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>> ZUBRIN: The human Mars mission is a more rigorous and difficult condition
than most of us experience in daily life.
But it is hardly a more difficult situation than many people have endured
through human history.
We can compare the Mars crew to the crew of 19th century or prior sailing vessels,
many of whom were away from home for 3 years or more than 3 years
under conditions in which they're eating extremely bad food,
without any medical knowledge to support their health,
commanded by brutal officers.
In every respect, the crew of a human Mars mission,
with the full support of Mission Support,
and the whole world cheering for them,
and great rewards awaiting for them in life upon their return
is in a vastly superior condition.
>> The ultimate question of Mars, though,
is "Will there be human settlements on the planet?"
Will Mars become a new branch of human civilization?
As each subsequent Mars mission
explores a wider and wider area of the planet over several years,
an ideal site for a base will be found,
probably one with a thermal vent that can supply water and power.
At that point, several HABs would be landed in this one spot,
with crews that plan to stay for 4, 8, or even 12 years.
The HABs will be interconnected, and a permanent human presence on Mars will be established.
This scientific community will have to learn to become self-sufficient,
to be able to survive on Mars without supplies constantly being sent from Earth.
But unlike any other planet in the solar system besides Earth,
Mars has all of the fundamentals needed to make this possible.
Its 24 hour and 37 minute day is critical for growing plants.
It has all of the elements necessary for creating building materials
like plastics, metals, and glass.
And it has oceans of water frozen into the soil.
Eventually, with a lot of ingenuity and invention,
the scientists will learn to live off the land.
They will grow crops in the iron-rich but potassium-poor soil.
And they will produce oxygen and energy from the water and atmosphere.
With time, more and more people will arrive.
These won't only be scientsits, but settlers. People who plan to stay.
They may come for all kinds of reasons: political, religious, economic.
But to them, Mars will be a chance to start over. To build a new life for themselves.
>> ZUBRIN: Mars is not gonna be a Utopia. Mars is gonna be a lab.
It's an open frontier. It's a place where things are gonna be tried out.
I think we'll see a lot of noble experiments on Mars.
>> The ultimate dream of the Martians
will be to terraform their planet,
to make Mars as hospitable as Earth.
This may not be as big a fantasty as it seems.
With daytime temperatures in the Martian tropical zone
averaging around 0 degrees C,
and with an atmosphere only 1% as thick as Earth's,
exposure to these elements by a human without a space suit
would be instantly fatal.
The first step to terraforming Mars
and bringing it back to life
would be for the Martian colonists to warm up their planet.
>> McKAY: Well, we know how to warm up planets. We're doing it on Earth.
By putting gases in the atmosphere.
On Earth it's not a good idea to warm up the planet.
The temperature is just fine, thank you.
We don't need it any warmer here.
But in principle, if you could trap the sunlight reaching Mars today,
every single photon that's hitting Mars,
Mars would warm up in about 10 years.
Well, obviously you can't trap every single photon that's hitting Mars,
but can trap about 10% of 'em, with the greenhouse effect.
So that could imply that Mars could warm up
in about 100 years.
Well 100 years is a long time, but it's not astronomically long.
>> One idea is to build small automated factories that produce super-greenhouse gases, with
no ozone-depleting side effects.
Although these gases would be unwelcome on Earth,
for the Martians they would be an efficient way to trap heat.
>> ZUBRIN: Then within a few decades we would raise Mars by more than 10 degrees C.
And if you did that, that would cause massive amounts of CO2 that is currenly adsorbed into
the Martian soil
to start to outgas.
>> CO2 is also a natural greenhouse gas.
As it builds up in the atmosphere, more and more heat will be trapped.
which will in turn will cause more CO2 to outgas.
The process will become automatic, and as the atmosphere thickens,
Mars will eventually reach a state of equilibrium and stay warm natually.
The rise in air pressure
would mean that the human colonists
could discard their pressure suits,
and walk around the surface of Mars
carrying only a supply of oxygen.
And as the temperatures rise on Mars,
water frozen into the soil will begin to melt out.
And for the second time in its history,
Mars would have liquid water on its surface.
The return of Mars to its warm and wet stage
will make it a fertile environment for life.
Any indiginous Martian organisms lying dormant
will begin to grow, and Mars will be full of Martians.
If no native life emerges,
well that life is all dead,
and humans could begin addressing the idea of bringing life from Earth.
At first, it would be simple organisms,
perhaps generically engineered,
that would thrive in the Martian environment.
Then more complex plants could be introduced.
The plants would be right at home in the CO2 atmosphere,
and with no competition, and a whole planet to cover,
they could transform Mars into a green world.
Warming Mars so that it sustains life is rapid,
but then the slow process of making the atmosphere breathable
for humans and animals starts,
and that's done by plants.
Although the process will happen naturally,
if the colonists can't find a quicker way,
it will take tens of thousands of years.
>> McKAY: This is a philospohical debate.
Many people think the universe has a big sign on it that says
"Do not touch. Leave it alone. It was made this way."
"It is not in our purview as human beings to change anything."
I can respect that view, although I disagree with it.
I think the universe has a big sign on it that says "Go forth and spread life."
Because when I look around the universe, I think life is the most amazing thing we see.
It is just incredible.
And we human beings are uniqely positioned to help spread life
from this little tiny planet which it seems to have been started on, beyond.
And, that's our gift. Earth's gift to the universe, I think, is the gift of life.
>> ZUBRIN: This scheme for terraforming Mars
is based on 20th century notions of engineering.
I don't think it is how Mars will actually be terraformed.
What you have here is a 20th century mind trying to address a 22nd century problem.
And so I think Mars will be terraformed by the 23rd century
Not by the 33rd, by the 23rd.
Things that will seem utterly fantastical to us is how it will actually be done.
But it'll be done.
You have to believe in hope. You have to believe in the future.
There are more and more people coming around to the point-of-view that
a positive future for humanity requires human expansion into space.
We will eventually break through the forces of inertia
that have been holding this thing back.