h a l f b a k e r yA riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a rich, flaky crust
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I've had this idea last night. next time, when we send a probe to Mars - let's put some grass seeds, some mushroom spores, a handful of pine cones and maybe a pound of Brie cheese with some nice bacteria in it, to fertilize Mars! It's a lonely desert but it's atmosphere is saturated with CO2 and plants
would just love it! They would pump some O2 into the atmosphere. Who knows, maybe 10, 15 years down the road it would turn into Green Planet entirely covered with grass!
What a paradise for golf players..
A bit like this?
http://en.wikipedia...erraforming_of_Mars
[wagster, Dec 16 2009]
Could work for Chihuahuas.
Rover_20Rover
[shudderprose, Dec 16 2009]
N uke Mars
Nuke_20Mars
It blowed up real good. [bungston, Dec 16 2009]
it might attract mice
http://astrogeology...oads/mars_mouse.jpg
[xandram, Dec 16 2009]
Nasa looking for ideas for mars
http://www.smh.com....20120414-1wzsd.html
[JesusHChrist, Apr 14 2012]
Baked, sort of.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.1719
6x10^23 kg of (presumably) bacteria-laden ejecta to Mars. Edit: well, no not exactly. [mouseposture, Apr 14 2012, last modified Apr 19 2012]
Vegetable Garden on Mars
http://www.wired.co...10/ff-elon-musk-qa/
[AusCan531, Nov 07 2012]
[link]
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Yeah! Why don't we drop some babies on there too! |
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Unfortunately, Mars needs women. |
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<Obscure song reference>...Mars needs women, China needs women, Kramer needs lyrics for his stupid song....</> |
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I had a romance with this idea about a year ago. Boned and MFD'd extensively. took it down in about a day. |
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[rubypretzel], welcome to the Halfbakery. |
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I'd like to try your idea, but I'd eat the Brie and substitute some old cheddar, I think. |
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Golf players will complain no matter what you do for them - read the help file on the left, over there under "meta", and again, welcome. |
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jutta - I loved your comment. "chia Mars" LMFAO! |
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I got 6 entries for define:chia and are still none the
wiser. 41/2 could possibly make sense. Did google
miss something? |
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//California's animal shelters are being overrun with Chihuahuas //
That seems unlikely, given that they're usually flummoxed by a tall step. |
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Terraforming is a bit over the top but a few localized
experiments might be interesting. It's a big lab with
a large isolation zone. What could go wrong? |
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Recent news reports indicate that golfers are keen on procreation. Is this part of your plan for introducing life to Mars? |
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//chihuahuas are actually daleks in disguise// |
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"DEFECATE!!! DEFECATE!!!" |
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// scooping up all the surplus chihuahuas // |
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Tautology - all chihuahuas are surplus to requirements. |
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// dumping them all on Mars. // |
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Too close, and too chihuahua friendly environment-wise. How about Io, or Europa ? |
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We don't know there's no life there right now. I've
forsworn the fishbone, but i can't vote for this,
sorry. |
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On the other hand, i would vote for doing this on a
body where it can be demonstrated almost for sure
that there's no life but where life could survive. |
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The bacteria and possibly a few lichens would survive. Very few terrestrial plants are cold hardy to -100 degrees C. Those that are likely will not do well with at best 45% weaker sunlight, extensive UV and ionizing radiation. |
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Terraforming is probably possible, but it would have to start with atmospheric thickening and tailoring to produce a habitable environment. (Rust metabolizing bacteria to produce CO2, methanogenic bacteria, both to increase the greenhouse effect; a couple of comets to increase free water; etc.) |
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Let's cover Mars in milk chocolate after the probe drops soft nougat and caramel on the surface, then wrap it up. |
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I think much of the life on Earth has evolved away from the 'bootstrap' forms that existed early on - and now rely on the existence of other life in order to survive themselves. |
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You'd need to start with something very very simple - something that can pull free CO² out of the air in order to build more copies of itself from Carbon polymers, perhaps releasing a bit of O² in the process. Leave for a few millenia, and then, maybe - you will have generated enough O² to boost the atmosphere and form a viable ozone layer and foster spontaneous water-vapour production. Then, you might be able to introduce something more interesting. |
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A biodome might be an alternate starting point - you build a shelter - say a big plate of glass (though you'd have to keep it clean of dust somehow) or dig a great big hole deep enough for it to have its own climatic/atmospheric conditions and then supply it with enough water and nutrients to maintain some simple life for a few millennia (a similar problem to leaving the cat unattended for a couple of weeks while you go on holiday) in the hope that this tiny pocket of life will somehow take root and begin to spread into more hostile conditions - again, it's a long-term project, and there's no certainty of success. |
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[Zen_tom]: <sub> tag needed, don't you think? |
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The slow has caught the humor. Good one. I don't
think I should use 'define:'. |
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Maybe the cheese idea is a good one. That is, supply
a slight framing media as well. A crystal brick with
holes and tunnels to give the 'life' a bit of shelter. |
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Nature is a twisty-turny thing. You would never be
quite sure what will turn up 1% of the time. |
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More convenient, shirley, to spend a few years selecting for
Marsophilic microbes in a terrestrial lab, before setting them
loose on Mars? |
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I agree with [zen_tom] about the bootstrap. Most of the time everything relies on everything else. You would need a mini-ecosystem and a fair amount of biomasse for this to work, like maybe a planet-wide layer of nougat or a mole of oranges. |
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Chihuahua chia?
Chi-chi-chihuahua! |
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Perhaps with the mutation-inducing UV rays, Mickey Mouse really could grow up a cow. |
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Methinks you'd be saying ciao to the chihuahua. |
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Is that the collective noun, [bigsleep]? |
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Hmmm, if there were a way to speed up Mars rate of rotation, would water trapped below the surface be forced to rise from centrifugal force? |
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// Mickey Mouse really could grow up a cow. // |
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.... Or Would You Rather Be a Fish ? |
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//a pound of Brie cheese with some nice bacteria in it, to fertilize Mars!// So how do you explain the absence of life on the moon, eh? eh? |
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//fails to propose any mechanism at all//
I thought it was about shipping out chihuahuas and golfers?
Life, maybe, but not necessarily intelligent life. |
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The mechanism would be a bit of a no-brainer
though. Isn't there a camera on the Moon which
didn't get sterilised properly and ended up with
bacteria in it which survived for a while or
something? |
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I suppose there's a bit of an issue keeping things
safe from radiation between Earth and Mars, but if
the package is small enough that doesn't seem
insurmountable. A strong magnetic field and some
lead shielding should do it, i'd've thought. |
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The big problem would be getting it to survive at
the other end due to the lack of resources. |
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//Isn't there a camera on the Moon which didn't get sterilised properly //
No, it's back on Earth now, having been retrieved by the Apollo 12 mission. |
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//would cause an interplanetary war// should not be a problem here. |
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come to that, the Earth is in a better position: Mars might have the "high ground" and easier access to the asteroid belt, but we have the resources... and 1kw/m2 ain't peanuts. |
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//fertilize Mars// May already have happened. <link> |
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//6x10^23 kg of (presumably) bacteria-laden ejecta to Mars//
Seems unlikely, assuming that the Earth has a mass of only about 6x10^24 kg. |
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//Seems unlikely// You're right, I read carelessly.
Ought to have cited a figure for "estimated number
of rocks," which, if I understand correctly their Table
I, is either 2e7 or 4e10 depending on which of their
models you go by. Given the large difference
between the two estimates, the authors settle on a
value of "much greater than one." |
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Elon Musk is copying this idea by trying to put a veggie garden on Mars. [link] |
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