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Robert A. Heinlein - atmospheric processor question
MilesAhead:
I read somewhere that NASA is even more concerned about reverse-contamination from Mars to Earth, and has some kind of fancy word for it.
-bit (May 20, 2015, 04:53 PM)
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Blowback? Nah. Too few syllables. :)
-MilesAhead (May 21, 2015, 05:37 AM)
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'Back contamination'.
^You're right MilesAhead, we need a fancier acronym with more syllables. :)
-bit (May 21, 2015, 03:59 PM)
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Hmm, I'm not sure if this has a good ring:
Neo Organic Mars Earth Recombinant Contagious Yuck
or NOMERCY for short. :)
bit:
I read somewhere that NASA is even more concerned about reverse-contamination from Mars to Earth, and has some kind of fancy word for it.
-bit (May 20, 2015, 04:53 PM)
--- End quote ---
Blowback? Nah. Too few syllables. :)
-MilesAhead (May 21, 2015, 05:37 AM)
--- End quote ---
'Back contamination'.
^You're right MilesAhead, we need a fancier acronym with more syllables. :)
-bit (May 21, 2015, 03:59 PM)
--- End quote ---
Hmm, I'm not sure if this has a good ring:
Neo Organic Mars Earth Recombinant Contagious Yuck
or NOMERCY for short. :)
-MilesAhead (May 21, 2015, 05:53 PM)
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^heehee :)
I have a new question; what altitude on Earth would correspond to air pressure on Mars at ground level?
IOW, how high above the Earth would you have to go, to match the same low atmospheric air pressure on Mars at ground level?
10 miles above the Earth? 20?
50,000 feet up? 100,000 feet up?
bit:
^Found it: The Ringworld Engineers;
Original question: "I have a new question; what altitude on Earth would correspond to air pressure on Mars at ground level?
IOW, how high above the Earth would you have to go, to match the same low atmospheric air pressure on Mars at ground level?
10 miles above the Earth? 20?
50,000 feet up? 100,000 feet up?"
At the above link at 'The Ringworld Engineers', quote:
"In order to create the rarefied atmosphere on Mars, the Map of Mars was built to an altitude 20 miles (32 km) above the main Ringworld surface creating a 1,120,000,000-cubic-mile (4.7×109 km3) cavity."
20 miles = 105,600 feet
And, touching back on the original question of colonizing and terraforming Mars, I saw in a recent video documentary about Earth's interior (which I can't find now), that Mars has virtually no magnetic field to protect its atmosphere and surface from the intense solar radiation which results in Aurorae in the Earth's atmosphere/skies at the extreme northern & southern latitudes.
Mars is rust-colored for the obvious reason that its rocks are loaded with iron.
I wonder if the technology could be devised, to realign the magnetic orientation of the rocks north-south and use that to help simulate a magnetic field.
But the only known way, with Earth as an example, is for molten lava to cool in a preexisting magnetic field.
IOW, to magnetically 'polarize' solid rock by temporarily transforming it into a molten state in the presence of a magnetic field, which is neither practical nor feasible for Mars.
So as fast as you could generate atmosphere on Mars, the Sun would be working to break it down and dissipate it into outer space.
BTW, the Earth's Interior documentary said the Earth's magnetic field is weakening at an accelerating rate, especially near the Equator and the Atlantic between Brazil and northwest Africa.
JavaJones:
Read Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars Trilogy". All your questions will be answered, and in the context of entertaining sci-fi no less! :D
- Oshyan
SeraphimLabs:
IOW, to magnetically 'polarize' solid rock by temporarily transforming it into a molten state in the presence of a magnetic field, which is neither practical nor feasible for Mars.
-bit (August 14, 2015, 05:54 PM)
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I wouldn't be too sure of this. A sufficient quantity of nuclear devices detonated at once would result in glassing of the planet's surface, creating the necessary semimolten state to allow the iron particles to align to a suitable magnetic field.
The question then becomes how did earth gets its magnetic field in the first place, since that would probably lead to clues in how you would generate a planetary magnetic field in order to initially charge up the martian crust.
Without the charged particle deflection offered by a properly aligned magnetic field, the atmosphere just gets blown away. Using machinery to just replace it nonstop would result in the planet slowly but surely losing mass.
It is also possible to magnetize iron by way of impact. Vibrations will disrupt the crystalline structure of the metal enough to allow for magnetic polarity alignment, and this can happen through almost any method of making a piece of steel vibrate.
What if a comet crashed to earth at some point in the past that happened to be mostly iron with a pretty strong field? The impact energy would have made earth's surface hot, and the seismic waves of the impact would have vibrated the earth's crust. If that comet was magnetic, the whole planet would have become magnetic basically overnight.
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