Technological Requirements for Terraforming Mars
The planet Mars, while cold and arid today, once possessed a warm and wet climate, as evidenced by extensive fluvial features observable on its surface. It is believed that the warm climate of the primitive Mars was created by a strong greenhouse effect caused by a thick CO 2 atmosphere. Mars lost i...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.24.8928 http://www.nw.net/mars/docs/terrafrm.pdf |
| Summary: | The planet Mars, while cold and arid today, once possessed a warm and wet climate, as evidenced by extensive fluvial features observable on its surface. It is believed that the warm climate of the primitive Mars was created by a strong greenhouse effect caused by a thick CO 2 atmosphere. Mars lost its warm climate when most of the available volatile CO 2 was fixed into the form of carbonate rock due to the action of cycling water. It is believed, however, that sufficient CO 2 to form a 300 to 600 mb atmosphere may still exist in volatile form, either adsorbed into the regolith or frozen out at the south pole. This CO 2 may be released by planetary warming, and as the CO 2 atmosphere thickens, positive feedback is produced which can accelerate the warming trend. Thus it is conceivable, that by taking advantage of the positive feedback inherent in Mars' atmosphere/regolith CO 2 system, that engineering efforts can produce drastic changes in climate and pressure on a planetary scale. |
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