Introduction

The primary objective of this section is to introduce a possible concept on colonization of mars. A synthetic ozone could be built to simulate the conditions of a greenhouse, trapping heat to warm up mars and raise atmospheric temperatures to levels suitable for biochemical reactions.

Why Not?

Stumbling blocks to colonization of mars:

1. No breathable atmosphere for humans. Therefore we need carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen for starters.
2. No water in liquid form.
3. No plant life to generate oxygen naturally.

Heat Mars to allow any quantity of frozen ice naturally occurring to melt and flow as water.

• Heating Mars maybe seem very difficult but we could probably achieve this by introducing non toxic GREENHOUSE gases to Mars in large enough quantities. Eventually the Martian atmosphere will collect the GREENHOUSE gases and form a barrier that will allow the atmosphere to retain any solar energy from the sun. This in turn will eventually increase the temperature of Mars.
• GREENHOUSE gas creating ships can be launched from earth and situated strategically around the Martian surface. As the GREENHOUSE gas accumulates, the temperature of Mars will increase. Once sufficient GREENHOUSE gases have been created to sustain a permanent atmosphere consisting of GREENHOUSE gas and gaseous water, the generation of these gases can be terminated. With the melting of the polar caps, other gases may also be present within the ice and surface of Mars that will become part of the Martian atmosphere.

Current Martian environment and problems for biology

At present the Martian surface environment is effectively sterilizing for all forms of terrestrial organisms, although some protected niches may exist above and below the surface of Mars.

• Low pressure. The atmospheric pressure on Mars, mostly due to carbon dioxide, varies from approximately 7.4 to 10 millibar (mbar). Extremely low pressure damages organisms and can affect efficient DNA repair.
• Low temperature. During the Martian summer the temperature perhaps rises above the freezing point of water at some equatorial latitudes. From temperature requirements alone, organisms would not be able to survive on present day Mars for a number of reasons: First, the temperatures would completely freeze any organism and depending on the freezing process would cause cellular damage through the formation of ice crystals.
• Water. Liquid water, under mar's low pressure becomes instable, hence cannot stay in liquid form.
• Radiation. The main source of radiation at the Martian surface is ultraviolet (UV) radiation between the wavelengths of 190 and 300 nm. UV-radiation as we know, causes skin cancer and burns to the human skin. With no ozone or such protective layers, the full force of the radiation is going to be felt.
• Carbon dioxide. In organisms the relatively high concentration of carbon dioxide would probably cause a low intracellular pH. A change in pH conditions would then alter biochemical reactions in the human body due to a change in the working medium of enzymatic reactions. As our breathing is regulated by the levels of carbon dioxide in our body, a high carbon dioxide concentration also affect our breathing (faster, due to need to clear carbon dioxide in lungs).

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 NH 3 . As NH 3 is a powerful greenhouse gas, so not only would this process contribute to the warming of the planet, but at low levels NH 3 would be photochemically broken down into N 2 , a further greenhouse gas (H 2 O) and H 2 . 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 (NH 3 )
• 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