3 ms·
I’m sure the Martian crust has plenty of carbon to form an atmosphere. It’s a very common crustal element, and extracting it in situ is going to beat out any ap
by dodobirdlord 6y ago
I’m sure the Martian crust has plenty of carbon to form an atmosphere. It’s a very common crustal element, and extracting it in situ is going to beat out any approach that involves transporting material through space.
- pault 6y agoThere was actually a recent video from PBS spacetime on YouTube that did back of the envelope math on just this subject. The result is that you would basically have to strip mine the top three meters of the entire surface to get enough carbon, and the energy required for the chemical reaction would be something like 100 years of today's global energy production.
- dodobirdlord 6y agoSounds substantially easier than any approach that involves moving a similar amount of mass up the Sun’s gravity well.
- IggleSniggle 6y agoYou don’t really need to move “up” necessarily, right? You can drop “down” but into a more elliptical orbit that shoots far enough out to intercept Mars.
- MayeulC 6y agoMoving "up" or "down" still requires you to change your velocity, which costs energy.