[Rockhounds] Terraforming Mars might be impossible… for now

[J Bryan Kramer]

Did anyone thing this was a near future possibility? It's always seemed to
me to off in the future after we have practical interplanetary travel, and
I don't mean getting blasted into orbit by sitting on top of thousands of
tons of explosives to do it.

BK


“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by
one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
Edmund Burke

J Bryan Krämer       North Florida, USA
photos at: http://pbase.com/photoburner


On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 6:20 PM Alan Silverstein <ajs at silgro.com> wrote:

> > Terraforming Mars might be impossible for now...
>
> Methinks there's an easier way to do it, but no one seems to go there.
> So I'll just toss out my own fantasy scenario for your amusement.
>
> 1.  Get to Mars as fast as we can now, but only to visit.  Science the
>     hell out of the planet in its nearly pristine state, as quickly as
>     we can, and then --
>
> 2.  Evacuate completely after a while.  Meanwhile, send robotic probes
>     out beyond the solar system's "snow line" (where small icy bodies
>     still reside).  Nudge well-chosen comets (based on size, contents,
>     and orbits) as little as necessary to make them intersect Mars in
>     the next few decades or centuries.  Stand back and watch!  (*)
>
> 3.  After bombarding the planet with lots of water/etc and it settles
>     down again, return, this time to stay.  Infect the planet with
>     biology and life do its thing.
>
> (*) As a writer once observed, any species capable of interplanetary
> flight, never mind interstellar, controls dangerous amounts of power.
> My suggestion absolutely demands fail-safe control over the agencies
> flinging around those comets so they can ONLY hit Mars, and in NO WAY
> be subverted towards Earth.
>
> Cheers,
> Alan Silverstein
>
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