[extropy-chat] Re: MARS: Because it is hard

Eugen Leitl eugen at leitl.org
Thu Apr 15 09:11:58 UTC 2004


On Wed, Apr 14, 2004 at 07:50:41PM -0400, David Lubkin wrote:

> How long before we can create organisms (plants, bacteria, insects) 
> suitable for seeding on Mars, whose metabolism produces a useful benefit in 
> extracting a resource or in terraforming?

Right now, at 6 mbar CO2 and waay subantarctic temperatures you'd be hard
pressed to have any detectable (that's a far cry from terraforming) microbial
activity. Notice that any detectable (assuming, the methane is biogenic)
activity comes from the few first km of submartian rock. 
 
> Assuming we had such organisms today, what would be the best way to deploy 
> them? How expensive would it be for the craft to deploy a large number of 
> small entry vehicles, spread across the planet? How rapidly can an organism 
> cover Mars, given an effectively unlimited food supply? (I'm asking more 
> about how fast each moves, rather than how fast it reproduces.)
> 
> Of course either effort would dramatically alter whatever modest biosphere 
> may exist there now.

Most of it is underground. Any life capable of living on the surface (i.e.
not under ice) would be wonderful to behold, but I'm not counting on it.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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