An Explosive Plan to Terraform Mars

 Scientists suggest a mind-blowing plan to Terraform Mars, It might just work     

If humans have any hope of establishing a long-term colony on Mars, we’ll likely need to alter the planet’s atmosphere to make it more hospitable. Terraforming Mars has long fascinated scientists and sci-fi enthusiasts. The idea of turning the Red Planet into a new Earth seems both far-fetched and strangely within reach. But there’s one major obstacle: Mars lacks a thick, breathable atmosphere. Now, Polish researchers propose a bold solution, crashing a massive asteroid into the planet. Could this radical approach finally make Mars livable? One part of this plan would require increasing the planet’s atmospheric pressure, and one scientist suggests that capturing celestial objects from the Kuiper Belt, which are full of the necessary light elements required for this process, and smashing them into Mars could theoretically work. The plan is full of dizzying engineering challenges and scientific uncertainty, chief among them being the unstable nature of these icy bodies as they warm up on their approach to the inner Solar System.

Terraforming exoplanets is a recurring theme in science fiction, especially regarding Mars. In many futuristic visions, it’s the first step toward galactic colonization. Kim Stanley Robinson’s famous Mars Trilogy offers one of the most detailed fictional scenarios: from deep drilling to unleash heat, nuclear explosions melting permafrost and engineered algae altering the air’s chemical makeup. At first glance, it all sounds feasible. But according to a recent analysis by Polish scientists, it’s far from simple. Terraforming Mars remains the stuff of science fiction for now. Putting humans on Mars has long been the dream of scientists. But the challenge of establishing a long-term colony beyond just a small scientific outpost is extremely daunting. For example, Mars is too cold for us humans, and previous NASA studies suggest that current technology isn’t up to the task of warming it up via terraforming. Elon Musk has considered more evocative solutions, such as nuking the red planet’s ice caps, while other scientists have pondered more subtle approaches, like releasing reflective nanoparticles into the atmosphere.

Mars has one huge disadvantage: its extremely thin atmosphere. The current surface pressure is only 600 pascals, just 0.6% of Earth’s pressure. That’s not enough to support life. As on Earth, where average atmospheric pressure clocks in at around 101.3 kilopascals (kPa), areas of Mars experience differing levels of atmospheric pressure. The peak of Olympus Mons (the largest volcano in the Solar System) experiences only 72 pascals (Pa) of pressure. Hellas Planitia (the lowlands of Mars), on the other hand, experiences a full 1.16 kPa, making it the most likely location of a future human colony. But because you need at least 6.25 kPa of pressure for your blood not to boil, a future human-inhabited Mars will need even more atmospheric pressure. This is a problem for a species that’s roughly 65 % water, because on Mars, our blood would instantly boil if exposed to the planet’s atmosphere. So, in other words, Mars needs lots of gas to bring up its atmospheric pressure, and the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Leszek Czechowski offered an explosive solution at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held this past March in Texas. In fact, without a pressurized suit, your blood would boil instantly on the Martian surface. Raising atmospheric pressure is therefore a vital first step. The techniques imagined by Robinson wouldn’t be enough to reach the necessary 100,000 pascals. The energy requirement is just too massive. So, does this mean we should abandon the dream of terraforming Mars? Not necessarily. In a proposal presented, scientist Leszek Czechowski suggests a new idea: steer a massive asteroid from the Kuiper Belt and crash it into Mars. The Kuiper Belt, located beyond Neptune, contains countless frozen bodies rich in water ice, methane and ammonia. These elements, once vaporized into gas, could help thicken Mars’ atmosphere. And the energy from the impact would contribute to warming the planet.

“Creating an atmosphere that would allow human life is possible by importing matter from other celestial bodies,” Czechowski wrote in a short paper submitted for the conference. “We should use Kuiper Belt (KB) bodies for terraforming.” The idea is that a future, more sophisticated human race could develop thermonuclear reactors and ion engines capable of guiding icy bodies from the Kuiper Belt on a multi-decadal journey to Mars, where their impact on the surface could eventually atmospheric conditions more suitable for humans. In the paper, Czechowski also considered the nearby main asteroid belt, as well as the further afield Oort Cloud, as possible resources. But the former is largely depleted of light elements, and the latter is simply too far away, it’d likely take 15,000 years to get celestial bodies from the Oort Cloud to Mars, whereas collecting Kuiper Belt objects would only take 29 to 63 years, Czechowski estimates.

In theory, using a Kuiper Belt asteroid could work. But the logistics are daunting. Even if advanced propulsion systems could deliver an asteroid in a few decades, there’s a risk it might not survive the journey. Mars is located in the inner solar system, where solar radiation is far more intense than in the Kuiper Belt. A frozen asteroid might sublimate, its gases evaporating under the heat, before even arriving. Still, if scientists could find a way to deliver it intact, this method could give Mars the atmospheric boost it needs. “Celestial bodies orbiting far from the Sun have large amounts of volatile substances, including water, CO2, nitrogen, CO and some organic compounds (e.g.,CH4),” Czechowski wrote. “Some of these compounds seem harmful to life. In the terraforming plans proposed here, we envision an interim stage in which (after sufficient amounts of the above compounds have been brought to Mars) specially bred (or genetically engineered) organisms will release oxygen from H2O and CO2.”

As you can guess, this plan is pretty energy-hungry, and Czechowski admits it’d require the amount of energy that all of humanity currently expends over a six-month to several-year period (depending on the particular iteration of the plan). There are also a few other hang-ups, as these Kuiper Belt bodies can become unstable during their journey toward the inner Solar System, and such a catastrophic impact on Mars could instigate earthquakes and volcanism. So, could Mars really turn from red to blue and green, like a second Earth? It’s a fascinating idea, and maybe someday it will happen. But right now, the resources, technology and time needed are far beyond our reach. For now, terraforming Mars remains a bold dream, just out of reach, but slowly inching closer to the realm of science. It’s definitely a difficult plan, but then again, no one ever said terraforming Mars would be easy for us.