The Terraforming of Mars

The word "terraforming" is the concept that describes the actions of transforming a planet to make it habitable. The terraforming of Mars is precisely that, the planetary engineering process that would help transform the prevailing climate of the planet. This process would aim to increase the temperature of the cold, frozen planet. It would also create a denser atmosphere, which, to give you an idea, is 1% of what we have here—in other words, we could say it barely has any. And of course, it would create rivers, oxygen, plants, trees, fauna... in short, something as close to Earth as possible.

Many scientists (and some visionaries) have proposed how to achieve this process. It may seem easy, but if you think about it carefully, it isn't. Following recent discoveries, such as the large blocks of ice and the possibility of water beneath them, there has been a great deal of enthusiasm for terraforming the planet. NASA, and more companies, have already made proposals on the profile of people who are going to go there to start this ambitious process. A one-way trip, but not a return trip, that we'll be able to begin to see in the next decade. However, reshaping a planet is no easy task, and in attempting to modify it, things have been discovered that many experts hadn't initially considered in their proposals.

Create the climate and atmosphere on Mars

Water cannot exist in a liquid state. Currently Mars is a planet with a very poor atmospheric pressure level, in the order of 0,005, taking Earth as a reference, 1. We also have to count the temperature, on Earth about 15ºC, on Mars, although there are no records voluminous enough to determine correct accuracy, we can say that it is between about -40 / -70ºC. There are highly variable records, such as the difference between maximum and minimum detected by the Viking probes, the warmest being -13ºC and the cold being -89ºC. Both records can be exceeded by quite a difference depending on the point on the planet where it is being measured.

To obtain water, it would not be enough just to increase the temperature, since its pressure is so low that it can only exist in a gaseous or solid state. To do this, we must increase the pressure above 0,006. With sufficiently high atmospheric pressure and a higher temperature on the planet, one of the basic pillars of terraforming would have been solved. But how do we make the pressure and temperature increase?

The process to get water

Diagram of the phases of water

We are aware that We need to increase the pressure, increase the temperature, and all of this to also achieve water.One of the most interesting ways to achieve all this starts with bombing the poles. By bombing them, the ice could increase in temperature, and some of the CO2 would sublimate. Sublimation means going from solid to gas. This would cause an increase in CO2 in the atmosphere, potentially increasing atmospheric pressure by up to 0,3%. As you can see in the drawing, Mars is at point A. The so-called triple point, B, is the area where we can begin to find water. Point C would be the point we should reach.

One of the ways to bombard proposals has also come from the mouth of Ellon Musk, known for being the owner of several companies, including the famous Tesla or Space-X. Ellon musk proposed a while ago, to bomb with nuclear bombs. A rather eccentric idea, but it pursues the following goal. The chain reaction that is pursued after the release of CO2 in gaseous form is to increase the pressure, which increases the temperature, which increases the release of CO2, which increases the pressure again, etc. In this way, we would get a positive feedback process.

The process to get oxygen

phytoplankton

Once the ice is converted into water, we would have an atmosphere made up mostly of carbon dioxide and water vapor, but still with a lack of oxygen. The idea here would be to transport phytoplankton from Earth. This marine organism provides our planet with more than 50% of the oxygen we breathe. This way, we could create oxygen and achieve a more breathable atmosphere.

This whole initial process would take many years. As we have been able to verify, we could get to Terraform Mars. The first humans that NASA plans to send are expected to be from the year 2030. It's worth noting that some companies have ambitions for this to happen within the next decade. Some of them, like SPACE-X, are beginning to propose models for making these trips more economical and efficient.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qo78R_yYFA

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