The Quest for a Martian Life
Making an extraterrestrial object a new home for over billions of people and billions of other genes sounds very intriguing. But is it really worth those trillions of dollars and the risks involved ? What if that money, hardwork and technology is involved in saving the planet, which has supported life forms for millions of years and making it a better place to live ? The hypothetical process of transforming a planet into an habitable place is called Terraformation of the planet.
To explain what terraforming or terraformation is, it could be described as a series of events or processes of deliberating modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet to make it habitable. Earlier, Terraformation was regarded as science fiction, but with the recent developments and inventions, it has gotten some light. It has a lot of importance in deciding the future existence of life forms. The importance lies because, since over the years, Earth has witnessed a lot of destruction and imbalances. Scientists have predicted that if proper measures aren’t taken at the right time, Earth would be declared as inhabitable for life forms. Here terraformation plays a very important role.
The Terraformation starred its stamp on the calendar in 1961, when Carl Sagan published several articles about altering Venus’s atmosphere, other factors and also published several articles on terraforming Mars in 1973. Throughout the years from 1973to 2019, several scientists researched and pieced together small bits of information for terraforming Mars.
Why only Mars and not the Moon? The answer lies below, read it on.
A lot of companies have declared their plans and timeline for terraforming Mars. The most recent one being 2026, which would take humans to Mars.
Is Terraforming possible ?
In this particular section, we would look at some details about terraformation. How will it be done ? What are the requirements for terraforming ? What are the possible target planets and their factors ? The most important question in this section would be why Mars is the only possible candidate for humans.
Starting with How ?
The most important factors that humans want to perform life operations are the thick atmosphere, water, and soil. Unfortunately, only one of the 8 planets fulfils the need of all the 3 factors. Not any moon, not any planet has got the three. Then the question arises how can we then ?
The answer to this question lies in the justification of Mars being the only possible candidate for terraforming. With NASA discovering liquid water on the surface of Mars and soil already present, it satisfies two of the above mentioned factors. The only thing left is the Atmosphere. The Atmosphere present at Mars is thin and the weather conditions are harsh. The only possible way to deal with this is to heat the atmosphere to a certain temperature that could be ideal for humans and other life forms.
Other planets, moons don’t serve the same purpose. Some don’t fall in the near vicinity of earth, some don’t, some get water, some don’t, some get soil,some get fire on the surface. This makes Venus, Earth’s moon, moons of Jupiter, mercury inhabitable for humans in the near future. There could be a time when future generations can find a way to have planet venus in their addresses.
It’s never too late ..
Many may believe terraformation is the only way for humans to survive, but this is not true. The alternative is the old way of Conservation of Earth. Though the human race is very late for the conservation of Earth, which has led to increase in global warming, extinction of many species, extinction threats to many including humans, if we don’t do anything now. With the increase in sea levels, hazards from different domains, the world is not far away from catastrophe. Apparently, this would justify why conservation of earth is the need of the hour.
The best possible ways you can do to help:
- Save Water - As easy as it sounds, The little things can make a big difference. Every time you turn off the water while you’re brushing your teeth, you’re doing something good.
- Don’t Stick to the Car -If you can, stay off the road two days a week or more. You’ll reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 1,590 pounds (721 kilograms) per year [source: EPA]. It’s easier than you think.
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - You can help reduce pollution just by putting that soda can in the recycling bin. It really does make a difference. If an office building of 7,000 workers recycled all of its office paper waste for a year, it would be the equivalent of taking almost 400 cars off the road and buying products that are made of recycled materials. It all makes a difference.
- Give your energy supply a change - Make your home more energy efficient (and save money). Your home’s windows are responsible for 25 to 30 percent of residential heat gain and heat loss. If they’re old and inefficient, consider replacing them.
- Avoid Plastic - Humans are addicted to plastic, and hardly any of it — about 9 percent — gets recycled. A staggering 8 million tons (7.25 metric tons) ends up in the ocean every year. Break the cycle. Stop buying bottled water. Say no to plastic shopping bags and use cloth bags instead. Don’t use plastic straws. Drink from a reusable cup instead of a plastic one.
The above mentioned ways can be deployed anytime and anywhere. All we need to do is get out of our comfort zone and save the world. If even 30% of the human population agrees to these methods, it would bring a major difference in CO2 levels, formation of ice caps, covering of ozone holes, and many more to make a better place to live. These methods promise a good efficiency level. One may ask, why should we do these ? We have plenty. That’s true, but rightly said by Mahatma Gandhi and I quote, “The world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not greed.” Deploying these measures would help one family get drinking water, one family would not sleep on an empty stomach, one family would get shelter and a sense of safety. This might be a good reason to work for the environment, right ?
Let’s try, it’s never too late to begin..
To not risk the future, we need to take some.
We have talked about what terraformation is, how can we conserve earth and why are these the need of the hour.
Every coin has heads and tails. Every action of humans has some action on the geological clock to decide its fate of survival. Now we would be talking about what are the challenges and the risks involved in both of the conditions.
Firstly, Terraforming Mars, the issues related with the terraforming of Mars or any other planet can be classified into ethical, economic and political issues.
There has been a debate since ages between biology and ecology as to whether terraforming a planet is an ethical issue. Several philosophers like Robert Zubrin, Martyn J. Fogg, Richard L. S. Taylor and the late Carl Sagan support the argument. They believe that it is human’s obligation to make other words suitable for life. The other side of this thesis supports the argument by the belief that there is an unethical interference in nature, and that given humanity’s history with Earth, other planets may be better off without human interference. There are always 2 sides of the coin like there are both kinds of people that leads to both terraforming and conservation of earth.
The first factor affecting humans to go to Marks follows: Till 2019, the world was limited by the technology of that time. With sudden advancements in technology, the world can probably witness people going to Mars. The answer is Probably. Here goes the rationalization. To heat the Mars temperature to a certain temperature, scientists have planned placing Mylar disks, with a diameter of 155 miles and a weight of 200,000 tons, to reflect sunlight onto Mars and heat the surface. The idea is that over many years, the rise in temperature would release greenhouse gasses. The question remains how to get such large mirrors into space, so it’s likely they would have to be built there, and not on Earth. World Leader and also the second’s richest man on Earth, Elon Musk said to make Mars habitable for humans is to drop nuclear weapons over the poles which warm it up.
Though it seems fascinating to live on another planet, there is a major risk of never returning back to our planet. The first trip to Mars is a one way trip to Mars and about 100,000 have applied for the same.
Living in transparent dorms, limited supply of water and food, constant fear of residing on unmanned land before are some of the risks involved.
While conserving earth has some benefits, it has some disadvantages too. While we are way beyond the predicted population number, the Earth can sustain, On top of that, we are continuously increasing at a considerable rate. We don’t know if the future generations would have a place to live, food to eat or good quality air to breath. This was one of the reasons why many scientists resolved towards Terraformation of planets.
Conclusion
We talked enough about both the processes, their benefits, demerits, their risks, and how they would occur if they have to and now it would be the time that we conclude the discussion.
Keeping in mind all the facts, present condition, and the future aspect, I believe that while Conservation of Earth is important, it is equally important that the world leaders take important decisions towards terraforming. This planet would soon be out of the capacity of serving humans if we humans fail in any of the above processes.
However, To put it another way, we have two choices: start over on Mars or repair what we have. The latter, in my view, is preferable. And, to borrow an expression from the English language, if it ain’t broke, don’t repair it. We haven’t completely ruined our world. For years, we’ve had the requisite technologies to save the Earth; the only problem has been a lack of political will to put it into effect.
In terms of agriculture, reducing meat consumption globally would have a significant positive effect. Keep our heads out of the stars and focus on saving the World. What we have now is much more valuable than anything we will ever have.
So as rightful inhabitants we should do everything in need and our audacity to do justice to Mother Earth. We should plan our activities so that it causes less harm and the worsening becomes less. Also, the students reading this piece should work on more innovative ways to cultivate life on other planets as well as enrich ours too.
