Quote:
| MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Scientists are using the pine-forested slopes of a Mexican volcano as a test bed to see if trees could grow on a heated-up Mars, part of a vision of making the chilly and barren red planet habitable for humans one day. Planetary scientists at NASA and Mexican universities believe if they can warm Mars using heat-trapping gases, raise the air pressure and start photosynthesis, they could create an atmosphere that would support oxygen-breathing life forms. Getting trees growing would be a crucial step. The scientists' quest has taken them to the snow-capped Pico de Orizaba -- a dormant volcano and Mexico's tallest mountain -- to examine trees growing at a higher altitude than anywhere else on Earth. "We have experienced warming our planet with greenhouse gases, but on Mars we could do it faster with more powerful gases," he said in his lab at Mexico City's UNAM university. The first human mission to Mars is seen 10 to 15 years away, and the warming-up process could start 50 years later, NASA scientist Chris McKay said. By pumping in highly insulating gases like methane or nitrous oxide, the scientists think they could heat Mars to 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) from minus 67 F (minus 55 C) now. That would match temperatures where trees grow at 13,780 feet on Pico de Orizaba. Having trees on Mars, as opposed to only simple plant forms like algae or lichens, would open the possibility of humans one day being able to breathe Martian air. "Things don't really start cooking from a biological point of view until trees start growing. Trees are the engines of the biosphere," McKay said. "It's possible Mars could have trees in 100 years. (But first) we need to understand what sets the tree line on Earth," McKay said by telephone from NASA's Ames center in California. Scientists believe Mars has ice at its polar caps that could melt into seas and that its subsoil contains the key elements needed for life. Even though none will live to see the fruit of their work, the scientists on the Pico de Orizaba project believe it would be fairly straightforward to pump greenhouse gases into Mars' atmosphere, introduce bacteria to start photosynthesis and finally send up tree seeds with a human mission. The project would be called off if life was found to already exist on Mars. "The idea is to explore the possibility of colonizing Mars. If there is life, we have no right to destroy it. But if Mars is barren we could take life from Earth to Mars," said Navarro-Gonzalez, spinning a Mars globe that shows ravines 6 miles deep and dizzying 10 mile high mountains. In the long term, Mars's low gravity could also have odd effects on would-be settlers, causing people to grow alarmingly tall, and cosmic radiation could cause cancers and mutations. McKay ruled out anything more permanent than short-term research bases for the next century. "I don't have this vision of people moving to Mars the way people settled the New World, setting up homes and bringing their families." |
This is about thirty years overdue, but I'm glad they're finally getting started. Pressurize those martian caves and get some bioengineered lichen working on pumping out greenhouse gases. 41' Fahrenheit is fairly darned warm, all things considered.
