Warming a Tiny Piece of Mars For Terraforming 205
dptalia writes "It's been a dream of science fiction writers everywhere that we would eventually terraform Mars. Now an engineering student has proposed a way to terraform only a kilometer of Mars. By building an array of space based mirrors to focus the sun's light, a small area of Mars could be warmed to about 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) which would make it easier for explorers to work and live there. Since Mars' atmosphere is thin, the mirrors would have to be carefully designed to prevent them from reflecting harmful radiation as well as light and warmth."
Arizona State University is NOT in "Tuscon, US" (Score:4, Informative)
This and a big hole will get you a cup of coffee (Score:3, Informative)
*I call this Robinson's idea only because Red Mars is where I encountered it - I have no idea who actually came up with it.
Re:To prevent harmful radiations (Score:4, Informative)
Not making fun, it's just that there's a reason we use quartz or NaCl sample jars for UV spectroscopy... but I don't think regular glass blocks xrays, though.
Re:I thought the problem was the geodynamic thing. (Score:2, Informative)
> a magneosphere that would prevent solar winds from blowing away an atmosphere?
There are several problems. Mars does not have enough mass to hold an Earth-like atmosphere, for one thing. The article title is misleading, because it's not really talking about terraforming in the traditional "you can take off your helmet and breathe freely" sense. It's just talking about a measure that would make exploration of the surface, by astronauts in pressure suits, a bit easier.
Re:To prevent harmful radiations (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Water? (Score:3, Informative)