Currently, there are three potential ways for inducing the required temperature rise to produce the greenhouse effect on Mars. The use of orbital mirrors to change the heat balance of the south polar cap; the mass production of artificial halocarbon gases in industrial facilities on the surface of Mars; and the creation of widespread bacterial ecosystems capable of warming the planet through emission of large amounts of strong natural greenhouse gases such as ammonia and methane. If the temperature increase needed value is lower than 20’ Kelvin, then the release of the polar carbon dioxide reserves alone could be enough to initiate the release of the regolith’s reserves. However, if the temperature increase needed is greater than 20’ Kelvin, then the addition of strong greenhouse gases to the atmosphere will be required to create a sufficient atmospheric pressure on Mars.
The orbiting mirrors
notion is extremely practical and efficient in will be capable of warming a limited area
of Mars by a few degrees, as opposed to a space based mirror designed to warm the entire
surface of Mars. The objective is to heat the southern polar cap so that carbon dioxide
will be released; however, this only will require an approximate 4’ Kelvin
temperature rise imposed at the pole. Based upon this fact, it turns out that a space
based mirror with a radius of 125 kilometers could reflect enough sunlight to raise the
temperature in the entire by the necessary 4’ Kelvin. These solar mirrors will weigh
about 200,000 tons; thus, it will be impossible to import it from Earth. But, provided
manufacturing techniques are available, its construction in outer space out of asteroidal
or Martian moon material is feasible.
The most apparent way to increase the temperature on Mars is to set up factories there to produce the strongest greenhouse gases possible, the halocarbons a.k.a. the ozone layer killers. Though, it has been proven that the halocarbons are detrimental to the ozone, we can overcome this on Mars. If we choose our halocarbons carefully and employ variations lacking in chlorine, we can essentially build up an ultraviolet shielding ozone layer in the Martian atmosphere. One gas that possesses this quality is perfluoromethane, CF. In addition, CF also has a very long life for it is able to remain stable for more than 10,000 years in an upper atmosphere. For example, if the gases have an atmospheric lifetime of one hundred years, then approximately one-fifth the power level shown on the data table to the right will be needed to maintain the CFC concentration after it has been built up. This project however, requires an extremely large quota of power, about 5,000 MWe. In order for this project to be undertaken, a budget of several hundred billion dollars would probably be required.
The level of effort required by humans to increase the temperature on Mars would be substantially reduced if biological assistant were employed. It has been proven that some types of bacteria do exist that can metabolize nitrogen and water to produce ammonia. In addition to its scarcity in the Martian atmosphere, nitrogen can likely be found Mars in large amounts in regolith nitrate beds. Other bacteria can synthesize water and carbon dioxide into methane. Though ammonia and methane are not as effective as halocarbons, they are still excellent greenhouse gases; thousands of times stronger than carbon dioxide. If one billion tons of methane and ammonia were produced each year, the atmosphere would warm up 10’ Kelvin in thirty years! As an added benefit, ammonia and methane will block the planet’s surface against ultraviolet radiation.
In just a few decades Mars could be transformed from its current dry and frozen state into a relatively warm and moist planet capable of supporting life. Though human will not be able to breath the air of the transformed Mars, they would no longer require space suits and could thus travel freely with only some type of breathing gear. In addition, because the outside atmospheric pressure will have been raised to human tolerable levels, it will be possible to have enormous habitable areas for humans under huge dome like inflatable tents containing breathable air.