What if Mars had been Earthlike?
It's 1965 and Mariner 4 returns photos of the surface of Mars to NASA. We finally have our first close up images of this other world. But unlike the cratered and barren surface that was revealed in the real history, they see a landscape of river valleys and rolling hills eroded by wind and rain and built up by still active volcanism.
Just how earthlike is up for discussion, but I'd like to imagine a scenario in which Mars were friendly to human life. An atmosphere whose composition and density were such that, at least on large parts of it's surface, people could walk around breathing the local air. Consider also water plentiful enough that we could get by on local supplies. While we might imagine a Mars still much drier than earth, there might be large lakes or river systems that would make suitable sites for habitation.
We should also imagine at least some relatively large region of the surface in which temperatures are in a range that within the range for liquid water, and thus not particularly hostile to human life. This may require, for instance, a higher concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, given Mars' distance from the sun.
This may require a Mars which is larger than the actual Mars we have (alternatively we could consider a similar scenario with Venus instead). Perhaps Mars requires a magnetic field, okay, imagine it has one.
I'd like this all to be consistent with what was known about Mars prior to some specific date. We could go back to Mariner 4's photographs of the surface, but I'm guessing at that point we already had spectrographic evidence of the atmospheric composition. Maybe we need to go further back.
So, in this scenario, what happens next? Can we colonize Mars? Is there any reason to? What sort of major challenges make doing so more difficult than I might imagine? Would the Martian economy eventually contribute to an Earth/Mars economy, or would the two remain completely separate?
For instance, I'm imagining a Mars which is devoid of life, but not hostile to it. Still, there won't be any soil on Mars, so we'll have to make our own. Is this a huge problem or just a minor challenge to be solved?
It's 1965 and Mariner 4 returns photos of the surface of Mars to NASA. We finally have our first close up images of this other world. But unlike the cratered and barren surface that was revealed in the real history, they see a landscape of river valleys and rolling hills eroded by wind and rain and built up by still active volcanism.
Just how earthlike is up for discussion, but I'd like to imagine a scenario in which Mars were friendly to human life. An atmosphere whose composition and density were such that, at least on large parts of it's surface, people could walk around breathing the local air. Consider also water plentiful enough that we could get by on local supplies. While we might imagine a Mars still much drier than earth, there might be large lakes or river systems that would make suitable sites for habitation.
We should also imagine at least some relatively large region of the surface in which temperatures are in a range that within the range for liquid water, and thus not particularly hostile to human life. This may require, for instance, a higher concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, given Mars' distance from the sun.
This may require a Mars which is larger than the actual Mars we have (alternatively we could consider a similar scenario with Venus instead). Perhaps Mars requires a magnetic field, okay, imagine it has one.
I'd like this all to be consistent with what was known about Mars prior to some specific date. We could go back to Mariner 4's photographs of the surface, but I'm guessing at that point we already had spectrographic evidence of the atmospheric composition. Maybe we need to go further back.
So, in this scenario, what happens next? Can we colonize Mars? Is there any reason to? What sort of major challenges make doing so more difficult than I might imagine? Would the Martian economy eventually contribute to an Earth/Mars economy, or would the two remain completely separate?
For instance, I'm imagining a Mars which is devoid of life, but not hostile to it. Still, there won't be any soil on Mars, so we'll have to make our own. Is this a huge problem or just a minor challenge to be solved?
via International Skeptics Forum http://bit.ly/2TwoO3n
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