By Aaron Zhao
What happens if Nature’s resources are exhausted and Earth becomes so polluted with carbon dioxide that it is unable to support life adequately? What happens if Earth becomes so overpopulated that we are unable to keep up with the demand for food and energy? What happens if our world is dying?
We immigrate to another planet.
But, this new home didn’t appear out of nowhere, shouting “I can save you!” Thousands of years prior, it was a floating ball of barren rock. Now, when we need it, it is abundant with life and has a perfect atmosphere. How?
Terraforming.
Terraforming is the concept that we can change the atmosphere, ecology, and topography of a inhospitable planet so that it can support life. Want to make your own planet? Follow the instructions below.
Instruction manual:
- Choose your planetary body.
A medley of planets and moons have been tagged “terraformable”, some in our solar system, some not. Traits scientists look for include the abundance of water-ice, suitable temperature, and the presence of organic molecules and nitrogen, which is an essential nutrient of life and an opportunity for nitrogen fixation to take place.
- Start to change the atmosphere from hostile to habitable.
The lack of adequate greenhouse gases prevents heat from being kept within its atmosphere. For example, Mars does have a significant amount of carbon dioxide, but it’s all frozen. In order to have some hope of creating a hospitable atmosphere, we would need to warm up the planet with enough green house gases. I recommend the importation of methane to the Mars’ land, since it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases, capable of capturing 25 times the amount CO2 can. Scientific research has proven that methane can be generated from water, carbon dioxide, and the mineral olivine (which is already present on Mars). However, don’t get your hopes up too soon. The amount of carbon dioxide – and subsequently methane – needed to warm the atmosphere to keep water in its liquid form is of such magnitude achieving it is not accomplishable in the foreseeable future.
- Introduce life.
Microbial life is also crucial for warming the planet’s atmosphere and environment. Extremophiles are organisms that can survive extremely harsh conditions, and can be brought to early stages of a planet in terraforming phase. Tardigrades can also be considered. Let us not forget that many forms of microbes like blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) and diatoms are capable of photosynthesis which creates oxygen! In time, the atmosphere will become more stable and more species can be introduced to populate the biosphere.
- Solve other problems.
Some celestial bodies such as Mars and Titan share a similarity that makes terraforming significantly more difficult. They don’t have magnetic fields. Earth does, and that is why it is able to defend itself against solar winds (that would gradually erode its atmosphere if no magnetic field existed, akin to what happened with Mars) and interplanetary space weather effects like solar flares that wreak havoc with satellites.
Other problems include:
- lack of water
- the evolution of species on alien terrain that prove to be dangerous
- establishing semi-permanent workstations or colonies while terraforming planets far away
- time (terraforming doesn’t happen overnight. Chris Mckay say it can take up to 100,000 years to terraform mars.
Now, you’re on the right track to terraforming a planet!
What are your thoughts on terraforming? Comment and discuss with others below!