Bringing Life to Mars,

and Mars to Life

Terraforming defined

• Genesis of term• Basic definition

– "...a process of planetary engineering, specifically directed at enhancing the capacity of an extraterrestrial planetary environment to support life. The ultimate in terraforming would be to create an uncontained planetary biosphere emulating all the functions of the biosphere of the Earth–one that would be fully habitable for human beings.” - Martyn J. Fogg

• Ecopoesis – partial terraforming• Biospheres and Terran ecosystem services

Exploration/colonization

• ISS vs. Terran biospheres– Materials imports and exports

• Lunar and Martian outposts– Closed loop systems– In-situ resource utilization– Economic & political pressures

Earth-like Mars

• Ecosystem size, complexity and stability

• Interest in terraforming Mars

• Day length

• Year length and seasonality

• Land surface

• Surface gravity

Alien Mars

• Mars is cold (-63 oC vs. 15 oC) (heat budget)

• The air is thin (6.4 mb)

• and ‘unbreathable’ (95% CO2, N2, Ar, O2)

• No liquid water

• No global magnetic field

Earth and Mars history

Warm, wet, anaerobicWarm, wet, anaerobic?

Early life

Climatic cycles,

Plate techtonics

Atmospheric O2

Multicellular life

Early life????

Core cooling

Magnetosphere loss

Techtonic shutdown

H2O loss CO2 sequestration

Cold, dry planet

Extant life???

Mars today, re-examined

• Flotilla: Pathfinder, MGS, Odyssey, Mars Express, MER Spirit & Opportunity

• Polar icecaps: water ice and CO2

• Subsurface water, Surface water(??)

• Implications for current water cycle

• Cycles of climate change

• Search for carbonates

Mars terraforming goals

• Raised surface temperature (~ 60oC)

• Increased mass of the atmosphere

• Availability of liquid water

• Protection from UV and cosmic rays

• =====

• Composition of atmosphere

Runaway greenhouse effect

• CO2 and H2O reserves

• Polar CO2 dynamics

• Positive feedback mechanism to raise T and Pa

• Impacts on water cycle• Unknowns: reserve levels

and formats, time constants

Triggering the runaway

• Artificial greenhouse gas production

• Initial interest in CFC’s• Search for designer

greenhouse gasses• Unknowns: effectiveness,

lifespan, in-situ resource utilization issues

CF3CF2CF3, CF3SCF2CF3,

SF6, SF5CF3, SF4(CF3)2

• Change albedo of icecaps

• Orbital mirrors

• Cometary bombardment

• Nuclear explosions in regolith

Other triggers

Atmospheric composition

• Results of greenhouse runaway

• How to oxygenate the atmosphere?– Carbon cycle – carbon sequestration needed

• Candidate primary producers for ecosystem

• How to build functional ecosystems??

• Time to build up O2: 1000’s of years

• Nitrogen issues

Mars terraforming possibilities

• Planet can be warmed and the atmosphere thickened– Easier to work outside and harvest resources

• Replicating Terran biospheres is much more difficult, and will not happen soon

Environmental ethics

Discussion time

Environmental ethics concepts

• Obligations and restrictions

• Moral standing and moral agents

• Intrinsic vs. instrumental values

• Anthropocentrism

• Biocentrism

• Ecocentrism

End of show

Atmospheric heat budget

Polar icecaps

Subsurface water

Recent surface water?

Polar CO2 dynamics

• Relationships between Pa, T and Pv

• Stable and unstable equilibrium points

Carbon Cycle

Deep ocean burial of C

Extremophiles

Cyanobacteria

Cryptoendoliths

Ecosystems