Transgenic immigrants

Although NASA has confirmed that there is water on Mars and even oxygen now, there are still many steps for human beings to go to Mars.

For Mars, people have great expectations, hoping that one day humans can walk on it and then continue to multiply and develop.

The environment of Mars

The soil on the surface of Mars contains a lot of iron oxide. Due to long-term exposure to ultraviolet rays, iron will form a layer of red and yellow oxides. To exaggerate, Mars is like a world full of rust. The atmosphere of Mars is very thin, and the average surface pressure is about 0.75% of that of the Earth. The composition is 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% hydrogen, and a small amount of oxygen, water vapor, carbon monoxide, neon, krypton and xenon. Because Mars is far away from the sun, the solar radiation energy it receives is only 43% of that of the earth, so the average temperature on the ground is about 30 degrees Celsius lower than that of the earth, and the temperature difference between day and night can reach hundreds of degrees Celsius. Near the equator of Mars, the highest temperature can reach about 20℃. Although the amount of carbon dioxide is several times that of the earth, due to the lack of water vapor, the greenhouse effect is only 10℃, which is lower than the earth's 33℃.

In addition, because the rotation axis of Mars is obviously tilted, there are also obvious seasonal changes, but a season is about twice that of the earth.

Generally speaking, the environment of Mars is much worse than that of the Earth, but much better than that of other planets. However, in such an environment, human beings still cannot survive directly. We must transform the atmosphere of Mars so that human beings can survive.

Transform mars

The environmental transformation of Mars is a century project, even an unprecedented project. The manpower, material resources and financial resources invested in this century-long project are immeasurable. The time required to complete this project is not more than ten years or decades, but hundreds or thousands of years. So how to transform the Martian environment?

Scientists suggest two steps: 1) ecosystem formation; 2) The formation of the earth's environment.

The so-called ecosystem formation is to form an anaerobic biosphere on the surface of Mars in the barren land. To form an anaerobic biosphere, Mars must also have sufficient liquid water, the ultraviolet rays reaching the surface of Mars should be greatly reduced, and the contents of oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere should be gradually increased.

A favorable condition for the environmental transformation of Mars is that the above work influences each other and forms positive feedback to some extent. For example, the increase of atmospheric density and thickness can not only reduce ultraviolet radiation, but also produce greenhouse effect, which will increase the surface temperature of Mars. When the surface temperature of Mars rises, it can melt the water ice in the Arctic and even the ice in the permafrost, thus partially solving the problem of liquid water.

The environmental reconstruction project of Mars begins with raising its surface temperature. There are two methods: direct heating method and indirect heating method.

The so-called direct heating method is to locally heat Mars by physical means. Specific methods include solar reflector, asteroid impact and nuclear explosion of Mars. Indirect heating methods include reducing the reflectivity of the polar cap of Mars, so that the polar cap can absorb more sunlight, thus achieving the purpose of increasing the temperature.

After the stage of ecosystem formation, it will enter the stage of earth environment formation. The ultimate goal of the formation stage of the earth's environment is to form a biosphere on Mars that is completely similar to the Earth and suitable for human habitation.

The first step in the formation stage of the earth's environment is to introduce microorganisms from the earth in some good places on Mars. The microorganisms introduced first must be so-called photoautotrophs. The characteristic of this photoautotrophic organism is that it can use sunlight as energy, and it does not need complex organic matter in the process of metabolism. In order to ensure that the creatures introduced from the earth can survive on Mars and adapt to the harsh environment on Mars, it is necessary to cultivate new varieties with transgenic technology. Because no microorganism can adapt to the Martian environment at present.

Introducing microorganisms from the earth to Mars can change the composition of the Martian atmosphere, especially increase the nitrogen content. However, if the Martian environment is suitable for human habitation, it must be aerobic first. Therefore, after the successful introduction of microorganisms, plants should be planted on Mars. Because only plants can convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mars into oxygen. The first plants growing on Mars may also be the products of transgenic technology. Because it is impossible for ordinary plants to grow and develop in an environment rich in carbon dioxide and almost completely deprived of oxygen. In addition, this plant is either pollinated by itself or by wind, not by insects. Because there are no insects in this case.

After the introduction of microorganisms and plants on Mars, animals will also be introduced. Once there is a lot of oxygen on Mars and the temperature and humidity are suitable, a large number of plants and breeding animals will be planted. Not only in quantity, but also in variety, so that life on Mars can be as diverse as on Earth. Biodiversity is extremely important to ensure the stability of the Martian biosphere.

Only after a large number of human beings immigrated to Mars can the biosphere on Mars rapidly develop into the same as that on Earth. In the process of environmental change on Mars, of course, more and more people will go to Mars, but mainly for temporary work, not permanent settlement. When a large number of immigrants settle on Mars, the production and life of mankind will accelerate the transformation of the Martian environment, thus making Mars truly the second hometown of mankind.

Scientists estimate that if it takes a century for an ecosystem to form, it may take centuries for part of the earth's environment to form, and it may take longer for the entire earth's environment on Mars to form. Therefore, it will take about 1000 years to realize the environmental transformation of the whole Mars and make its environment exactly the same as that of the present earth. This is indeed a long time. However, in the early days of the earth's formation, it took 654.38 million+years to change from anaerobic environment to aerobic environment through photosynthesis. It took only 1000 years for humans to transform Mars into the same as the Earth, not too long.

A Fast Method for Environmental Transformation of Mars

In any case, it takes centuries or even thousands of years to transform Mars, which is not only too slow, but also too long. Even those who are most enthusiastic about the environmental transformation of Mars will feel disappointed and frustrated. Is there any way to reform faster and spend less time?

Scientists imagine placing some huge mirrors with a diameter of 250 kilometers at a distance of 320,000 kilometers from Mars. These mirrors will be used to reflect solar radiation to increase the surface temperature of Mars. These huge mirrors will weigh 0.2 million/200 thousand tons, which means they are too big to be launched from the earth. However, people may be able to use materials found in space to build these mirrors.

If a mirror of this size is aimed at Mars, it can raise the surface temperature in a small area by several degrees Celsius. The idea is this: concentrate sunlight on the ice sheets at the poles of Mars through reflectors, so that the ice there will melt and release carbon dioxide that people think is stored in the ice. After many years, rising temperature will lead to the release of greenhouse gases such as chlorofluorocarbons.

In addition, greenhouse gas-producing plants can be used to retain solar radiation, and a bolder suggestion is to use asteroids containing a lot of ammonia to hit Mars to increase the content of greenhouse gases.

Although we can reach Mars within this century, it may take thousands of years to fully realize the idea of globalization of the Martian environment. But this is our mission to mars, and it is a task that we must complete.

On the earth, we humans can even rely on greenhouses to control the temperature and atmospheric pressure for planting near hills, deserts or volcanoes, but the pressure on Mars is only one tenth of that on the earth. Even if greenhouses are built in the same way on Mars, we still don't know how gravity on Mars will affect plants.

Mars has more water than Earth/kloc-0.000000 cubic kilometers, but most of it is ice. Unless we can raise the temperature of Mars (for example, near the equator) and make the ice melt into water to produce greenhouse effect, we can directly plant crops on it and make more oxygen through plants.