Biologically useful Martian resources

Undoubtedly the current Martian environment is extremely hostile for terrestrial life. However, Mars does contain sufficient volatiles to enable some form of colonization and perhaps planetary engineering to render environmental conditions more clement for terrestrial life to survive and grow.

Water. Currently, the surface of Mars is devoid of liquid water and the atmosphere only contains minute amounts of water vapor. The main source of remaining water on Mars is thought to be the north polar cap. The quantity of water on Mars is uncertain, and estimates range in order of magnitudes, equivalent to a layer of water over the planet 13 meters (m) to 100 m. The north polar cap is composed mainly of water ice

Nitrogen. One of the main limiting factors for the growth of "Martian" organisms could be the low abundance of nitrogen. Nitrogen is need by plants to make nitrates, an important component of life.

Minerals. Minerals are also essential for biological process, for example as co-factors in enzyme catalyzed reactions and components of vitamins. All of the elements necessary to support terrestrial life are thought to be present on Mars, although as with the CHNOPS elements their concentration compared to Earth are either slightly higher, lower or the same

Uses of terrestrial organisms on Mars

Terrestrial organisms will serve a number of purposes, both during and after planetary engineering:

In order to terraform Mars, it is proposed that plants could be used to convert the mainly carbon dioxide atmosphere formed during ecopoiesis into an oxygen atmosphere. Organisms will help maintain the gaseous composition of the Martian atmosphere and thus regulate climate. After planetary engineering, organisms such as plants will also affect climate by cycling vast amounts of water. Microorganisms, like non-pathogenic nitrogen fixing bacteria, could be used to convert nitrate deposits to NH₃. As NH₃ is a powerful greenhouse gas, so not only would this process contribute to the warming of the planet, but at low levels NH₃ would be photochemically broken down into N₂, a further greenhouse gas (H₂O) and H₂. On early Earth reduced organic material formed by fixation of carbon dioxide and carbonates was ultimately utilized and decomposed by other organisms scouring the debris of destroyed cells. This would enable the cycling of carbon dioxide on mars.

Initial planetary engineering-a biological perspective

For Mars to be less hostile for pioneer organisms initial planetary engineering will be required to increase the atmospheric pressure.

• Runaway greenhouse mechanisms and greenhouse gases. To initiate the runaway greenhouse mechanism for warming Mars, an initial warming is required to release CO2 found on mars in the form of carbonates, this will act as a greenhouse gas increasing the global temperature leading to the release of more CO2 and so on. The “warming” cycle repeats to warm up mars.
• Ozone will be important in reducing the amount of UV radiation on the surface of Mars so that terrestrial organisms may exist unprotected on the surface. An alternative greenhouse gas for warming Mars could be ammonia (NH₃)
• The thermal erosion of carbonates has been hypothesized as a mechanism for the recycling of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere of early Mars. Ozone. One of the main functions of initial planetary engineering would be to increase the ozone layer thus providing shielding of organisms from UV-radiation. If only a minimum ozone coverage is created by planetary engineering (sufficient to provide shielding against lethal UV-radiation for most organisms), on some occasions the ozone level may drop below a threshold level. Thus exposed organisms may be exposed to lethal levels of UV-radiation on Mars. The current dust concentration in the Martian atmosphere can induce a 10-50% increase in ozone abundances because photodissociation rates are greatly reduced by dust absorption and this phenomena has been observed in the polar regions of Mars, where dust absorbs or scatters to space most UV-radiation before it strikes the cap

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