Soil on Mars is good for plants...

[Aesa]

I was checking my mail when I stumbled across this article. I find it interesting and only moderately suprising considering that Mars has so far shown signs of being similar to the Earth minus visible water. Of course this could just be made up but let's humor NASA for now shall we?
_________________


The setting sun means the rise of a new day...
...excepting for Ragnarok, of course

~Tinto~

[Septimus]

Terraforming Mars will be done within 100 years.

[Ninjar]

The spice is life.

[Vextor]

What's funny is NASA first said "the soil would be good for growing asparagus."

Asparagus!? Why asparagus?

[Flare]

Isn't it obvious? That's what vegetable they would be if they were a vegetable of course!
_________________
The immortal chickens shall rule the world!!

[Septimus]

On a more serious note, I think it could be done terraforming that planet.

Drop some neat cuddly machines down there that start polluting, so you get some nice global warming (srsly), so when it's rather hot and a nice atmosphere, drop down plants that create oxygen and BAM 100 years later you have a 'livable' planet.


Or so they say.

[Gil-galad]

[Sage]

Mars has a lot more against it than just temperature and no usable water. It has lower gravity and severe wind storms; a bad combination for top soil (aka dust storms) and anything in it. The atmosphere is much thinner than earth's and Mars only has a remnant magnetic field (fields "trapped" in rocks), both of which leave it susceptible to solar radiation. This is somewhat offset by distance, but if it were in earth's position, I find it hard to believe much, if any, life could survive. So saying that the soil itself could support asparagus is good press and they left out all of these other details for a reason. The more public interest, the more funding NASA gets, generally.

Terraforming is nice for science fiction, but it is nowhere near a reality. We do not have the capability of getting anything besides these rovers, satellites, and landers to Mars. We cannot send people (and have them arrive alive anyway). We cannot send the necessary supplies. We don't have the technology designed, built, tested, and approved for a means to harvest necessary materials there (including those for fuel to launch the astronauts back to earth), let alone being able to send it. In fact, we cannot even get a lot of materials in current theories off earth's surface. They're just too massive.

NASA's current plans include new shuttles since the current ones retire in 2010 (last I heard) and they want to get back to the moon first. They can use the moon as a testbed for technologies, procedures, and facilities that we might want to use on Mars. It's "close" so it's safer. I don't think anyone there is irresponsible enough to try to leapfrog all of that and go straight for a manned mission to Mars.

And if you wanted to propose terraforming right away, then you introduce many more variables. Has life mutated? Where is it safe to land? Are we sure the atmosphere is breathable? Are we damaging any possible fossils or geologic remains that could tell us about past Mars? We would be destroying a lot of history in the process, I think. And in the end, you would still have the issues of how we would get people there and back safely. Since NASA is a government agency and rely on government funding (which is actually not much bigger than their costs), they move slowly. I think 100 years is far too generous an estimate.
_________________

[Gil-galad]

Hydroponic facilities for growing food could be established on Mars, on the other hand, to support human life on that planet. However, that still is thinking way too far in advance as we don't have the means to get humans there, let alone the ability to get the materials necessary to build such a 'farm'.
_________________

[Septimus]

It would take so much resource getting there, anyway, that I don't see the point, other than your ordinary 'I'M AN EXPLORERERR'-attitude of people depressed there's nothing more to discover on earth.

Besides the additional space, I don't think we could benefit from Mars in our life-time, spite us growing to be 2000 years old.

[Vextor]

We can send people we don't like to Mars. It can be the new Australia!

[Assassin01]

Whats wrong about Australia?
_________________
OFFICIAL SMOKE BOMB USERS:
Assassin01
ViktorFan
MMan9000
Ralphy Leone Tensei
Lymsleia Falenas

[Vextor]

Australia used to be where all criminals in England got shipped to!

[Sage]

[John Layfield]