Science News Thread (for articles that don't relate to ongoing discussions)

[darthgently]

2 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

What’s more, Ruff found that the quantity of oxygen produced was enough to sustain other oxygen-dependent microbial life in the groundwater.

This bodes well for at least the slow boat case for terraforming Mars that would rely on a microbe chain to free oxygen as on Earth.  This would require many, many generations of patience.  But if the prime goal is to seed life elsewhere, not necessarily turning a planet into Earth 2.0 for human open settlement purposes, it seems a quite viable course to begin and would incrementally make the secondary goals that much easier by increasing atmospheric pressure and oxygen over time

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

31 minutes ago, darthgently said:

terraforming Mars

I've always enjoyed this idea - but it will never happen.  Blue Mars or Green Mars is an impossibility until/unless we manage to give the planet a buff magnetosphere.   More gravity would help as well.

What we could do, however, is a robust subterranean or dome city via these methods.

 

...

If we are really serious - we could "Gaia" Mars with a couple of dwarf planets and a bunch of comets, creating Earth 2.0.  Done just right it gets a moon.*

 

*But by the time we can do this... will we really need to?

[darthgently]

19 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

I've always enjoyed this idea - but it will never happen.  Blue Mars or Green Mars is an impossibility until/unless we manage to give the planet a buff magnetosphere.   More gravity would help as well.

What we could do, however, is a robust subterranean or dome city via these methods.

 

...

If we are really serious - we could "Gaia" Mars with a couple of dwarf planets and a bunch of comets, creating Earth 2.0.  Done just right it gets a moon.*

 

*But by the time we can do this... will we really need to?

You are assuming that microbes could not evolve to withstand the radiation.  But they already have.  And the microbes we seed don’t have to start above ground or use photosynthesis.  They just have to free oxygen and increase atmospheric pressure over time.  
An artificial magnetic shield could be a megaproject to aid this process as required, but a thicker atmosphere would go a long way.  Still, I think the main value in your point is that a way to keep any new atmosphere from getting stripped away is crucial

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

42 minutes ago, darthgently said:

evolve to withstand the radiation

Oh - sorry - I meant that the magnetosphere protects the atmosphere from the solar wind - which you spotted.

Gravity helps there to be more atmosphere. 

With low gravity and a stiff wind, our pumping o2 into the air of Mars is just giving it to the wind, not really increasing the pressure for long periods 

I'm not arguing the mutation point: my opinion is that is a rate / percent issue and given that we don't get tentacles or claws out of the radiation, but cancer... That's probably a lifespan issue rather than a precluder of life 

Edited 16 hours ago by JoeSchmuckatelli

[darthgently]

25 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Oh - sorry - I meant that the magnetosphere protects the atmosphere from the solar wind - which you spotted.

Gravity helps there to be more atmosphere. 

With low gravity and a stiff wind, our pumping o2 into the air of Mars is just giving it to the wind, not really increasing the pressure for long periods 

I'm not arguing the mutation point: my opinion is that is a rate / percent issue and given that we don't get tentacles or claws out of the radiation, but cancer... That's probably a lifespan issue rather than a precluder of life 

Agreed on all points.