Could Climate Change Make Mars Suitable for Human Life? - NYTimes.com
Chris McKay, a Mars expert at the NASA Ames Research Center, theorizes that engineers would first have to encourage the kind of global warming they want to avoid on Earth. This could be done by releasing greenhouse gases, like chlorofluorocarbons or perfluorocarbons, into the atmosphere. The goal would be to increase the surface temperature of Mars by a total of about 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit.
The gases would be produced on the planet by processing chemicals from its atmosphere and soil in giant factories. Each factory would require as much power as would be produced by a large nuclear plant. With the rise in temperature, heat-trapping carbon dioxide would eventually be released from the planet’s south polar ice cap, producing a further average temperature rise of even greater magnitude, perhaps as much as 70 degrees Celsius, or 126 degrees Fahrenheit.
These high temperatures would melt ice to produce the water needed for living things. Only then would trees be planted to absorb carbon dioxide and produce enough oxygen for humans.
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1 comment:
How is it that a NASA employee can be so ignorant? Mars is at 953,200ppm of CO2 compared to Earth's ~400ppm.
Venus is 965,000ppm CO2, so another 10,000 ppm will help Mar's melt lead? How is that supposed to work?
NASA needs to ship him there at the first available flight. Actually, the whole organization needs to have their funding cut in half to get rid of this dead weight.
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