Mars Atmosphere was Warm and Wet One day - http://clapway.com/2015/11/25/mars-atmosphere-was-warm-and-wet-one-day123/

With the most recent data collected from Mars, scientists are suggesting that the Mars atmosphere was once wet and warm, and now they have proof. A team out of the California Institute of Technology and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have a very feasible explanation for where all of Mars’s carbon went.

Mars Atmosphere Was Denser than Earth’s 3.8 Billion Years Ago

The team discovered a photochemical process that may have accelerated the evolution of the Mars atmosphere, which was once denser than Earth, and became the arid, carbonless planet it is today. This method, the researchers discovered, is consistent with carbon isotopic measurements that are existent today. The study’s lead author, Renyu Hyu, expresses that a better picture of the Martian atmosphere can now be drawn.

According to the study, there are two plausible explanations for the change in the Martian atmosphere and the decline in carbon dioxide. One reads the CO2 was absorbed into minerals in carbonates, a kind of rock. The second one suggests that the CO2 was simply lost in space.

This is Not the First Study to Draw Such Conclusions About Mars

An earlier research project analyzed data from satellites that orbit around Mars to compile a complete catalog of carbonates in Mars, and their data revealed that a number of carbonates were incredibly lacking in the upper kilometer crust of Mars, but that conditions suggested that there may have been plenty before.

The latest study, published in Nature Communications, took into account the ratio of carbon-12 and carbon-13 in the Mars atmosphere. Both of these carbon isotopes are stable, and contain the same number of protons but different amounts of neutrons and different masses. The team used the measurements of these ratios at several points to try and predict what happened.

Mars Atmosphere through the Eyes of Curiosity

The team took data collected by the Curiosity to check on the Martian atmosphere today, and it has a surprisingly plentiful ratio of carbon-13. This suggests that the way carbon is ejected in Mars is different than what had previously been hypothesized.

It was previously thought that carbon was ejected from Mars through sputtering, but this new study suggests differently. It’s possible that the sun’s ultraviolet light particle hits a CO2 molecule in the atmosphere in Mars and makes it split into carbon monoxide and oxygen. Here the ultraviolet light hits the particles again, and it splits further into atomic carbon and oxygen. This suggests that some carbon particles had enough energy to leave the atmosphere, and possibly, carbon-12 had a higher chance of going into the atmosphere than carbon-13.

 

Mars Atmosphere was Warm and Wet One day

Can we move to Mars without this? - http://clapway.com/2015/06/25/darpa-wants-to-terraform-mars-with-genetically-engineered-organisms-335/

The U.S. Government wants to create a Martian colony, so it is creating genetically engineered organisms to terraform Mars.

COLONIZING MARS

Many have eyed Mars as a potential alien world on which a human settlement could be established. But, although Mars is considered the most Earth-like planet in the solar system, the conditions on Mars are less than ideal for human life. The planet barely has an atmosphere, which means there isn’t much natural protection against solar radiation. The large majority of the atmosphere is carbon dioxide. So the lack of breathable air is a major issue. And this world is miserably cold. The average temperature on Mars is less than fifty degrees (Fahrenheit) below zero.

NASA and a few private space companies are exploring solutions like specialized habitats to deal with the harsh Martian environment. But the Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to take a different approach. It wants to terraform Mars into an Earth-like planet.

CREATING ANOTHER EARTH

New software developed by DARPA reportedly makes it easier for the agency to genetically engineer all types of organisms. And scientists want to create organisms that can be used to terraform Mars.

While speaking at the recent Synthetic Biology: Engineering, Evolution & Design (SEED) conference in Boston, MA, DARPA’s deputy director of its Biological Technologies Office, Alicia Jackson, explained that DARPA’s technology provides the ability “to go into space not just to visit, but to stay.”

These manufactured organisms would be sent to Mars to alter its ecosystem by spawning algae, bacteria, and even plants to warm and thicken the planet’s atmosphere, thus creating a more Earth-like world for human settlers.

REPAIRING EARTH’S ENVIRONMENT

Terraforming Mars is a goal for DARPA down the road. But, for now, the agency sees many uses for its genetically engineered organisms here on Earth. Jackson provided the example of sending organisms to a natural or man-made disaster area to assist in repairing environmental damage.

DARPA hopes that, after using Earth as a proving ground, its engineered organisms will be ready to begin preparing alien worlds for human colonization.

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DARPA Wants to Terraform Mars with Genetically Engineered Organisms