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March 10, 2017 by Matt Williams, Universe Today Artist's concept of a terraformed Mars (left) and an O'Neill Cylinder. Credit: Ittiz/Wikimedia Commons (left)/Rick Guidice/NASA Ames Research Center (right)

The idea of terraforming Mars aka "Earth's Twin" is a fascinating idea. Between melting the polar ice caps, slowly creating an atmosphere, and then engineering the environment to have foliage, rivers, and standing bodies of water, there's enough there to inspire just about anyone! But just how long would such an endeavor take, what would it cost us, and is it really an effective use of our time and energy?

Such were the questions dealt with by two papers presented at NASA's "Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop" last week (Mon. Feb. 27th Wed. Mar. 1st). The first, titled "The Terraforming Timeline", presents an abstract plan for turning the Red Planet into something green and habitable. The second, titled "Mars Terraforming the Wrong Way", rejects the idea of terraforming altogether and presents an alternative.

The former paper was produced by Aaron Berliner from the University of California, Berkeley, and Chris McKay from the Space Sciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center. In their paper, the two researchers present a timeline for the terraforming of Mars that includes a Warming Phase and an Oxygenation Phase, as well as all the necessary steps that would precede and follow.

As they state in their paper's Introduction:

"Terraforming Mars can be divided into two phases. The first phase is warming the planet from the present average surface temperature of -60 C to a value close to Earth's average temperature to +15 C, and recreating a thick CO atmosphere. This warming phase is relatively easy and quick, and could take ~100 years. The second phase is producing levels of O in the atmosphere that would allow humans and other large mammals to breath normally. This oxygenation phase is relatively difficult and would take 100,000 years or more, unless one postulates a technological breakthrough."

Before these can begin, Berliner and McKay acknowledge that certain "pre-terraforming" steps need to be taken. These include investigating Mars' environment to determine the levels of water on the surface, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and in ice form in the polar regions, and the amount of nitrates in Martian soil. As they explain, all of these are key to the practicality of making a biosphere on Mars.

So far, the available evidence points towards all three elements existing in abundance on Mars. While most of Mars water is currently in the form of ice in the polar regions and polar caps, there is enough there to support a water cycle complete with clouds, rain, rivers and lakes. Meanwhile, some estimates claim that there is enough CO in ice form in the polar regions to create an atmosphere equal to the sea level pressure on Earth.

Nitrogen is a also fundamental requirement for life and necessary constituent of a breathable atmosphere, and recent data by the Curiosity Rover indicate that nitrates account for ~0.03% by mass of the soil on Mars, which is encouraging for terraforming. On top of that, scientists will need to tackle certain ethical questions related to how terraforming could impact Mars.

For instance, if there is currently any life on Mars (or life that could be revived), this would present an undeniable ethical dilemma for human colonists especially if this life is related to life on Earth. As they explain:

"If Martian life is related to Earth life possibly due to meteorite exchange then the situation is familiar, and issues of what other types of Earth life to introduce and when must be addressed. However, if Martian life in unrelated to Earth life and clearly represents a second genesis of life, then significant technical and ethical issues are raised."

To break Phase One "The Warming Phase" down succinctly, the authors address an issue familiar to us today. Essentially, we are altering our own climate here on Earth by introducing CO and "super greenhouse gases" to the atmosphere, which is increasing Earth's average temperature at a rate of many degrees centigrade per century. And whereas this has been unintentional on Earth, on Mars it could be re-purposed to deliberately warm the environment.

"The timescale for warming Mars after a focused effort of super greenhouse gas production is short, only 100 years or so," they claim. "If all the solar incident on Mars were to be captured with 100% efficiency, then Mars would warm to Earth-like temperatures in about 10 years. However, the efficiency of the greenhouse effect is plausibly about 10%, thus the time it would take to warm Mars would be ~100 years."

Once this thick atmosphere has been created, the next step involves converting it into something breathable for humans where O levels would be the equivalent of about 13% of sea level air pressure here on Earth and CO levels would be less than 1%. This phase, known as the "Oxygenation Phase", would take considerably longer. Once again, they turn towards a terrestrial example to show how such a process could work.

Here on Earth, they claim, the high levels of oxygen gas (O) and low levels of CO are due to photosynthesis. These reactions rely on the sun's energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into biomass which is represented by the equation HO + CO = CHO + O. As they illustrate, this process would take between 100,000 and 170,000 years:

"If all the sunlight incident on Mars was harnessed with 100% efficiency to perform this chemical transformation it would take only 17 years to produce high levels of O. However, the likely efficiency of any process that can transform HO and CO into biomass and O is much less than 100%. The only example we have of a process that can globally alter the CO and O of an entire plant is global biology. On Earth the efficiency of the global biosphere in using sunlight to produced biomass and O2 is 0.01%. Thus the timescale for producing an O rich atmosphere on Mars is 10,000 x 17 years, or ~ 170,000 years."

However, they make allowances for synthetic biology and other biotechnologies, which they claim could increase the efficiency and reduce the timescale to a solid 100,000 years. In addition, if human beings could utilize natural photosynthesis (which has a comparatively high efficiency of 5%) over the entire planet i.e. planting foliage all over Mars then the timescale could be reduced to even a few centuries.

Finally, they outline the steps that need to be taken to get the ball rolling. These steps include adapting current and future robotic missions to assess Martian resources, mathematical and computer models that could examine the processes involved, an initiative to create synthetic organisms for Mars, a means to test terraforming techniques in a limited environment, and a planetary agreement that would establish restrictions and protections.

Quoting Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Red Mars Trilogy, (the seminal work of science fiction about terraforming Mars) they issue a call to action. Addressing how long the process of terraforming Mars will take, they assert that we "might as well start now".

To this, Valeriy Yakovlev an astrophysicist and hydrogeologist from Laboratory of Water Quality in Kharkov, Ukraine offers a dissenting view. In his paper, "Mars Terraforming the Wrong Way", he makes the case for the creation of space biospheres in Low Earth Orbit that would rely on artificial gravity (like an O'Neill Cylinder) to allow humans to grow accustomed to life in space.

Looking to one of the biggest challenges of space colonization, Yakovlev points to how life on bodies like the Moon or Mars could be dangerous for human settlers. In addition to being vulnerable to solar and cosmic radiation, colonists would have to deal with substantially lower gravity. In the case of the Moon, this would be roughly 0.165 times that which humans experience here on Earth (aka. 1 g), whereas on Mars it would be roughly 0.376 times.

The long-term effects of this are not known, but it is clear it would include muscle degeneration and bone loss. Looking farther, it is entirely unclear what the effects would be for those children who were born in either environment. Addressing the ways in which these could be mitigated (which include medicine and centrifuges), Yakovlev points out how they would most likely be ineffective:

"The hope for the medicine development will not cancel the physical degradation of the muscles, bones and the whole organism. The rehabilitation in centrifuges is less expedient solution compared with the ship-biosphere where it is possible to provide a substantially constant imitation of the normal gravity and the protection complex from any harmful influences of the space environment. If the path of space exploration is to create a colony on Mars and furthermore the subsequent attempts to terraform the planet, it will lead to the unjustified loss of time and money and increase the known risks of human civilization."

In addition, he points to the challenges of creating the ideal environment for individuals living in space. Beyond simply creating better vehicles and developing the means to procure the necessary resources, there is also the need to create the ideal space environment for families. Essentially, this requires the development of housing that is optimal in terms of size, stability, and comfort.

In light of this, Yakolev presents what he considers to be the most likely prospects for humanity's exit to space between now and 2030. This will include the creation of the first space biospheres with artificial gravity, which will lead to key developments in terms of materials technology, life support-systems, and the robotic systems and infrastructure needed to install and service habitats in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

These habitats could be serviced thanks to the creation of robotic spacecraft that could harvest resources from nearby bodies such as the Moon and Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). This concept would not only remove the need for planetary protections i.e. worries about contaminating Mars' biosphere (assuming the presence of bacterial life), it would also allow human beings to become accustomed to space more gradually.

As Yakovlev told Universe Today via email, the advantages to space habitats can be broken down into four points:

"1. This is a universal way of mastering the infinite spaces of the Cosmos, both in the Solar System and outside it. We do not need surfaces for installing houses, but resources that robots will deliver from planets and satellites. 2. The possibility of creating a habitat as close as possible to the earth's cradle allows one to escape from the inevitable physical degradation under a different gravity. It is easier to create a protective magnetic field.

"3. The transfer between worlds and sources of resources will not be a dangerous expedition, but a normal life. Is it good for sailors without their families? 4. The probability of death or degradation of mankind as a result of the global catastrophe is significantly reduced, as the colonization of the planets includes reconnaissance, delivery of goods, shuttle transport of people and this is much longer than the construction of the biosphere in the Moon's orbit. Dr. Stephen William Hawking is right, a person does not have much time."

And with space habitats in place, some very crucial research could begin, including medical and biologic research which would involve the first children born in space. It would also facilitate the development of reliable space shuttles and resource extraction technologies, which will come in handy for the settlement of other bodies like the Moon, Mars, and even exoplanets.

Ultimately, Yakolev thinks that space biospheres could also be accomplished within a reasonable timeframe i.e. between 2030 and 2050 which is simply not possible with terraforming. Citing the growing presence and power of the commercial space sector, Yakolev also believed a lot of the infrastructure that is necessary is already in place (or under development).

"After we overcome the inertia of thinking +20 years, the experimental biosphere (like the settlement in Antarctica with watches), in 50 years the first generation of children born in the Cosmos will grow and the Earth will decrease, because it will enter the legends as a whole As a result, terraforming will be canceled. And the subsequent conference will open the way for real exploration of the Cosmos. I'm proud to be on the same planet as Elon Reeve Musk. His missiles will be useful to lift designs for the first biosphere from the lunar factories. This is a close and direct way to conquer the Cosmos."

With NASA scientists and entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Bas Landorp looking to colonize Mars in the near future, and other commercial aerospace companies developing LEO, the size and shape of humanity's future in space is difficult to predict. Perhaps we will jointly decide on a path that takes us to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Perhaps we will see our best efforts directed into near-Earth space.

Or perhaps we will see ourselves going off in multiple directions at once. Whereas some groups will advocate creating space habitats in LEO (and later, elsewhere in the Solar System) that rely on artificial gravity and robotic spaceships mining asteroids for materials, others will focus on establishing outposts on planetary bodies, with the goal of turning them into "new Earths".

Between them, we can expect that humans will begin developing a degree of "space expertise" in this century, which will certainly come in handy when we start pushing the boundaries of exploration and colonization even further.

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We're more likely to resort on space habitats. Not that Mars isn't tempting, but it would ask too much time, ressources and close to no disasters for it to be another place to live in. And, of course, there could be more on it that we need to discover before doing anything we would regret. What's more, we'll need to relocate our growing population. Being able to control it by creating new homes with little risks of destroying anything in the process isn't bad at all. But again, we'll still need time and ressources for this. And in the long, long term, we'll need other worlds anyway. Space habitats are cool and all, but planets (habitable ones, that is) are less likely to explode due to some flying rocks not paying attention to red lights....that and other things.

The Glitter Band - ring of human habitats orbiting a planet. The planet is where you go for a vacation, not to live.

100,000? Forget it. What the authors are saying is that, with current or foreseeable technology, this is an impossible project. If within the next 300 years we have not learned how to terraform Mars in, at worst, a few decades, we will never do it.

The initial exploration & colonization 'of space' probably will be things like asteroid mining and solar powersats for Earth. That will naturally entail space stations & hollowed-out asteroid colonies, and will be driven by business. However, terraforming will happen too. And people who migrate in large #s to the newly opened planets can simply modify themselves via genetic engineering to adapt to the different gravity, etc. After all, that'll be old tech by the time they're ready.

Underground living offers protection from radiation and impactors, ready access to resources rather than mining distant bodies, and airtight enclosures. Water reservoirs in liquid form, skylights for natural light, no need for artificial gravity,

The advantages are clear.

Lot of literature about space living. One of those O'Niell cylinders would make a really good system ship with proper propulsion, like Dr Lerner's Focus Fusion system which makes a fusion thruster and an electromagnetodynamic generator for power to the ship. Lots of resources among bodies in this system. Free of planetary dominance and most politics, a free roaming (NO low earth orbit limitations, atmospheric frag, orbit degradation,etc) and entirely self sufficient ship with one 'gee' living and working conditions would be able to live near if not 'inside' the asteroid belt where its supplies would last....forever. It could export the mined materials to earth for it's international sponsors, and also could travel to the vicinity of the Moon for its shuttles to mine lunar regolith for new colony ship (may as well say colony ship....it is a colony and it lives on a really big ship) construction. Fuel..our system is running over with boron and hydrogen and water everywhere.

I've read terraforming Mars suggestions for twenty years, and they all start with the same nonsense claim that humans are doing a great job warming Earth. They ignore that it's taken 9 billion humans 200 years to warm Earth by 0.9 C. Where do these kooks get this idea that Earth is warming at "a rate of many degrees centigrade per century," or that we could see such results on Mars? Even if we could do it, though, it would be a waste of resources to do so. We see what equilibrium Mars is like. Moving from that requires continuous effort and materials, much of which fizzles into space, lost.

"an underground nuclear detonation created large quantities of heat as well as radioisotopes, but most would quickly become trapped in the molten rock and become unusable as the rock resolidifed." https://en.wikipe...ct_Gnome

-And what makes you think that explosives couldnt be designed to minimize residual radiation or that it couldnt be mitigated?

I think that the plowshare tests were conducted when the need for self-sustaining underground refuges in light of NBC threats became obvious during the cold war.

While Mars may be a far more hospitable place to develop technologies for terraforming, if we are talking about investing tens of thousands of years, and the goal is to create earth's twin, then Venus is the obvious candidate. Not only would the gravity be very similar, but the chances of creating a stable earth like environment would be much better.

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The future of space colonization terraforming or space habitats? - Phys.Org

March 10, 2017

Unlocking humanitys future as an interplanetary species is no simple feat.

But students at Arizona State University and the Central University of Tamil Nadu in India are up for the challenge. The international collaboration is vying for a chance to induce photosynthesis on the moon.

Photosynthesis is the basis of all life, said Jonathon Barkl, a physics and economics major in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. If it can happen on another planet, were one step closer to proving humanity can eventually do the same.

The quest to help build sustainable life on the moon started with TeamIndus, the only Indian team competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE. The $30 million international competition inspires innovators to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration and be the first privately funded team to land spacecraft on the moon, travel 500 meters and transmit high-definition video and images back to Earth.

TeamIndus has officially secured a launch contract with Indias Space Research Organization to send a lander to the moon in December 2017. As part of their mission to catalyze humankind as a multi-planetary species, TeamIndus created the Lab2Moon challenge to fly one youth experiment aboard their spacecraft to the moon.

We have this amazing opportunity to send a payload to the lunar surface and conduct science that could impact the future of human exploration, said Barkl, a member of the ASU/CUTN Lab2Moon team. It blows my mind every time I think about it.

During phase one of the challenge, TeamIndus received 3,000 entries from across the globe explaining a range of experiments to catalyze the evolution of humankind from growing plants on the moon to investigating the lunar subsurface.

Twenty-five teams were shortlisted in the competition to build prototypes of their concept, including the ASU/CUTN Lab2Moon team who are eager to determine if photosynthesis can take place on the moon with its very hostile conditions.

The premise of our mission is taking cyanobacteria a really robust and primitive life form and placing it on the lunar surface to see how it affects the photosynthesis process, Barkl said. If cyanobacteria can photosynthesize and thrive on this surface, we can use it as a means of potentially producing energy, food or even possibly terraforming another planet.

The ASU/CUTN Lab2Moon team has been developing a strategy for putting their mission on the moon, from outlining power requirements to maintaining a safe environment for the bacteria. As they start to develop a full-on prototype of their project, they have to meet TeamIndus three criteria: be the size of a regular soda can, weigh less than 250 grams and connect to the spacecrafts on-board computer.

Its a unique challenge to coordinate between the two universities, Barkl said. Were halfway around the world and our colleagues are 12.5 hours ahead. Well message them while theyre trying to sleep or theyll message us when were in class. The time coordination is hard, but its going well.

During the development stage, the team has broken down responsibilities for the members at each university. Santosh and Sukanya Roychowdhury from CUTN will be developing the space capsule and testing it for space-grade readiness, structural integrity and its ability to withstand pressure and temperature. Barkl, Aidan McGirr and Autumn Conner from ASU will determine how to configure the electronics with the on-board computer, prepare the cyanobacteria and test the capsules sensors.

Our mission is very heavy in science and data because were going to have about nine sensors whereas several other teams have only two or three, Barkl said. We have two main groups of sensors: one for maintaining a relatively friendly environment for the cyanobacteria and one for measuring the output of photosynthesis as the function of radiation on the lunar surface.

Members of the Arizona State University and the Central University of Tamil Nadu Lab2Moon team (from left) Autumn Conner, Jonathon Barkl and Aidan McGirr along with Rakshith Dekshidar (right), a graduate student in electrical engineering, who has been helping the team configure the space capsule's sensors and electronics systems.

After their second design review with TeamIndus, the ASU/CUTN Lab2Moon team was invited to the final stage of the competition. The team will showcase their prototype to an international team of judges in Bangalore, India, on March 13, where theyll find out who gets to fly with TeamIndus to the moon this year.

We see professors from the School of Earth and Space Exploration all the time getting research grants from NASA and winning different missions. Its inspiring to think, Wow, I can go to space too, Barkl said. ASU has never had a student mission of this caliber. We want to prove that not only are the faculty doing amazing science, but so are the students.

Although Barkl is a student in the Department of Physics, he considers himself an honoree member of the School of Earth and Space Exploration. The research being conducted in the school was the reason he decided to attend the university and what inspired him to pursue this competition.

The ASU community has really been a huge support for us, Barkl said. Its a humbling experience to work with so many inspiring researchers who are so supportive and answer all our questions. If we had three years to research these questions, we could probably figure them out on our own. But with such a short turnaround time, they have really helped us make this project possible.

The teams mentors include Lindy Elkins-Tanton, planetary scientist and director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration; Philip Christensen, geologist and geophysicist; Scott Parazynski, retired NASA astronaut and current professor of practice; Ferran Garcia-Pichel, dean of natural sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Mark Jacobs, dean of Barrett, The Honors College and professor in the School of Life Sciences; Mark Naufel, director of strategic projects at the university; and Scott Smas, program manager of ASUs Space Technology and Science Initiative.

ASU has provided us with funding, supplies, facilities and mentorship, Barkl said. Having access to all these resources has pretty much changed the game for us.

Barkl and McGirr, an astrophysics major, want to use the Lab2Moon project to kick off a miniature space agency and private, student-run organization at ASU where students can take what they are learning in the classroom and apply it in a meaningful way to advance space technologies.

What I look forward to most is being able to say Ive contributed to the goal of human colonization on other planets, Barkl said. And we want to prove that students can do meaningful work in the space sector too.

To learn more about the ASU/CUTN Lab2Moon mission, visit the teams website and Facebook page.

Top photo: The moon photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team at ASU. Photo by NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

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ASU students compete for a journey to the moon - Arizona State University