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Bad news for those who dream of changing the environment of Mars to make it an Earth bis: the red planet would not have enough carbon dioxide available to recreate an atmosphere thick enough to make it habitable, according to researchers.
A study published in the journal Nature Astronomy looked at the idea that technologies could transform this desert and dry planet to make it similar to Earth. This is the concept of "planetary engineering" or "terraforming", a science fiction affair, but also of interest to scientists. The perspective of NASA's manned missions to Mars in the medium term and that of the establishment of human settlements, evoked by billionaire Elon Musk, led researchers to look further into this hypothesis defended by the boss of SpaceX. 19659003] Terraforming #March is not possible using present-day technologies. Read how #MAVEN Principal Investigator, Bruce Jakosky, reached that conclusion @NatureAstronomy : https://t.co/GpmTSQpvce. https://t.co/gjzqht2HCV
– NASA's MAVEN Mission (@ MAVEN2March) July 31, 2018
A temperature approaching -63 degrees. "We wanted to see what could be done with carbon dioxide (CO2)" in the current state of technology, "says Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA , and first author of the study. Smaller than the Earth, Mars has a very tenuous atmosphere, composed of 96% carbon dioxide. The atmospheric pressure is very low compared to that of our planet. And it's cold: the average temperature is -63 degrees Celsius. "The purpose of this 'terraforming' would be to provide Mars with an atmosphere as thick as that of the Earth," explains Bruce Jakosky.
Increasing the Atmospheric Pressure "The agent of this transformation of the environment would be carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas stored in the Martian rocks and under the ice caps, especially if we could release this gas into the atmosphere. could hope to make it less thin, warm the planet and, by increasing the atmospheric pressure, allow liquid water to stay on the surface, "said the researcher. "Men would no longer need to wear diving suits, as rising temperatures would make life easier for them," said Bruce Jakosky, who participated in NASA's MAVEN mission, launched in 2013, to study Martian atmosphere.
Not enough carbon dioxide. Bruce Jakosky and Christopher Edwards of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff have compiled an inventory of the different "reservoirs" of non-atmospheric CO2, based on data collected by several Martian missions for several decades. "This includes polar ice caps, CO2 in carbon rocks and CO2 molecules in soil dust," explains Bruce Jakosky. "We found that there was not enough carbon dioxide available to create sufficient global warming, even if we could release everything into the atmosphere," he says.
At best, CO2 accessible could triple the atmospheric pressure of Mars – only one-fiftieth of what would be needed to make Mars habitable for humans. And increase the temperature of less than 10 degrees Celsius. "Moreover, it would be very difficult to extract this CO2," notes the researcher.
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