On Sun, 9 Mar 2008 09:33:56 -0700 (PDT) Matt Browne SFW
<matt.h.browne@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> carved the following into the hard
stone of rec.arts.sf.science
>The idea was brought up by Marshall T. Savage and is part of his
>Millenial Project ('colonizing the galaxy in 8 easy steps'). Basically
>it's about eva****ation of Mars's dry ice caps (they are made of carbon
>dioxide) and thus raise the temperature. Send a comet (perhaps
>multiple comets) cra****ng into Mars to bring in some water and to
>liberate some carbon dioxide and water from the soil. Then use algae
>to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. The course of the comets would be
>manipulated when they are very close to the Sun. Just give them a few
>small "****ges". Given the resources and the money, could this really
>work?
The problem is Mars' lack of an active core to renew the atmosphere.
In a relatively short time (in geological terms) the gasses and
liquids liberated from the comet will be lost to space.
Good enough for human terms, as you have at least a few tens of
thousands of years, but not really "terraforming" as I imagine it.
--
Douglas E. Berry Do the OBVIOUS thing to send e-mail
"Where is the prince who can afford so to cover
his country with troops for its defense, as that
ten thousand men descending from the clouds, might
not,in many places, do an infinite deal of mischief
before a force could be brought together to repel
them?" - BENJAMIN FRANKLIN-1784
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