Many believe that the easiest way to make that happen is to use the carbon dioxide (CO2) available on Mars to create a new atmosphere. But recently, scientists have confirmed that it is impossible.
Turning up Mars to make its surface as Earth-friendly would have two main tasks: increasing temperature and surface pressure by adding an atmosphere created by greenhouse gases. heat retention. The only greenhouse gases that exist on Mars with significant amounts of CO2 and water vapor - both are frozen.
"If we had enough CO2 we could warm up to Mars 100 years from the start," said Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center in California. "We know how to warm up a planet. - and doing it on Earth. The important question here is, is that enough gas? "
No, the answer is harsh. Bruce Jakosky at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Christopher Edwards at the University of Northern Arizona used results from multiple spacecraft to create a full carbon dioxide inventory on Mars, finding out if Removing all of this gas from the ground into the atmosphere, we can create high temperatures and pressures for life.
Not enough pressure
Currently, Martian atmospheric pressure is about 6 millibars - very small compared to a bar in the sea of the Earth.
"We will need something like a million gallons of CO2 that stretches about 1,000 km to reach a pressure of 1 bar," Jakosky said.
At a pressure of 1 bar, the temperature will be just over 0 degrees Celsius, allowing liquid water and thus life to rise on the surface of Mars. This atmosphere will not allow people to breathe, but an oxygen mask will solve that, not a bulky travel kit. Moreover, at this time, trees are free to grow, slowly producing oxygen for a period of several centuries.
But Jakosky and Edwards have found that there is a possibility that CO2 in polar ice, dust and rocks on Mars is only enough to increase the atmospheric pressure to a maximum of 20 millibar. Therefore, we can not improve Mars with current technology, the reason is simply not enough CO2.
"It is not impossible to reform itself, as it is not easy, as people say," Jakosky said. "We can not just blow up some nuclear bombs at the polar ice cap. "
It is possible that Mars still has carbon stocks somewhere deep below the surface of the planet, according to Harvard University's Harvard Wordsworth.
"If you can develop the technology to find and extract them, we can get closer to the goal, but it's like fishing - there's no guarantee they exist."
Without enough carbon, we will have to warm up Mars in other ways, perhaps through the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or bombing the planet with comets or meteors. That would be very difficult, and even if it did not, it would not be enough to actually turn Mars into a new home for humans. We will need Nitrogen, and to this point, it is not clear how many Nitrogen is there!
"Without enough CO2, it would take thousands of years or more, but it's still possible," McKay said. "If you do not have enough Nitrogen, you'll need Star Trek. beam to pull Nitrogen from Jupiter's atmosphere, it's science fiction! "
