Terraform Mars Using Oasis Greenhouses 70
An anonymous reader writes "The Director of the Mex-Areohab project, Omar Diaz, is interviewed today on the feasibility of modifying the Martian climate and terraforming with mini-greenhouses. At higher than 5,000 meters above sea level, on the volcano Pico de Orizaba, the Mexican model can be compared to many oases in the desert and contrasts with industrial-scale terraforming by Zubrin and McKay, among others, who use fluorocarbons, orbital mirrors, polar melting and pollution machines. One planet's pollution is another planet's rain machine, but the thrust of the interview seems to maintain that micro-terraforming is just faster and more efficient."
Re:this is interesting but lacking on details. (Score:3, Informative)
Correction (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.cdi.org/issues/wme/spendersFY03.html
http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrad
It is much closer to 1:1 rather than 3:1. Though your point still holds - we could probably afford to cut military spending in order to increase spending on other activities, and (the cynic's view) spending on space is a good way to keep our military technical superiority even if it isn't directly weapons spending.
-Marcus
ps. Nor do I believe that the US makes 55 billion profits on land mines.
Re:How about this (Score:2, Informative)
You will need to seal the walls and floor of the valley/crater your using to prevent gas escapeing faster than you can pump it in.
You will also need to keep the cover in place and it will require a lot of force. Complex plants need a minimum of about 0.5PSI to survive, and the current martian atmospheric pressure is so small it can be a saftey/fudge factor.
100 square meters worth of cover needs approximately 350tons of force to hold it in place. But since martian gravity is about 1/3 that of earth, we really need over a 1kiloton of force. So it isnt impossible, it's just difficult. Partially covered lava tubes might be the best place to try this idea, they shouldnt be too porous, and the igneous rock would make a good anchor for the cover.
But remember i calculated for plants, and not humans, we require much greater atmospheric pressure to survive and thus a much stronger cover.
Green Mars (Score:2, Informative)