70 replies to this topic

[Athena]

I don't think the atmosphere of Mars would be right for us. The temperature is too low and 95% of the atmosphere consists of carbondioxide, with only a 0.13% of oxygen. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars) Our current atmosphere consists of about 20% oxygen and less than 1 % carbondioxide (sources vary about the % of carbondioxide)
I don't think humanity will cease to exist because of a Meteor. A Meteor will strike a part of the Earth, not the Earth in whole, unless it's very big and has a large velocity. Chances are higher we'll have ourselves blown up by some kind of war.

[Nighthawk]

Technically (probably quite a bit in the future) we would be able to terraform Mars so oxygen is released into the atmosphere of it. I remember reading its to do with something about burning one of its moons, Phobos, which is covered in carbon

[MSpencer]

Ever hear of the Earth at 53 kelvin?

Edited by MSpencer, 28 January 2006 - 02:39 PM.

[link.the.first]

Terra-forming is probably possible (or will be eventually), all you have to do is release lots and lots of oxygen into the atmosphere and maybe do something about the CO2. Possibly release another gas to trap some of the sun's heat.

One way to do this was explained on Total Recall: Melt the polar ice caps and either release dissolved oxygen into the atmosphere or split the hydrogen and oxygen in each molecule, which can be done with a simple electric current. May have to keep some heaters under the ice caps to keep them from sucking the water back up, but it could work.

Or just have everyone live in big domes.

Edited by link.the.first, 28 January 2006 - 04:10 PM.

[crave22]

Big fecking domes sounds fun.

Melting the polar ice caps would just release more CO2 into the atmosphere, since it's dry ice.

[MSpencer]

Domes would be the most feasible and would take the least amount of money and time, but if you think about it, it would kinda suck. Population would be limited by strict zoning by the colonial authority, and prices would be damn high.
Also, splitting the hydrogens from the single oxygen would cost a lot in energy, and it would produce an ungodly amount of hydrogen gas and not enough oxygen to support life. Don't trust an Arnold movie for being scientifically accurate.

[Nighthawk]

One way to do this was explained on Total Recall: Melt the polar ice caps and either release dissolved oxygen into the atmosphere

That's what the burning of Phobos was about, it would produce a lot of heat, melting the polar ice caps. It would be like a sun and a half to anything on mars. Phobos has no atmosphere, so the heat wouldn't be contained.

[link.the.first]

What burning of Phobos?

Anyway, the hydrogen can be used as fuel once we get a reliable fusion reactor running.

[Nighthawk]

What burning of Phobos?

When I was talking about terraforming earlier, I'm sure I mentioned it...

[link.the.first]

Oh ok found it

but what's carbon have to do with terraforming? Is it just because it's flammable enough to make burning Phobos possible? Cuz the problem there is that you need oxygen to burn it too.

[Nighthawk]

But Phobos is pretty small (it's smaller than our moon), so you could release small amounts of oxygen around it, just enough oxygen to let it burn slowly

[Jeeves]

Mmmm... Large scale pyromancy...
So, a: how the **** does one ignite a moon? (You'd need one hell of a zippo.)
And b: where does the oxygen come from?
And c: anyone heard of the port arthur masacre? (it was Australia day on the 26th, and its taken me until not to think of an Australian conspiracy theory)

[MSpencer]

You'd need napalm or a nuclear weapon, and I'm not kidding.
Also, if you were to burn all the carbon you'd only create CO2 and consume all the oxygen you dumped. Also, you'd have to carry oxygen as a liquid or solid which takes up tons of energy if you were to enact your plan, and either way, it would take tons of it, or a lot of it would completely miss the moon or radiate out into space.

[Nighthawk]

But the whole point is to provide heat, which will melt the polar ice caps on Mars, as I said earlier, it would be like a much smaller sun

Edited by Nighthawk200, 29 January 2006 - 03:10 PM.

[Samael]

Ok I have another one, Roswell alien crash. Did it happen or was it something the US or Russia built. If so why do so many people believe the tech today was the result of that. Same answering way.

[link.the.first]

I highly doubt that was an alien ship. If it was, and the government seized it, wouldn't the aliens want their tech back so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands?

It was probably some sort of prototype aircraft the Air Force was testing. Also, all technology today was invented locally; you can officially account for that by looking up the inventors.

[Jsmooth13]

I don't think roswell was real, but what about that event at the that US AF Base in England??

Plus, what about that Soviet Missile incident when it just started counting down and then stopped without anybody telling it to do any of those things??

[Nighthawk]

(I think I said this earlier) I thought was a craft being tested with zero point tech, but America buggered up and it crashed, that's why the FBI got rid of it so quickly

[Ash]

But the whole point is to provide heat, which will melt the polar ice caps on Mars, as I said earlier, it would be like a much smaller sun

Which will burn out very quickly, assuming we can even get the fire going.

Our best bet is to genetically engineer phytoplankton to be resistant to the extreme cold of Mars and let THEM do the terraforming.
Which is about as plausible as burning Phobos.

[MSpencer]

Actually, yes, it is. You can't replace water, and water would freeze and expand, bursting the cell wall of the poor little cyanobacteria. You guys are bastards, you know that? So mean to the little bacteria. You should be nicer to your ancestors.