Creating a livable environment on Mars is still a far-fetched dream, say scientists

Terraforming or creating a livable environment on Mars, which would allow humans to explore without support of life, is still a wacky dream, say scientists who have found that existing technologies are unable to form a terrestrial atmosphere on the red planet. Sci-fi writers have long described terraforming, the process of creating an environment similar to Earth or inhabitant on another planet, in their stories. Scientists themselves have proposed terraforming to allow for the long-term colonization of Mars.

A solution common to both groups is to release carbon dioxide trapped in the Martian surface to thicken the atmosphere and serve as a blanket to warm the planet. However, according to scientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the United States, Mars does not hold enough carbon dioxide that could practically be put back into the atmosphere to warm the planet. Transforming the inhospitable Martian environment into a place that astronauts could explore without the support of life is impossible without a technology far beyond current capabilities, according to researchers

Although the current Martian atmosphere is mainly composed of carbon dioxide, support liquid water, an essential ingredient for life. On Mars, the pressure of the atmosphere is less than one percent of the pressure of the Earth's atmosphere. Any liquid water on the surface would evaporate very quickly or freeze. Proponents of Mars terraforming propose to release gases from various sources on the red planet to thicken the atmosphere and increase the temperature to the point where liquid water is stable on the surface.

These gases are called "greenhouse gases" for their ability to trap heat and warm the climate. "Carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O) are the only greenhouse gases that are likely to be present on Mars in sufficient quantities to provide significant greenhouse warming." said Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado. Although studies examining the possibility of terraforming Mars have already been done, the new result benefits from about 20 years of additional space observations from Mars.

"These data provided substantial new information on the history of readily volatile materials like CO2 and H2O on the planet, the abundance of volatile substances enclosed on and under the surface. , and the loss of gas from the atmosphere to the space, "said Christopher Edwards of Northern Arizona University in the United States.

Researchers analyzed the abundance of carbonaceous minerals and the presence of CO2 in the polar ice using data from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite from NASA and Mars Odyssey, and used data on the loss of the Martian atmosphere in space Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution ) spacecraft. "Our results suggest that there is not enough CO2 remaining on Mars to provide a significant warming of the greenhouse if the gas was to be put in the atmosphere," says Jakosky Steam, previous analyzes mount that water can not provide significant warming by itself. Temperatures do not allow enough water to persist in the form of steam without first having significant CO2 warming, according to the researchers. Taken together, the results indicate that Mars terraforming can not be done with currently available technology. All these efforts must be very far in the future, the researchers said.