Bringing Life to Mars,

and Mars to Life

 Terraforming defined
• Genesis of term
• Basic definition
– "...a process of planetary engineering, specifically directed at
enhancing the capacity of an extraterrestrial planetary environment
to support life. The ultimate in terraforming would be to create an
uncontained planetary biosphere emulating all the functions of the
biosphere of the Earth–one that would be fully habitable for
human beings.” - Martyn J. Fogg
• Ecopoesis – partial terraforming
• Biospheres and Terran ecosystem services
 Exploration/colonization
• ISS vs. Terran biospheres
– Materials imports and exports
• Lunar and Martian outposts
– Closed loop systems
– In-situ resource utilization
– Economic & political pressures
 Earth-like Mars
• Ecosystem size, complexity and stability
• Interest in terraforming Mars
• Day length
• Year length and seasonality
• Land surface
• Surface gravity
 Alien Mars
• Mars is cold (-63 oC vs. 15 oC) (heat budget)
• The air is thin (6.4 mb)
• and ‘unbreathable’ (95% CO2, N2, Ar, O2)
• No liquid water
• No global magnetic field
 Earth and Mars history

Extant life??? Multicellular life

Cold, dry planet

Atmospheric O2

H2O loss CO2

sequestration

Magnetosphere Techtonic Climatic cycles,

loss shutdown
Plate techtonics

Core cooling

Early life
Early life????

Warm, wet, anaerobic? Warm, wet, anaerobic

 Mars today, re-examined
• Flotilla: Pathfinder, MGS, Odyssey, Mars
Express, MER Spirit & Opportunity
• Polar icecaps: water ice and CO2
• Subsurface water, Surface water(??)
• Implications for current water cycle
• Cycles of climate change
• Search for carbonates
 Mars terraforming goals
• Raised surface temperature (~ 60oC)
• Increased mass of the atmosphere
• Availability of liquid water
• Protection from UV and cosmic rays
• =====
• Composition of atmosphere
Runaway greenhouse effect
• CO2 and H2O reserves
• Polar CO2 dynamics
• Positive feedback
mechanism to raise T and
Pa
• Impacts on water cycle
• Unknowns: reserve levels
and formats, time
constants
 Triggering the runaway
• Artificial greenhouse gas
production
• Initial interest in CFC’s
• Search for designer
CF3CF2CF3, CF3SCF2CF3, greenhouse gasses
SF6, SF5CF3, SF4(CF3)2
• Unknowns: effectiveness,
lifespan, in-situ resource
utilization issues
 Other triggers
• Change albedo of icecaps
• Orbital mirrors

• Cometary bombardment
• Nuclear explosions in regolith
 Atmospheric composition
• Results of greenhouse runaway
• How to oxygenate the atmosphere?
– Carbon cycle – carbon sequestration needed
• Candidate primary producers for ecosystem
• How to build functional ecosystems??
• Time to build up O2: 1000’s of years
• Nitrogen issues
 Mars terraforming possibilities
• Planet can be warmed and the atmosphere
thickened
– Easier to work outside and harvest resources
• Replicating Terran biospheres is much more
difficult, and will not happen soon
Environmental ethics
Discussion time
 Environmental ethics concepts
• Obligations and restrictions
• Moral standing and moral agents
• Intrinsic vs. instrumental values
• Anthropocentrism
• Biocentrism
• Ecocentrism
End of show
Atmospheric heat budget
Polar icecaps
Subsurface water
Recent surface water?
Polar CO2 dynamics
• Relationships
between Pa, T
and Pv
• Stable and
unstable
equilibrium
points
Carbon Cycle

Deep ocean
burial of C
 Extremophiles

Cyanobacteria

Cryptoendoliths
Ecosystems