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In ENT � Terra Prime we see the terraforming of Mars underway and how Starfleet has begun to guide comets toward the Polar Regions to get more water on the planet- there are also domed cities on Mars at this point in time. I�m uncertain that Mars can ever be truly terraformed, especially on the timetable that we�ve seen in Trek. Mars has a lower mass than Earth, so it cooled faster, and though it has water and an atmosphere, I feel it once had more of an atmosphere, and more water, but that those have been mostly shed in the planet�s cooling, and it will continue to do so no matter how many comets we drop on it. Earth is protected by a magnetic field generated by the molten nickel iron outer core flowing over the solid nickel iron inner core, but as Mars has frozen solid, it does not produce a magnetic field, so the solar winds blow over it and very slowly carry away the atmosphere, and it also creates dangerous radiation levels on the surface if one were to stay. Though I think a technological way to create such a field is a worthy pursuit- I think we should also ponder a more natural means to carry it out.
Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
If the force that bleeds away the atmosphere, also irradiates the surface- I guess the fact that Mars will return to the way it originally was in a few million years would indeed be of little consequence to all those that would contract cancer after a few months living on the new world.
Registered: Dec 2005
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It would seem the terraforming project came to nought in any case. Even with the much less brute-forcish "Home Soil" technique, there would have been enough moisture for vegetation in less than a century; we see no vegetation on Mars in the 2370s.
It may be that Mars always got the short stick as far as colonization projects went. There'd be competition from interstellar colonies, within just as easy a reach and offering preexisting Class M environments. There'd be other uses for Mars, perhaps as a natural reserve or a source of iron and light metals for starship construction; such use would not benefit from terraforming, and continued cometary bombardment would probably be frowned upon in either case.
Heck, perhaps the Martian colonists gathered enough ill will through their Fundamental Declarations and whatnot to ensure that the planet would never get funding for anything constructive.
A little googling reveals that radiation levels on the surface of Mars are more or less what you would get at that notorious cancer factory, the ISS. (Though, to be fair, I wouldn't want to spend my life on that, either.) ((Radiation levels in orbit are about 2.5 times higher than at the station, incidentally.))
At any rate, a thick atmosphere blocks out plenty of radiation on its own, and while this would rapidly degrade under such radation (rapidly on a geologic timescale) I don't see what the big deal is in the relatively short term. So Martians pile dirt up on top of their homes and make sure to wear plenty of sunscreen when they venture out.
[Having said all of that, why anyone would bother with something like terraforming when the galaxy is apparently thick with worlds that require little to no alteration at all is a good question.]
Registered: Mar 1999
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Lee, though I�m always open to good reading suggestions, I found being told to go away and read something to be rude.
I've read the reviews of the books- 200 years to transform a lifeless world into a new Earth is not "science faction". I had a problem with accomplishing it by the 24th century. The reviews state that they engineered plants and micro-organisms that could live on Mars to create "Green Mars" Martian soil lacks all nutrients needed for plant growth, and infact, the soil has oxidizing elements that would act to sterilize any bacteria or plant life that tried to take root. I see only VERY long-term plans to terraform Mars to be viable.
I think terraforming planets is still important in the Trek Universe, because often planets that support life tend to have life, and then there are issues of the planet already having a species claim it, or the life on it is still developing and the UFP doesn't want to alter its natural progress. That does bring us to an interesting prime directive question. If a menshara class world is found with hominids, or any other so quasi-developed species, does the Federation set down roots? If the world has a chimpanzee-like species, would they settle, or would they declare it off limits? I wonder what exactly the criteria are to settle a world.
Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Shakaar: Lee, though I�m always open to good reading suggestions, I found being told to go away and read something to be rude.
That's just Lee. Careful, he bites.
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
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quote:Originally posted by Lee: Shakaar, go away and read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. Then come back and we'll discuss.
I think I read the first book of that series in school a few years back. Is that the one with the nanotube space elevator, and the taller mars people who engaged in incestuous [sp?] relationships? (the librarians up here don't do a very thorough job screening these books. The cousin fucking in The Chrysalids comes to mind. And the wild sex orgies and global domination of the Ford Motor co. from some other book whose title escapes me at the moment.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
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*ponders* So perhaps that shouldn't be on my "must read" list? It's starting to sound like a Scooter Libby book.
Registered: Dec 2005
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Yeah, that crazy outsider Kim Stanley Robinson. Why aren't librarians protecting us from his sick filth? And his occasional violations of the second law of thermodynamics. Fortunately he's gone totally unrecognized by the genre's major awards.
Warning! While the previous paragraph appears to take one position, it is in fact, mysteriously, almost magically encoded such that it represents its opposite.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Topher, he's all of 35 now, and his granny is making him toothless with the chocolate easter bunnies, so the worst he can do is gum people.
Sol, I read that paragraph and thought 'sarcasm', then read the warning. Yep.
Shakaar, if you thought that was rude just wait till Gummy Lee gets warmed up to you.
Is that trilogy the one that goes in to the politics of Mars? I haven't read it yet, but may when I am older and grayer. Maybe tomorrow.
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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