Up with trees...up in space.

[RecycleMichael]

I thought this was an interesting story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070716/sc_nm/mexico_mars_dc

Mexican volcano is test bed for trees on Mars By Catherine Bremer

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Scientists are using the pine-forested slopes of a Mexican volcano as a test bed to see if trees could grow on a heated-up Mars, part of a vision of making the chilly and barren red planet habitable for humans one day. Planetary scientists at NASA and Mexican universities believe if they can warm Mars using heat-trapping gases, raise the air pressure and start photosynthesis, they could create an atmosphere that would support oxygen-breathing life forms.

Getting trees growing would be a crucial step. The scientists' quest has taken them to the snow-capped Pico de Orizaba -- a dormant volcano and Mexico's tallest mountain -- to examine trees growing at a higher altitude than anywhere else on Earth. "It sounds like science fiction, but we think it's feasible," said research professor Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez, who has spent nine years examining Pico de Orizaba's pine forests. "We have experienced warming our planet with greenhouse gases, but on Mars we could do it faster with more powerful gases," he said in his lab at Mexico City's UNAM university.

The first human mission to Mars is seen 10 to 15 years away, and the warming-up process could start 50 years later, NASA scientist Chris McKay said. There will also be ethical issues to overcome. "It's playing gardener more than playing God, but the ethical questions are important," McKay said. By pumping in highly insulating gases like methane or nitrous oxide, the scientists think they could heat Mars to 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) from minus 67 F (minus 55 C) now. That would match temperatures where trees grow at 13,780 feet on Pico de Orizaba.

Having trees on Mars, as opposed to only simple plant forms like algae or lichens, would open the possibility of humans one day being able to breathe Martian air. The scientists are studying what makes trees refuse to grow above a certain point, where temperatures drop and the air becomes thinner, to see how easily they could grow on Mars. "Things don't really start cooking from a biological point of view until trees start growing. Trees are the engines of the biosphere," McKay said. "It's possible Mars could have trees in 100 years. (But first) we need to understand what sets the tree line on Earth," McKay said by telephone from NASA's Ames center in California.

NO CALLS TO EARTHLINGS

Despite Mars' lifeless rocky surface, burning ultra-violet radiation and its extremely thin, carbon dioxide-loaded air, humans have for long been obsessed with finding life there. Scientists believe Mars has ice at its polar caps that could melt into seas and that its subsoil contains the key elements needed for life. Even though none will live to see the fruit of their work, the scientists on the Pico de Orizaba project believe it would be fairly straightforward to pump greenhouse gases into Mars' atmosphere, introduce bacteria to start photosynthesis and finally send up tree seeds with a human mission.

"Nothing that we know rules it out. There's still a lot of uncertainty, but nothing that's a showstopper," McKay said. The project would be called off if life was found to already exist on Mars. "The idea is to explore the possibility of colonizing Mars. If there is life, we have no right to destroy it. But if Mars is barren we could take life from Earth to Mars," said Navarro-Gonzalez, spinning a Mars globe that shows ravines 6 miles deep and dizzying 10 mile high mountains.

His "before" and "after" images show the arid planet transformed into a new world of lush green plains, lakes and mineral-rich mountains that could one day supply earth. Still, that vision is centuries away. For now, anyone braving the six-month flight to Mars would have to live in a pressurized dome, suffer violent dust storms and be cut off from earthlings too far away to easily speak to.

In the long term, Mars's low gravity could also have odd effects on would-be settlers, causing people to grow alarmingly tall, and cosmic radiation could cause cancers and mutations. McKay ruled out anything more permanent than short-term research bases for the next century. "I don't have this vision of people moving to Mars the way people settled the New World, setting up homes and bringing their families."

[MichaelC]

The problem isn't heating Mars up, or seeding the planet with plant life, it's keeping the thing warm.  The absence of a substantial magnetic field would require a permanent heating and atmosphere thickening process.  And the right set of circumstances would still blow it all away.

That's why I endorse stripping large swaths of Mars down about 75 feet, and covering the thing in  a filtering protective glass.

[TheArtist]

Yea its not the production of an atmosphere, and it would have to be maintained. Though who knows it could be possible to create a "self-maintaining" one. Its the radiation from a lack of a magnetic field that seems to be the real clincher.

Even if you were building a small habitat or dome on Mars you would have to deal with the radiation. However, they have found spots where there are some pretty decent magnetic fields that are perhaps "frozen" remnants from its past. I do not know how strong those fields are in comparison to Earths, but at least they would offer some protection.  They are currrently working on creating artificial magnetic fields for moon bases. Being on the moon for just a few days is one thing, but staying there for months or more without proper shielding would be killer. The astronauts were very lucky that they went during times when the sun was not producing a lot of deadly radiation. Even if a sudden storm had erupted it could have killed them. Space stations and the like in earth orbit are protected by the earths magnetic field.

There will be no trees or plants on Mars unless they can figure out how to make them extremely radiation resistant or create a planetary magnetic field.

[RecycleMichael]

I am sick and tired of you planetary nay-sayers. I am ashamed to call you earthlings.

I trust science to find a way to do this. We might need to colonize Mars soon, if for no other reason than to move there for a new city hall someday.

[TheArtist]

I have thought of something though. We could put all those plastic water bottles on Mars where they would decompose quite quickly in that intense radiation. Just a thought. []

[MichaelC]

In Space Balls, they covered the entire planet of Druidia in a protective shield.  I endorse that.  They also created Mega Maid, a giant vacuum cleaner.  I also endorse that.

"I see your schwartz is as big as mine."

[sgrizzle]

I've said it before, PerriAir is the future.

[RecycleMichael]

Anything but DairyAir.