Making Mars habitable | Sunday Observer

Making Mars habitable

12 March, 2017

In the fascinating National Geographic docu-drama “Mars” that aired worldwide a few weeks ago, there was one sequence that stuck in my memory. A scientist gives a press conference, then pauses for effect and says just one sentence that shakes everyone to the core: “There is life on Mars”.

That is one sentence that everyone wants to hear – a sentence that will fundamentally change the way we think about life itself. But, even to know that life once existed on Mars will be a great thing. Just a couple of weeks ago, we focused on three-earth like planets believed to be orbiting a star that is just 40 years away from the Solar System. In cosmic terms, it is practically in our backyard. But, how about something that is REALLY in our backyard ?

Yes, I am thinking about Mars the Red Planet, the most likely and closest candidate for human colonization. As I mentioned in my previous column, colonizing Mars will not solve any problems that will affect the entire solar system, but it will be the precursor to our interstellar voyages.

In this context, two news items caught my eye this week. One is that scientists have found that Mars was likely far wetter – and capable of supporting life – than we previously thought. A new study, which simulated Martian meteorites to understand more about its ancient environment, suggests that our history of the planet’s surface might be entirely wrong.

Until now, a specific mineral found in Martian meteorites was used as proof that the planet had an ancient, dry environment. But, in fact, it might have contained hydrogen, which may see the history of the Red Planet rewritten into one far more covered with water.

In the study, scientists created a synthetic version of the mineral known as whitlockite. They then conducted shock-compression experiments on samples of the material, simulating the conditions of being thrown on a meteorite from Mars. The material was then studied using X-rays to find its microscopic makeup. They found that whitlockite could become dehydrated from those shocks and form merrillite, which is commonly found in meteorites thrown to Earth from Mars, but does not occur here naturally.

“If even a part of merrillite had been whitlockite before, it changes the water budget of Mars dramatically,” says Oliver Tschauner, a professor who co-led the study. Whitlockite can be dissolved in water to make phosphorus – which is required to bring about life on Earth – and the material could therefore once have been abundant on the red planet.

Scientists now hope to prove that the conversion had actually taken place, by studying the meteorites on Earth and looking for traces of water. If they find water, it would add to the already huge evidence that Mars once flowed with water. In 2013, scientists announced that streaks on the planet’s surface appear to be caused by flowing water and late last year researchers said, they had found a huge underground body of water ice on the planet.

Mars may have had water once, but we all know that Mars cannot be inhabited as it is. Colonization will require some degree of control over the Martian ‘weather’. Simply put, the question is, “on a cold and desolate planet whose minuscule atmosphere is severely lacking, how do you sustain human life for long periods of time?”.

The answer is “terraformation” – in other words, making Mars more like another Earth to make the surface of the red planet gradually more conducive to human living. There have been many ideas and models created in the hope of successful terraforming. Some have called for a shell that could be placed around the planet which could protect the planet from radiation and help to facilitate an atmosphere over time. Others think that by breaking apart the Martian crust they could release enough CO2 to build up an atmosphere. There have been many attempts, but the main issues that inhibit any attempt are cosmic and solar radiation paired with the unsurvivable atmosphere and dry terrain.

Here is another way of looking at this challenge: To successfully do it you would need to protect against cosmic radiation, solar radiation and solar winds, increase planet temperature, add oxygen and nitrogen to the atmosphere, and do all of this in a self-sustaining manner. All this is possible with today’s technology, though there are many barriers to be overcome.

NASA has now come to the rescue with a unique solution. NASA recently proposed a unique strategy that shows a promising solution to address some of these issues: a magnetic shield. Since the current scientific consensus is that Mars’ atmosphere was lost because of solar winds and the disappearance of the planet’s magnetic field, this solution shows promise. Mars’ magnetic field once protected the red planet while supporting an atmosphere and moisture, and scientists think it can be artificially restored.

Dr. Jim Green, Director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division says: “In the future it is quite possible that an inflatable structure(s) can generate a magnetic dipole field at a level of perhaps 1 or 2 Tesla (or 10,000 to 20,000 Gauss) as an active shield against the solar wind.” The research team working on this idea recently conducted a simulation with their artificial magnetosphere and found that their dipole shield would be able to protect against solar wind and help to balance the Martian atmosphere. Because the shield would work as an artificial magnetic field, the atmosphere would actually continue to thicken over time.

This could be just another stepping stone in a long line of terraforming concepts, but this solution holds more concrete possibility. Because, it could help to actually create a better atmosphere over time and can actually be simulated within a lab in a safe environment, it is possible that the future of terraforming will begin with magnets. This might work on any Exoplanets with similar conditions that mankind may wish to colonise in the future.

However, this calls for setting up some sort of manned base on Mars as a first step. A host of Government and private sector companies around the world including Elon Musk’s SpaceX, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are working fast on a manned space mission to Mars. NASA has already received permission from the US Government to ramp up testing and research for a manned voyage to Mars. This will be enormously expensive, but worth every penny in the long run. There is also no shortage of people who are willing to book a one-way ticket to Mars with the aim of setting up a basic colony. We really need a second home in space and Mars is the most promising candidate at the moment. 

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