If you’re aware of what’s going on in the news today, you’ve probably already come to terms with the imminent end of the world. If you’re one of the more farsighted of these people, you might have even started panicking already. But in case you don’t know what’s been going on, you should probably be aware of the fact the end of civilization as we know it is on the way. That’s a useful thing to know about.
No, not the one in 2012. I’m talking about the other end of the world – the one which will come about because of one of the many predictable trends currently dragging our planet to the brink of destruction. Like global warming. Or overpopulation. Or not having enough clean water to go around. Or zombies.
But fortunately for everyone, I have a solution for all of those problems (except zombies; you’re on your own with that one). Yes, that’s right, there exists a way by which we can avert the end of the world, and it’s as simple as terraforming and colonizing Mars.
Now the naysayers will be quick to point out colonizing Mars doesn’t stop the end of the world so much as give us a new world to play with, which I guess is true. But, hey, that’s close enough. The human race survives either way, right?
As colonizable planets go, Mars has a lot going for it. It has a water supply (currently in the form of ice) and an atmosphere that’s almost thick enough to breathe (for some very loose definition of the word “breathe”).
And even though Mars is not a perfect fit in its current state, there exist ways to terraform it to make it more habitable. Some of them are not as far in the future as you might think.
No, on second thought, they’re all probably about as far off in the future as you’d think. But that hasn’t stopped a few open-minded individuals from at least starting to consider the possibilities.
One option is to build giant mirrors in space, which would reflect sunlight onto Mars’ polar ice caps. This would gradually melt them, releasing liquid water onto the planet’s surface. It would also free some frozen gasses, which would thicken the atmosphere a bit and start trapping heat. To me, this sounds like a great way to go. If there’s one thing our society is good at, it’s melting polar ice caps. I bet if we put our minds to it, we could knock out the ones on Mars in a couple of years.
Alternately, some scientists have suggested we should stick to the tried-and-true method of pumping greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, which will melt the ice caps for us. There are a lot of options here, but the most popular idea involves building factories on the surface which are designed to pollute (I mean, enrich) the Martian atmosphere with chlorofluorocarbons and other powerful heat-trapping gasses. All we need for this to work is some greenhouse gas emitters and a handful of unrealistically large, factory-sized rockets.
Now, those plans sound fun and all, but my understanding has always been in space, the only way to truly be legit is to have some explosions. And fortunately, there are some visionaries out there who seem to acknowledge that, specifically Christopher McKay and Robert Zubrin. Their idea is to strap rockets onto asteroids and drive them straight into the Martian surface. What could possibly go wrong?
The argument behind this is many asteroids contain an abundance of both water and gasses, so flinging them into the Martian surface effectively kills two birds with one asteroid. True, hurling enough asteroids into Mars to cause a climate change would take several decades longer than the other methods (and make it completely uninhabitable for centuries after that), but seriously, come on. How many opportunities do you get to crash an asteroid into a planet and claim it’s for the betterment of society?
From a technological standpoint, there’s virtually nothing standing in the way of any of these methods. The only thing stopping us is the huge financial investment it would take (and in the case of the asteroid idea, maybe some people with excessive amounts of common sense).
That’s why I’m proposing we begin a huge fundraising initiative to get the terraforming process started, something which would raise a lot of money, like tripling income taxes or selling Florida. Or maybe we could put a “Mars tax” on the things people take for granted, like walking and breathing.
Once we have the requisite money, we give it all to NASA. NASA, in turn, will then be able to get to work on the asteroid billiards … I mean a responsible and deliberative look at the most effective way to begin the terraforming process. And from there, the world’s problems are as good as solved.
McNeill Williford is a senior majoring in industrial engineering. He can be contacted at [email protected].