A Starry Outlook—Upon the Red Planet [2/2]: Terraformation

Marcus Lu
Sep 3, 2020
8 min read

Updated: Sep 17, 2020

Disclaimer: This article does not state that the possibility raised as something definitely achievable, and is by no means an expertly guide on how it may be done. It is only raising a possible means of reaching the goals proposed and is not saying that this is the best way to do that.

Introduction

For readers who have already read my first Mars article, you will know that I have more ambitious plans than just planting a colony on Mars. Today, I will be looking at the terraforming—the complete transformation to our liking—of Mars. What does it require, what benefits it will bring, and can really be done. What does it take to modify a planet to our own liking, and if we can do that, what would it mean?

Before I start talking about that, however, I will first like to introduce the concept of terraforming to readers not familiar with it.

“Terraforming or terraformation (literally, "Earth-shaping") of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to the environment of Earth to make it habitable by Earth-like life.”

Wikipedia, Terraforming

What are we trying to achieve?

The main purpose of terraformation is to create more space where humans can easily dwell. To make this truly attractive for said businesses and groups, there must be large amounts of land which can easily be developed. Meaning the atmosphere, temperature and accessibility of resources must be almost the same as that of Earth’s.

However, this is no easy task and will require the Mars and Moon base from previous articles, highly advanced technology, a world willing to work for this goal, and most importantly: a lot of energy. There are several ways to obtain the final requirement, and the most apparent is the humble Dyson sphere. You can learn more about that from here.

How does this work?

Step 1: Reclaiming the Atmosphere and Heating it All Up

In order for Mars to become more heat-trapping, less scorched and have a breathable atmosphere, it must somehow ‘magically’ obtain a large amount of greenhouse gas.

You may wonder: how can this be done if Mars’ atmosphere is only 1% as dense as that of earth’s? Well, if we want to solve this problem, we need to dream big…really big. Presuming that we had enough energy, (e.g. an extremely concentrated light beam from our Dyson sphere), we can subject the martian ground to large amounts of heat, forcing it to release the oxygen trapped within.

If this is done to a large enough area, the oxygen and other gases released into the atmosphere will cause a visible thickening. In addition to this, we may also use centred beaming of light/heat onto some of the many volcanoes on Mars. This will trigger violent releases of geothermal energy, greenhouse gases trapped in the mantle, as well as precious minerals. This will also cause thickening of the atmosphere, especially with the aid of our beamed energy. If even this is not enough, then we may heat up the two polar regions. This will cause much of the trapped CO2 to escape, and therefore ascend into the atmosphere.

Although this thickening of the atmosphere does not equate to it becoming immediately breathable, it makes our lives much, much easier. We can create devices which suck in and pressurise the air into sealed suits very similar to those used for astronauts. Also, it means that the air (consisting of huge amounts of greenhouse gases), will be more capable of trapping heat. So, if we use the Dyson sphere I mentioned above, we can carefully redirect some of the sunlight to the red planet, therefore bringing temperatures up to a degree where humans and plants may survive.

By doing all of the above, we have created an atmosphere much more manageable than that of the original Mars’. We can create open waterways and farms (with genetically modified crops of course), as well as having much more radiation being absorbed.

Step 2: Water... Yeah, that's it

There is no self-cleansing process with Martian water, and that stands out as a problem due to perchlorate (a type of toxic salt) being abundant within the water and the soil. If we ever want Mars to be anywhere near capable of supporting life without everyone bringing osmosis filters, the perchlorate must be eliminated and the water cycle stable. How should we do this?

Before we do anything dramatic, which, don’t worry, we will, we must make some preparations. First, we need the factories our colonists have to make many excavators, which, along with some mechanics and drivers, will be waiting beside the poles. Second, we will need to find a large crater near the poles, which will be sealed and “boarded up” inside, this will later be used as a landfill for the aforementioned perchlorate. Finally, we will need to create some large reservoirs in which we will spread perchlorate-eating bacteria. In addition, we will have a clay-like seal layer which prevents the water from draining away.

I suppose that our readers are familiar with distillation? The process of boiling a liquid and later condensing it to get rid of impurities? That is one of the ways we may be able to cleanse Martian water of the toxic materials stored within it. According to a NASA article on the terraforming of Mars, “it could be vaporised by spreading dust on it to absorb more solar radiation”. Once we do that, we can also use our Dyson sphere to beam even more light onto large areas of the polar ice caps. This will vaporise it, making the caps emit huge amounts of steam. In doing this, we are essentially releasing huge amounts of water into the atmosphere, which will later precipitate back onto the surface.

Now, we need to get to work, fast.

Once the majority of ice has been steamed up, the excavation and transit teams will begin to dig away at the massive salt deposits the ice has left. We must be quick, because if the salt gets in contact with any flowing channels of clean water, it will be dissolved, and the water contaminated. Once they have been cleansed, the toxic chemicals will be deposited into the crater landfill, which is completely sealed to prevent it from leaking.

Once this is all done, and the majority of the polar ice caps are now in the atmosphere, we will make it rain. Once the weather patterns shift and bring much of the moisture above the reservoirs designed for this purpose. We will spray the sky with silver iodide, a chemical compound often used to create artificial rainfall, we will have the water precipitate just in the right place: our channels. This way, we will have large amounts of flowing, clean, beautiful H2O on our planet.

Once this is achieved, we will truly be able to terraform the planet. We have pure, flowing water, we have an atmosphere which, with some effort, can support life, and we have stable, beautiful colonies. This is where we progress into the third and final step.

Step Three: Creating Arable Land and Ridding Mars of Perchlorate

By taking samples of the vegetation found in high-altitude areas and genetically modifying them to our liking, we should be able to engineer a plant species capable of surviving in the peculiar environment on Mars if given clean water and toxin-free Martian soil. Though currently, there are no plant species capable of doing that, we can use the genetic technologies to provoke mutation and beneficial changes in the plant. If helped slightly (in terms of heating and blocking form storms), the plant species may be able to survive. We will start “colonies” of these plants near our designated reservoirs from the last section. Once some samples begin to grow, we will find their strongest “breeds” and try to have them develop a symbiotic relationship with types of perchlorate-eating bacteria. In the best-case scenario, the spores of these seedless plants will be covered with the aforementioned bacteria, which will eliminate the perchlorate around the plant.

(Find some examples of seedless plants here.)

Now, you may ask “why?” Why do we want useless plants to be spread around? Well, these plants are capable of holding the soil together and are known to have made deserts become green. They ave held out against sandstorms threatening to destroy forests on Earth. Remember Martian sandstorms? Yes, they will ideally have a lasting impact on the soil by holding it together and mixing elements such as rock, water, and dust together, therefore stopping winds from lifting Martian dust on the surface. Also, these plants will break down the Martian dirt into something which other, more sophisticated plants can survive in. Learn more about that here. Other than that, perchlorate-eating bacteria which grows in numbers with the plant will be spread around the soil the plant takes root, therefore eliminating perchlorate.

If we manage to create a series of webbed canals and reservoirs on the Martian surface, while also manually spreading our plants, we will stabilise and detoxify the soil within the region, therefore lessening the coming of sandstorms. In addition, through the mixing and integration process which I have briefly mentioned above, the genetically modified seedless plants will break down the harsh rock and hold together the elusive dust, all the while combining it with water. This will form a paste which, if combined with some nutrition, can allow these plants to thrive. After they die, their organic matter will decay and form soil which, when combined with some fertiliser (in this case possibly faeces), will allow more sophisticated plants (with, of course, genetic editing) to grow. This way, we will develop a Mars fit for life, with a much more tame environment.

Summary

At this point, Mars has essentially been terraformed: Plants thrive, producing arable soil and keeping the dust from forming storms; the atmosphere, though containing lots of carbon dioxide, is capable of supporting life and blocking radiation; the heat is something we can control, by focusing and defocusing light from the Dyson sphere; the dry land is now irrigated with clean, flowing water. This is terraformed Mars, planet B - something we say doesn’t exist - our second home, a place where we can thrive. We have modified a planet to our liking, so what were the costs?

Well, here is a list of the things I had used, presuming that they existed.

A very well developed moon base
A mars colony capable of producing high-tech equipment
A Dyson sphere/swarm
Extremely advanced technology humans probably wouldn’t even have by the next century
A world that is willing to work together for the purpose of establishing a terraformed Mars.
A huge amount of manpower.
Advanced genetic editing.
A comprehensive understanding of Mars’ geography and composition.
Almost completely uninterrupted communication between the Earth, the moon, and Mars.

So, at the end of the day, is it worth it? If we are talking about the present, then definitely not. We don’t need the extra space and resources terraforming provides, the costs are too high and the rewards are too small. However, in a future world where the earth cannot support us anymore, where overpopulation threatens to destroy society, then yes, Mars is worth it, planet B is worth it, and we will be willing to pay the price.

Once we discover that we are capable of conquering a planet and making it our own, we will look at the solar system and say:

“Hello there, barren wastelands, we are the Homo Sapiens, and we are coming for you.”

Sources - For further reading

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