4 ms·

Using low units (liters) so that the numbers look big, can be misleading. To put it in perspective: The CO2 mass in the polar ice caps is 1/5000 of the mass of

Using low units (liters) so that the numbers look big, can be misleading. To put it in perspective: The CO2 mass in the polar ice caps is 1/5000 of the mass of earth atmosphere The water mass underneath is 1/4 of the volume of water in the mediterranean sea.

ryanmercer 8y ago
>The water mass underneath is 1/4 of the volume of water in the mediterranean sea. And Mars has about 38% the surface area of Earth, roughly the surface area of all the dry land on Earth. For Mars that's a hell of a lot of water. >The CO2 mass in the polar ice caps is 1/5000 of the mass of earth atmosphere Which is more than enough to sustain above freezing temperatures when melted. Add in what is frozen in the regolith all over the planet as permafrost and you're well on your way to a pressure humans can survive without pressure suits. Which allows you to start bringing in comets/asteroids as well as heating various rocks to release various gasses as energy generation allows. It makes terraforming quite doable for even our current civilization and if we crack affordable fusion (we almost certainly will, probably in our lifetimes assuming middle age or younger now) energy generation becomes a non-issue and then it's just a matter of setting up shop on Mars, again with largely (if not entirely) automated facilities that start chugging away generating 'designer' greenhouse gasses to start the runaway greenhouse effect to melt the caps.
- SolarNet 8y ago
  The Mediterranean Sea was/is not enough water for each of the human civilizations that has ever lived on it's borders. Let alone the entire (habitable area of the) planet.
azernik 8y ago
> The CO2 mass in the polar ice caps is 1/5000 of the mass of earth atmosphere The CO2 mass in the earth's atmosphere is only 1/2000 of the mass of the earth's atmosphere. That is to say, Mars ice has almost half as much CO2 has the atmosphere of a much larger planet.

ryanmercer 8y ago

>The water mass underneath is 1/4 of the volume of water in the mediterranean sea. And Mars has about 38% the surface area of Earth, roughly the surface area of all the dry land on Earth. For Mars that's a hell of a lot of water. >The CO2 mass in the polar ice caps is 1/5000 of the mass of earth atmosphere Which is more than enough to sustain above freezing temperatures when melted. Add in what is frozen in the regolith all over the planet as permafrost and you're well on your way to a pressure humans can survive without pressure suits. Which allows you to start bringing in comets/asteroids as well as heating various rocks to release various gasses as energy generation allows. It makes terraforming quite doable for even our current civilization and if we crack affordable fusion (we almost certainly will, probably in our lifetimes assuming middle age or younger now) energy generation becomes a non-issue and then it's just a matter of setting up shop on Mars, again with largely (if not entirely) automated facilities that start chugging away generating 'designer' greenhouse gasses to start the runaway greenhouse effect to melt the caps.

SolarNet 8y ago
The Mediterranean Sea was/is not enough water for each of the human civilizations that has ever lived on it's borders. Let alone the entire (habitable area of the) planet.

azernik 8y ago

> The CO2 mass in the polar ice caps is 1/5000 of the mass of earth atmosphere The CO2 mass in the earth's atmosphere is only 1/2000 of the mass of the earth's atmosphere. That is to say, Mars ice has almost half as much CO2 has the atmosphere of a much larger planet.