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As a computer and technology blogger, I said to myself, writing about this topic is not proper. But again I've made new friends and most of them are here on steemit and which other place can I show them what I heard, learnt, discovered and or what I am working on if not to share it here. For days now I have been on my PC developing a program I am sure will help us solve a little issue here on steemit and i did not realize how engrossed i am in it until I saw a flash news from my UC browser about the latest discovery in Mars and i realized i have not watched my favorite channel, National Geographic channel for a while now.
Since my watching of the movie, The Martian, in 2015 I have always been keen to know about the current situation on man's move to conquer Mars. From my study and follow up on situation on Mars, I'll say that no matter how crowded this earth is and no matter how bad the climatic change is on earth, it is still far more friendly than Mars but development have made my mind more open and scientists have made a believer out of me. Conquering Mars I believe is not an impossible task, moreover if i had told my great great grand parent that it is possible to not only speak with someone that is millions of miles away but see them, they would recommend proper brain check for me.
Ever heard of the Phrase "Terraforming of Mars"? It is a form of planetary engineering which involves the application of technology in making a planet suitable for man's existence. This was deviced against the backdrop of the exponential increase in the human population. Whenever I think of population and where it might lead us to, the movie "what happened to Monday" quickly rush to my mind. Well, that method of population control ain't what scientists are contemplating but i digressed a bit, back to terraforming of Mars. Scientists view this as a solution to Doomsday Argument (DA).
The doomsday argument is a prediction that human specie will not last very long. That is to say that we are at the early stage of human history and evolution if life is to continue for billions of years. This is based on Copernical principle. DA is a mathematical probability (which i will present in very simple way as possible) dating back to an astrophysicist, Brandon Carter in 1983 and is stated thus:
If N denotes the total human population that has ever lived and will ever live on earth and n denotes the current position of human population, f which is our fractional position in history of human specie is given as f=n/N.
f is a probabilistic value and hence maintains values between 0 and 1.
from a more complex calculation, f was found to be between 0.05 and 1 which is to say that f has value more than 0.05.
Mathematically, f>0.05.
Therefore, 0.5>n/N this implies that 20n<N (making N the subject) or N>20n.
The implication of the above equation is, if 60 billion humans has been born so far, according to Leslie;
the total number of humans that will ever walk this earth will be less than 20*60,000,000,000 =1.2trillion.
Well, I'll take the postulate above with a little bit of doubt cause according to Population Reference Bureau, about 107 billion humans have lived and died which the current population of 7.6 billion is a small fraction when compared. With that being said, it is very unlikely that this is the last generation of humans as the theory predicts. That was lots of digression, apologies.
The teraformation of Mars faced two major challenges, viz:
PRESSURE:
Martian atmosphere is very thin with very low pressure. Ever imagined your body fluid boiling within your body? That is exactly what will happen when you are exposed to the current Martian atmosphere because of low pressure. In fact, according to NASA report on rapid Decompression Emergencies in pressure-suited subjects, a survivor reported that the last thing he remembered was his saliva boiling on his tongue! The pressure in Mars is below the Amstrong limit of 6kilo pascal. For any human to stay alive in Mars, the use of pressure suits is a must. This wouldn't be a problem if Martian pressure was slightly above 37 kilo pascal, with this, we could walk into Mars with only pure oxygen mask. NASA stated that this issue of pressure could be solved if the Martian atmospheric carbon (iv) oxide pressure can be increased significantly and also and increase in atmospheric water vapor resulting in green house warming of the plannet.
GRAVITY:
sourceMars has gravity of about 38% lower than that of earth which is as a result of the fact that it lacks magnetosphere. Magnetosphere is that region usually spatial, in which particles (mainly charged) are controlled by an object's magnetic field. The core of mars is mainly composed of three elements, which are oxygen, sulfur and iron. And the core is less likely to be molten which makes its magnetic field to be weak. In comparison to earth, Martian magnetic field is about 1/100 of that earth. Solving the issue of low gravity entails density increasing mechanisms which includes processes like redirecting many massive asteroids containing ammonia as a source of nitrogen. Also this could be achieved by creating man made magnetosphere between Mars and sun. Mars has so many short comings when it comes to accommodating man in its environment.
The problem of low pressure was offered further solution and this involved the use of Methane to raise the planet's atmospheric temperature. A considerable amount of methane has been known to be present in atmosphere of one of biggest Saturn's moon, the Titan. This methane could be circulated in Martian atmosphere which then acts as a means to compound the greenhouse effect which was stated above as the major way to increase the Martian atmospheric pressure. Another method which the scientists are also considering is the channeling of frozen ammonia from smaller planets that are orbiting the solar system into mass. Ammonia is a good greenhouse gas but this method has not been proven to be viable.
Conclusion
The current discovery of buried glaciers might lead to the prediction with a high accuracy, the amount of water that may actually be present in Mars and also where it is located. This proves Mars once again a possible home for man! scientists have been in constant search on how to make mars habitable and many moves have been made. If the problem of major problem of low gravity and pressure can be sorted out, Mars can be seen as a home for man in no distant future. Advancements like introduction of hydrocarbons and ammonia into the Martian atmosphere and application of group seven(7) compounds mainly fluorine as a chlorofluorocarbons has also been considered.