31–40 of 132 posts
But this cannot be of much use, even if they can make an atmosphere somehow, they would need an active core for magnetic field to protect from solar particles/radiation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
ever heard of supply and demand?
Yep. It gets kind of interesting though when you think about the challenges. You could have a really good plan to convert martian soil for plant use, but then again, that might fail. This obviously means you can't depend on your garden. Also, what you would have would be a laboratory, not a garden. You would spend a lot more time analysing the food than eating it. On the other hand, you could carry out a sample retur…
This might require slightly better AI than currently exists, and a lot of patience from telepresence operators, but it seems achievable in the near future.
On the plus side (for plants), the Martian atmosphere is about 95% CO2. Even though the total pressure of the atmosphere is much less than our own, the partial pressure of CO2 is still about 20 times higher (erring a bit on the generous side).
On the other hand, Mars is about 1.5 times as far from the sun, so the intensity of sunlight is less than half, and temperatures are correspondingly colder. Then again, if we're going to support human colonists, we probably need a nuclear power source anyway. So let's assume we rig up bright lighting to grow our plants.
There's some uncertainty about the soil, but at least some studies suggest that it could support life. There's probably frozen water there, so we'll use the spare heat from our nuclear reactor to melt some.
Humans need approximately 30g of Oxygen per hour, which is roughly 1 mole. A fast-photosynthesising plant can produce 30 umol/m2/s. Running the numbers, you'd need 9 square metres of leaf area photosynthesising at that rate per person - assuming it could carry on 24 hours a day. To supply food, you'd need rather more, because not all of the carbon fixed goes into edible parts.
This is actually a lot more feasible than I initially thought. You'd probably want to send robots ahead to construct the base and plant the plants, though. And you still have the problem of life support for the journey, which would be several months.
Fill in the blank: 1. Develop system capable of growing plants on Mars. 2. ____________________ 3. Grow plants on Mars.
Mind you, I'm not advocating that position, but I certainly expect it.
would've been interesting to know what kind of vegetables.
Ah, found it: this is a much better link for the story: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/8044143.html "During the experiment, four kinds of edible vegetables, namely lettuce, leaf lettuce, gynura bicolor and sonchus oleraceus, were planted in a 36-square-meter area to absorb the carbon dioxide exhaled by the two astronauts and provide them with oxygen and 30-50 grams of fresh vegetables per meal per person." G…
How well could this work? On the plus side (for plants), the Martian atmosphere is about 95% CO2. Even though the total pressure of the atmosphere is much less than our own, the partial pressure of CO2 is still about 20 times higher (erring a bit on the generous side). On the other hand, Mars is about 1.5 times as far from the sun, so the intensity of sunlight is less than half, and temperatures are correspondingly c…
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/8044143.html
The experiment was a closed biosphere life support system, 36m^2 involving two subjects for 30 days. The article mentions the moon and mars. As I understand it, this thing would be a sealed capsule that you bring with you. This forms part of the ongoing field of CLESS (controlled ecological life support systems). All the references I've seen point to the Russian Bios-3 project as being the first public example of this.
I am also interested to hear more about your ideas regarding the feasibility of martian agriculture :)
If China manages to do this, then we will have people on Mars in under 2 years. Competition from china is the only thing I can see spurring the USA into action.
Far from. It takes nearly 2 years just to get to Mars. Also, China tends to be a fast copier , not a leader. They seem to leave the bulk of development costs to someone else. So I think it's unlikely that they will front the resources it'll take to make a Mars mission possible.
What a huge generalisation. This appears to be true in the consumer electronics world perhaps, but look outside of that and it's harder to justify.
For example, China has been building a lot of infrastructure in the past few decades, including the longest and highest bridges in the world[0][1]. There was a story on HN a few days ago about a Chinese company's plans to build what will be the tallest building in only 90 days[2].
Granted there is a lot of press about these bridges falling down, and maybe their rocket will blow up half way to Mars. But you can't say that they aren't pushing things themselves.
[0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_bridges_in_the_... [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_bridges_in_the_world [2]http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4807701
How well could this work? On the plus side (for plants), the Martian atmosphere is about 95% CO2. Even though the total pressure of the atmosphere is much less than our own, the partial pressure of CO2 is still about 20 times higher (erring a bit on the generous side). On the other hand, Mars is about 1.5 times as far from the sun, so the intensity of sunlight is less than half, and temperatures are correspondingly c…
I'm going to repost this here, because currently it seems like the AFP article is misleading the heck out of everyone. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/8044143.html The experiment was a closed biosphere life support system, 36m^2 involving two subjects for 30 days. The article mentions the moon and mars. As I understand it, this thing would be a sealed capsule that you bring with you. This forms part of the on…
A sealed chamber could be pumped up to around earth pressure, making it easier for the astronauts to go in - although with high CO2, they'd still need oxygen tanks. On the other hand, the pressure difference would require a much stronger capsule, so perhaps farmers in spacesuits is the way to go.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm going to repost this here, because currently it seems like the AFP article is misleading the heck out of everyone. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/8044143.html The experiment was a closed biosphere life support system, 36m^2 involving two subjects for 30 days. The article mentions the moon and mars. As I understand it, this thing would be a sealed capsule that you bring with you. This forms part of the on…
I guess you'd fill the capsule with 'locally sourced' air and soil, though, perhaps supplemented with some nutrients brought from earth. A sealed chamber could be pumped up to around earth pressure, making it easier for the astronauts to go in - although with high CO2, they'd still need oxygen tanks. On the other hand, the pressure difference would require a much stronger capsule, so perhaps farmers in spacesuits is…
There is no air on the moon, so this doesn't seem likely.
It's odd that any mention of Elon Musk colonizing Mars results in rapturous worship. Other efforts, China in particular, seem to attract scorn. Especially in light of the fact that Elon Musk's original plan was to send a greenhouse with plants to Mars. Perhaps I over-estimate the HN crowd.