships.

Club Medtheyve been putting sails on their cruise ships, Robinson noted. And the whole technology of sails, per se, is rapidly shifting, because of computer modelling.

The problem is the weight, Biagioli said. People cross the Atlantic in five days, but thats predicated on a boat not weighing anything. So its like here. He gestured to his ultralight pack.

Hmm, Robinson said. He smiled, enjoying the conversation. Well, but if you go back tolook, my Atlantic crossing is gonna take me two weeks, and Im gonna be Internet-connected the whole time. And say you have a big boat, a passenger boat.

Then that would be no problem, Biagioli said. I even think you could do something really comfortable in not even two weeks. It could be ten days. The people who have a lock on the technology are the French.

Robinson laughed. What are our billionaires doing? he said. We talked a bit more about the idea, and about the prospects for dirigibles, which might replace short-hop jet flights, then went to sleep.

In the morning, we set out for Thunderbolt Pass. The climb began immediately. We ascended a series of steep slopes to the vast, mirrorlike Barrett Lakes, navigating around their rocky shores. The pass looked serious: it was about twelve thousand feet high, and made entirely of rock and sand. We started climbing, sometimes pulling ourselves up with our hands, sometimes slipping between narrow gaps. I looked back to find the lake where wed camped the night before; it was like peering from an airplane and trying to spot my house.

Eventually, we reached a rock shelf about a hundred feet wide, where hulking boulders had been deposited by some vanished glacier. We passed a lone climber with a tent hanging from the sheer rock wall. The sun seemed to radiate more strongly. It was a long, challenging climb to the very top, where we rested in a small sandy spot, closed in by rock on two sides, like a little room.

Now, this descent, Robinson said, while we drank water. Its the most technical, meticulous part of our trip. Theres nothing you wont be able to do. But youll have to go slowly, and be careful.

I looked out over the other side of the pass, which led back to Dusy Basin. The landscape yawned downward over a couple of thousand feet. A field of boulders came first; beyond it was a rib of rock, which we could use to descend part of the way. The rib ended in a broad slope of fine-grained talus. We could navigate this by glissadinga kind of sliding, as though we were on snowshoes. That, in turn, would bring us to an ocean of smaller rocks. The first step was to traverse sideways across the mountain, over the boulders. I was nervous.

Just go slow, Robinson said.

We started to cross the boulder field. The rocks were huge, with big gaps between them. Sometimes we clambered forward over empty space, touching four boulders at once. Then the rocks got smaller. I turned to face the mountain, my back to the sun. I moved laterally to my left, wondering how far it was to solid ground; I stepped carefully onto a funny-shaped rock that moved beneath me.

Uh-oh, I said, louder than I meant to. I dont like that.

All four of the rocks I was touching were moving.

Dont look up! Biagioli called.

I looked up. An apparent infinity of similar rocks was stacked above me on the hillside. By a trick of perspective, they seemed ready to fall.

I moved along. We reached the rock rib and crossed it to the long slope of talus. We glissaded down in zigzags through the lunar powder. At the bottom lay the ocean of rocks, small and sharp. They cast harsh shadows, creating pockets of darkness, and crossingthem required intense attention. I had to remember to breathe, and to blink. Hours passed. I stopped to finish my water and looked ahead to see our destination, a lake glittering in the far distance. Almost all Robinsons novels involve an experience of this kinda long, difficult, rocky journey through a mountain landscape, on Earth or elsewhere, accomplished through sustained concentration that lifts one out of time. The main thing is to start, then to keep going, finding your way one step at a time. It never occurs to you to stop. Even if the path isnt set, the job before you is clear: you have to get down the mountain before dark.

Robinson had been right. The descent had been difficult and doablean ideal combination. Back in Dusy Basin, we watched the sun set from atop a high rocky outcropping. The lakes far below us glowed silver in the light.

What a planet! Robinson said.

The next day, we hiked out. It was a long, easy walk, over Bishop Pass and through the picture-postcard forest. Robinson was sad to leave, and worried about the wildfires.

What do you think? I asked, finally, as we made our way down an ordinary rocky slope. Will we be all right?

Well have to make some big changes, he said. I just hope that we wont have to make them so quickly that we break everything.

I wondered what he meant by everything. Jobs? Currencies? Supply chains? Coastal cities? Beaches? Food? Ecologies? Societies? I looked around at the Sierras. Water stretched wide to my left, and pines framed a blue sky overhead. Songbirds were in the trees. It occurred to me that he meant everything. The whole world. All of it could break. Then, lost in thought, I slipped.

Here is the original post:

Can Science Fiction Wake Us Up to Our Climate Reality? - The New Yorker

Elon Musk has predicted that SpaceX will land humans on Mars within the next ten years.

The SpaceX CEO made the comments talking to podcaster Lex Fridman. Mr Fridman asked Mr Musk for an estimation of how long it would take to reach the Red Planet, to which Mr Musk replied: "Best case is about five years, worst case 10 years."

The estimate is based, Mr Musk said, on factors such as "engineering" the SpaceX Starship that would take humans there. He also claimed that "Starship is the most complex and advanced rocket thats ever been made."

He continued: "The fundamental optimization of Starship is minimizing the cost per ton to orbit and ultimately cost per ton to the surface of Mars.

"There is a certain cost per ton to the surface of Mars where we can afford to establish a self-sustaining city, and above that we cannot afford to do it.

"Right now you couldnt fly to Mars for a trillion dollars; no amount of money could get you a ticket to Mars. So we need to get that above, you know, to get that [to] something that is actually possible at all."

Mr Musk also predicted that Earth will get too hot for life in approximately 500 million years, but said that it was wise for us to act quickly just in case.

SpaceX is reportedly facing financial trouble with regards to the Raptor engines that powers Starship. The Raptor production crisis is much worse than it seemed a few weeks ago, Musk wrote to SpaceX employees last month, in an email obtained by CNBC.

We face genuine risk of bankruptcy if we cannot achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year, Musk also said. SpaceX did not provide comment to either CNBC or The Independent when asked.

The billionaire believes that terraforming -blasting the planet with nuclear weapons at its poles to cause the ice caps to melt and induce accelerated warming will be a key component to live on other planets.

Life in glass domes at first. Eventually, terraformed to support life, like Earth, he has said. Terraforming will be too slow to be relevant in our lifetime. However, we can establish a human base there in our lifetime. At least a future spacefaring civilization discovering our ruins will be impressed humans got that far."

See the original post:

Elon Musk says humans landing on Mars in 10 years is worst case scenario - The Independent

Before we get to the war-torn solar system, however, we get a brief interlude on Laconia. When we last left the ring planet, Cara's brother was tragically killed. We start this episode at his funeral, where young Cara (Emma Ho) has a poignant conversation with Admiral Duarte (Dylan Taylor), the Laconian leader.

Duarte's talk with Cara serves the purpose of letting us know why someone like Duarte, a former Martian Admiral, would break off from his home planet and help someone like Marco. Duarte, like Cara, is also grieving. In his case, he's grieving for the dream of Mars. When the ring gate went up, the dream of terraforming Mars into a habitable planet was washed away why spend all that money to "fix" a planet when there were hundreds of habitable worlds now at humanity's fingertips? His speech gives us a glimpse into his psyche, and what he's trying to accomplish on Laconia, though we don't know the details.

We do know that his new mission, however, involves trying to turn the protomolecule on. And when someone rushes in to get him from the funeral, it looks like he may be close to accomplishing that goal.

Cara doesn't care about this, of course. All she cares about his her brother. And so at the end of the sequence we see her taking his body out into the forest and to the strange dogs.

Read more:

The Expanse Takes An Unvarnished Look At The Repercussions Of War In Redoubt - /Film

If you were a humanoid space traveler visiting our Solar System for the first time and looking for a new place to call home, you would be happy to find two large terrestrial worlds: Earth and Venus. The large size of these worlds (as compared to smaller Mars and tiny Mercury) would matter to you because only larger planets have enough gravity to keep an atmosphere for many billions of years. As you traveled closer, you would see that the two worlds were so similar in radius, mass, and composition that they could be twins. Sure, Venus was closer to the Sun than Earth, so it should be somewhat hotter, but a little terraforming could take care of that.

But then as you neared Venus, your dream of an almost habitable world would vaporize. Rather than being a little hotter than Earth, temperatures on Venus are over 800 F, and its atmosphere is so thick that surface pressures could crush a nuclear submarine. If Earth looked like a Garden of Eden to you, Venus would appear as a living hell.

So, what the hell happened? How did these two worlds end up with such divergent histories?

There are still many unanswered questions about Venus past, but it does seem like we understand the outline of the most basic question about Venus: Why is it so insanely hot? Just being closer to the Sun is not enough to give the right answer. Instead, the real culprit is something called the runaway greenhouse effect.

The Venetian atmosphere is heavy with carbon dioxide (CO2). The Earths atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% everything else. CO2 comes in at a mere 0.039% of the air you are breathing right now. That is a small fraction for a molecule that, as we will see, has a big role to play in our story. For Venus, on the other hand, CO2 is pretty much all there is to the atmosphere. It accounts for more than 95% of all its gases.

Why does this matter? As everyone on Earth is learning via global warming, the greenhouse effect occurs when sunlight (which comes at mostly shorter wavelengths) warms the ground, causing it to radiate its own longer wavelength (thermal) radiation. CO2 is very efficient at absorbing this light and trapping energy that normally would have escaped into space. This means putting more CO2 in the atmosphere is like throwing a blanket over your planet. With so much CO2 in Venus atmosphere, its surface temperature rose until the whole world became a scalding hellscape.

Given this basic planetary physics, the question now becomes: Where did all the CO2 come from? Thats where the runaway part of the runaway greenhouse effect appears.

The principal way CO2 gets added to a planets atmosphere is through volcanic eruptions. Molten rock explodes through the surface, venting huge amounts of CO2. Radar imaging of Venus shows ample evidence for volcanism in the recent past (meaning the last hundreds of millions of years). But what volcanoes give, water can take away. Weathering by water in the form of rain and rivers breaks rocks down to their chemical components. Later these molecular components can bind with CO2 and get packed back into solid forms that is, rocks. This is the basic process creating what are called carbonate minerals (like the limestone under Miami).

So, CO2 belched into a planets atmosphere via volcanoes can go back into the ground as rocks. Any form of plate tectonics means the rocks will go back into the planets lower regions where they melt. Eventually, this CO2 will find its way back into the atmosphere through future volcanic eruptions. It is a geological cycle that regulates the CO2 levels and the greenhouse effect on planets. It is also a cycle that appears to have been broken on Venus.

At some point, Venus likely had more water. But when some of that water evaporated, it made it high into the atmosphere as water vapor (that is, H20 molecules in the air) and a deadly process began. Close to the edge of space, UV radiation from the Sun (the same kind of radiation that causes skin cancer) zapped the water molecules and broke them apart into hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen, being the lightest of all elements, easily escaped into interplanetary space as soon as the water molecules were broken apart. With the hydrogen gone, there was no chance for the broken water molecules to reform. Over time and high in its atmosphere, Venus was bleeding its precious water into space.

The planets water loss resulted in what scientists call a positive feedback loop on climate. More water loss meant less rock erosion and less CO2 bound up in rocks. More CO2 in the atmosphere meant more greenhouse effect and higher temperatures. But higher temperatures meant yet more water loss, which feeds the vicious cycle. On Earth, there is no danger of losing our water in the way Venus did because our atmosphere has a cold layer relatively close to the ground. This cold trap condenses water into rain before it gets to the upper reaches of the atmosphere.

All of this means that, in the past, Venus may have been a very different world from what we see now. There are scientists who even believe that Venus may have held vast oceans and been a blue world. There might even have been life, like on Earth. But somewhere along the way, a combination of furious volcanic activity and the loss of that water to space condemned our sister planet.

The rest is here:

Why Earth is habitable but Venus looks like hell - Big Think

Board games have exploded in popularity, appearing everywhere from South Park to The New York Times. But their most fascinating impact is on a recent surge of excellent video games.

The charitable co-existence between tabletop and digital is not altogether new. Dungeons & Dragons certainly was a primary influence for early video game role-playing games such as Ultima and Might & Magic. Whats more, many electronic strategy games borrowed the use of the traditional hexagonal grid popularized by wargames such as Advanced Squad Leader. But these early examples of influence feel distinct and isolated, altogether dissimilar to the current moment. Something is happening, and it feels historic.

This current movement of board games influencing video game design germinated in the mid-2010s. One of the most significant titles in this wave is Megacrits Slay the Spire.

Developed in 2017, Slay the Spires influences are explicit, pulling its very design pillars directly from the tabletop realm.

Megacrits Anthony Giovannetti managed a board game store in his younger days. I was very familiar with the deck-builder genre and had actually taught Dominion and games like it to countless people. These games really scratched an itch I had as a card game player, and certainly were a huge part of the inspiration behind Slay the Spire.

This indie roguelike combines deck-building with turn based combat. The tactical decision space is contemplative and engaging, while utilizing a relatively simple core. You start with a character-specific starter deck, but you acquire new cards from a random pool as you work your way through the spire and defeat foes. Through multiple attempts, your knowledge grows and youre able to better harness the potential of your evolving deck. The core loop is addictive, as you use that insight to adapt to the randomized elements and challenges, and ultimately slay the final boss and achieve what feels impossible.

Slay the Spires genius was in capitalizing on the success of roguelikes and marrying it to a tactically robust tabletop deck-building mechanism. It forged an entirely new sub-genre including titles such as Monster Train, Griftlands, and later, Polygons 2021 game of the year, Inscryption.

Whereas Slay the Spire succeeded in embracing the mechanical aspects of board games, it was an altogether solitary experience. It lacked the social aspects that can make tabletop sessions magical. Among Us, however, did not.

Released in 2018, Among Us took the principles of hidden traitor tabletop games and brought them to the digital space. In real-time, players must navigate around a confined spaceship, moving from room to room and accomplishing various mini-game tasks. But hidden among the crew are two imposters bent on murdering the others and sabotaging the journey. The result is a delightful close-quarters thriller that bursts with drama.

It produced a cultural moment, and added the word sus to our vernacular. Part of the strength here was in capturing such a wide range of players. My seven year old daughter knows Among Us, even though shes never heard of its cardboard influences Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game, The Resistance, or Avalon. It even captured the attention of 435,000 viewers who hopped on Twitch to watch U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put on her best poker face.

While it was always a design marvel, Among Us experienced a hard transition to superstardom under the shadow of a particularly impactful event. With the advent of the pandemic and our newfound existence of confinement amid lockdowns, Among Us surged in popularity. It became a way for people to interact socially and find a connection. It changed the current climate and crystalized the intermingling of game industries and their players.

The isolation of the global pandemic was the catalyst for the next milestone. Lockdown forced us into either abandoning our board game groups entirely, or shifting into a remote mindset. Online tabletop platforms such as Roll20 and Board Game Arena garnered a tidal wave of new users in a very short timeframe.

With this migration came a change in perspective. Players who previously shunned technology in their hobby were forced to adapt. Barriers were toppled and lines became blurred.

Gloomhaven is at the center of this osmosis. This is one of the most popular hobbyist board games ever designed, and its now available as a digital port thats extremely faithful to the tabletop experience.

With the digital version of Gloomhaven, we developed the game with both the fans of the board game and new video game fans in mind, creative director Mike West says.This meant that not only did we need to stick as close to the physical game design as possible with regards to the ruleset and campaign, but also create modes and systems to streamline the gameplay, but also in some cases reduce the complexity if we could.

Gloomhaven does present a substantial contrast between a game merely influenced by board game design such as Slay the Spire and one more directly translated. West points out that the first thing he did was open every single secret box and envelope and start breaking the game down for the code department. Managing the tremendous amount of content, along with all of the complex interactions of such a large board game, presents no shortage of challenges.

But the reward has been exceptional, and a groundswell has formed. Games like Wildermyth and Inscryption are mining the endless narrative possibilities of the tabletop space to great effect. Likewise, straight ports from cardboard to digital are thriving; board game hits such as Root and Terraforming Mars have found great success.

Were now in the meridian of this creative relationship. In the wake of this digital trend is a new type of game, one of cardboard and digital hybridization. Weve transcended the early days of this initiative when the half-miniatures, half-app Golem Arcana spectacularly failed. Now, were in the era of success stories like Chronicles of Crime, Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, and Descent: Legends of the Dark.

These games utilize technology alongside board game components to manifest a new type of experience. Whether youre searching a virtual reality crime scene in Chronicles of Crime, clicking through electronic evidence in Detective, or exploring an electronically composed dungeon in Descent, its an entirely novel experience.

I think that right now tabletop and video games are probably overlapping more than they have in the past, Giovanetti says. You can see this in board games that incorporate digital elements directly into the game.

Descent: Legends of the Dark in particular has achieved a new level of integration. While your table is swarmed with dungeon tiles, miniatures, and cards, the digital application is handling the most interesting elements of the design space. It does the heavy lifting of managing weapon modifications and attacks, facilitating exploration, and delivering the games overarching story. The smooth transition between digital and physical environment is nothing short of radical.

Theres a lot to be gained through a conversation between the two media, says Gloomhaven designer Isaac Childres.

Video and board games are more intertwined than ever before. The industries have intermingled, resulting in an offspring of innovation. And the movement is accelerating. We may be on the cusp of something different, possibly even radical. Its likely the blurred line will disintegrate in the coming years and we may have a new type of game that defies platform boundaries. The potential here is enormous.

Read the original:

Board games influenced some of the best video games in 2021 - Polygon

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope launch is now free from any additional delays, making it ready for its scheduled lift-off during Christmas Eve or on Dec. 24.

(Photo : Photo credit should read TIM SLOAN/AFP via Getty Images)A full scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope sits on the National Mall outside the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum 10 May, 2007 in Washington, DC. The James Webb Space Telescope is a planned space infrared observatory, intended to be a significant improvement on the aging Hubble Space Telescope. It will be constructed and operated by NASA with help from ESA and CSA.

As per the report by CNET, the successor to the Hubble telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, is still to launch soon after numerous hiccups, which further delayed its lift-off to the end of 2021.

The observatory integration and test manager of the Webb telescope, Mark Voyton, said that the launch of the observatory "will be a significant life event."

He added that he will "be elated, of course, when this is successful." However, he noted that "it will also be a time of deep personal introspection."

The Webb Telescope is now scheduled to launch on the Europe Spaceport in French Guiana on Dec. 24 after NASA has already fixed its latest hiccup.

Last Dec. 15, according to the report by CNN, the launch of the Hubble telescope successor has been delayed yet again. Thus, Its Dec. 22 launch has been moved to Christmas eve.

It is to note that before the Dec. 22 schedule, it was slated to lift off on Dec. 18, but was pushed to a later date due to an accident, which occurred as technicians were trying to attach it to the Ariane 5 rocket.

(Photo : Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)Engineers and technicians assemble the James Webb Space Telescope November 2, 2016 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The telescope, designed to be a large space-based observatory optimized for infrared wavelengths, will be the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope. It is scheduled to be launched in October 2018.

NASA disclosed in a press release that there was a "sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band" during the installation process. As a result, the whole Webb telescope, which cost a hefty $10 billion to develop, vibrated throughout its body.

The clamp band issue was eventually fixed last Dec. 11.

But another problem arises on Dec. 15, which concerns the communication system of the launch vehicle system and the James Webb Telescope itself.

Thus, further delaying thelaunch to Dec. 24 as NASAstill worked on the communication issues.

However, this time around, NASA announced that the James Webb Space Telescope is now ready for its launch on Christmas Eve.

Read Also: Terraforming Mars With Artificial Magnetic Field? Experts Say it's Possible Through Martian Moon Phobos, But How?

If you want to spend your Christmas eve lurking at the marvelous andlong-delayed James Webb Space Telescope. Here's how to watch its NASA launch.

First off, its lift-off is scheduled for Dec. 24 at 4:20 am. NASA TV is streaming the long-awaited long of the telescope online.

Related Article: James Webb Space Telescope Referred to as 'Most Complicated' | NASA Says There are Over 300 Ways It Could Fail

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Teejay Boris

2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Go here to read the rest:

NASA James Webb Space Telescope is Ready to Launch on Christmas EveHeres What to Expect - Tech Times