Gigantic Underground Glaciers on Mars

[willy88]

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=red-planet-alert-massive

Anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?

 

[Bj]

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=red-planet-alert-massive

Anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?

Bring a water purifier?

:lol:

 

[Cairan]

Bring a water purifier?

:lol:

Altough not the most efficient of ways to purify water, solar panels could be used to electrolyze the scooped up ice from below, maybe with a heated bore head to extract it in liquid form rather than solid. You then use the hydrogen and oxygen produced in the day to power things during the night or in case of high loads with fuel cells. Fuel cells produce water to drink and for shielding against radiation of surface strctures.

Combined with greenhouses, you end up oxygen independant. The hydrogen can also be used to reduce the iron oxide of the surface back to metallic iron and produce structural elements of the colony.

 

[willy88]

Well, I was thinking it might be a significant advantage if we were to ever terraform Mars.

 

[JamesG]

You can't terraform Mars. Its too cold and too small.

Beyond the resource factor, the geology of how it formed will be interesting to find out. I personally doubt it formed like a Terran glacier from snow fall accumulation. Much more likely it (and the rest of Mar's water ice) welled up from convection during the planet's volcanic period when the core was still hot. The water migrated up until it got close enough to freeze. It then accumulated and created deposits like salt domes on Earth.

 

[tblaxland]

I personally doubt it formed like a Terran glacier from snow fall accumulation.

Au contraire - according to the experts. From http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=26993:

"The fact these features are in the same latitude bands, about 35 to 60 degrees in both hemispheres, points to a climate-driven mechanism for explaining how they got there." JPL geologist

Jeffrey J. Plaut

"The tilt of Mars' spin axis sometimes gets much greater than it is now. Climate modeling tells us ice sheets could cover mid-latitude regions of Mars during those high-tilt periods. The buried glaciers make sense as preserved fragments from an ice age millions of years ago." James W. Head of Brown University

 

[thomasantony]

Hmm .. we could even have self-deploying "green houses" or something to deploy and power up with a combination of fuel cells and solar panels as a hab. In situ resource utilization possibilities just got better. H2+LOX is MUCH better than making CH4+O2 from the atmosphere. There is much more of the ice too than the CO2 concentration in the Martian atmosphere.

Now if only SpaceX/VG has to become successfull and Mr. Branson has to get an idea of starting up Virgle for real rather than as an April fool prank..

 

[JamesG]

Au contraire - according to the experts. From http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=26993:

Its just speculation. I don't believe Mars had a thick enough atmosphere late enough and long enough to support glaciation that could build mile thick deposits.

We won't really know until we send more 'bots and people there...

 

[Andy44]

You don't have to terraform the whole planet necessarily; making a parcel of land habitable would be useful. It would have to be underground mostly, but the greenhouses would be on the surface for sunlight and an artificial weather cycle. Such a colony could support quite a bit more people than a bunch of modules transported from Earth at great expense. Heinlein's Moon is a Harsh Mistress colonies were based on a similar scenario: a barren surface and lots of ice underground, except of course it was Luna instead of Mars.

 

[Cairan]

Anyway, no amount of terraforming will resolve the fact that Mars lacks an adequate magnetic field to protect an atmosphere from solar wind erosion and surface life to space radiation...

Underground is the way to go on Mars (or the Moon, for that matter), as far as I am concerned...

 

[Linguofreak]

Anyway, no amount of terraforming will resolve the fact that Mars lacks an adequate magnetic field to protect an atmosphere from solar wind erosion and surface life to space radiation...

The solar wind does contribute some to atmospheric loss, but thermal effects are still the biggest factor for Mars (and no escape mechanism would deplete a thickened atmosphere on human timescales). What you really have to worry about without a magnetic field is the effects of radiation on life.