Terraforming mars using... ants!

[SagaLore]

I'm infatuated with terraforming mars... I want to see it started in my lifetime.

I had to fight off an invasion of ants this morning. They found some sugary cereal left behind when my in-laws visited last. Little buggers got in every open box they could find in my cupboard.

I don't know why these ideas come to me when they do, but just the other day I was reading that they were mixing bovine dna with human dna to create more stem cells for research. They've also been making rats grow human ears, making animals that glow in the dark, etc.

Lets genetically alter a fungus-cultivating ant so it can survive sub zero temperatures and a thin carbon-dioxide atmosphere. Also develop a variety of mosses that also survive sub-zero and little water, that the ants can use for their underground fungus farms. Scatter colonies all around the equator.

We can establish an initial ecosystem this way. The ants will help spread the co2-sifting mosses around the planet. Then we can send other plants and insects when the oxygen levels increase slightly.

 

[Dumac]

I still don't know that if that somehow worked the process world be near complete in your lifetime.

EDIT: AND I WOULD RUIN YOUR PLANT BY SHIPPING ANTLIONS!!! MUAHAHAHA!

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
They've also been making rats grow human ears,

Watch the episode of Nip Tuck where they grow this lady a new ear.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Dumac
I still don't know that if that somehow worked the process world be near complete in your lifetime.

EDIT: AND I WOULD RUIN YOUR PLANT BY SHIPPING ANTLIONS!!! MUAHAHAHA!

Why.

I hope that within my lifetime, they would have discovered multiple ways of extending our lifetimes.

 

[chambersc]

Why not just have missiles filled with algae. Launch 'em off toward Mars, when they enter the atmosphere, have the algae shoot out (controlled, of course) and float wherever it lands. Launch like 1 million of em ... like 1000 a day.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

It's too bad Venus has all that pesky atmosphere.

 

[SaoFeng]

give my people aiiiir!!!

 

[Nik]

It's not just sub-zero. It's extreme kelvin temps. They'd burn during the day and freeze at night.

 

[judasmachine]

Originally posted by: GuideBot
It's not just sub-zero. It's extreme kelvin temps. They'd burn during the day and freeze at night.

Not to mention the sheer amount of radiation from the sun they'd be exposed to.

 

[bonkers325]

Originally posted by: judasmachine

Originally posted by: GuideBot
It's not just sub-zero. It's extreme kelvin temps. They'd burn during the day and freeze at night.

Not to mention the sheer amount of radiation from the sun they'd be exposed to.

i thought radiation was good for you? just look at the hulk!

 

[newmachineoverlord]

1. Mars doesn't have enough mass to sustain a dense atmosphere. Thus you're going to have to add lots of mass to mars prior to terraforming. Directing huge asteroids to impact mars would probably take decades and enough money to end world hunger and buy contraceptives for everyone in the world for a hundred years.

2. Mars has no magnetic field to redirect harmful radiation. This presents a potentially showstopping quandary, but may not rule out living in the shade.

3. Mars doesn't seem to have a lot of water. It would need an atmosphere to retain water, otherwise any water you put there will simply boil away.

4. Extreme day/night temperatures may be somewhat attenuated once you add a lot of mass, water, and a dense atmosphere, but are currently inhospitable to life.

5. The terraforming process will contaminate any evidence that may remain of prior life, and damage its geological records.

 

[Kelnoen]

I don't understand why we feel the need to increase population, we need less people not more.

Also there needs to be some more survival of the fittest or we will never better the gene pool.

 

[oynaz]

Improving the gene pool? Good idea.

/AFK

*hunts down my girlfriend*

 

[Pocatello]

Survivor of the fittest, 99.9% of ATOT members wouldn't make it.

 

[Beev]

I just want us to have a way to inhabit nearly any planet and travel intergalactically. Is that so much to ask?

 

[Aimster]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
I'm infatuated with terraforming mars... I want to see it started in my lifetime.

I had to fight off an invasion of ants this morning. They found some sugary cereal left behind when my in-laws visited last. Little buggers got in every open box they could find in my cupboard.

I don't know why these ideas come to me when they do, but just the other day I was reading that they were mixing bovine dna with human dna to create more stem cells for research. They've also been making rats grow human ears, making animals that glow in the dark, etc.

Lets genetically alter a fungus-cultivating ant so it can survive sub zero temperatures and a thin carbon-dioxide atmosphere. Also develop a variety of mosses that also survive sub-zero and little water, that the ants can use for their underground fungus farms. Scatter colonies all around the equator.

We can establish an initial ecosystem this way. The ants will help spread the co2-sifting mosses around the planet. Then we can send other plants and insects when the oxygen levels increase slightly.

what if that is what someone did to us?

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: GuideBot
It's not just sub-zero. It's extreme kelvin temps. They'd burn during the day and freeze at night.

....No, not exactly. During the day, in the equatorial regions within a few feet of the surface, the temperature can approach room temperature. Nighttime is what you need to worry about, like -155F.

There is also an atmosphere, which is responsible for these less-than-extreme temperatures. But it's very thin, providing less than 1% of the atmospheric pressure we experience here.

1. Mars doesn't have enough mass to sustain a dense atmosphere. Thus you're going to have to add lots of mass to mars prior to terraforming. Directing huge asteroids to impact mars would probably take decades and enough money to end world hunger and buy contraceptives for everyone in the world for a hundred years.

Oh? Saturn's moon Titan is smaller than Mars, and sports and atmosphere about 60% denser than Earth's.

2. Mars has no magnetic field to redirect harmful radiation. This presents a potentially showstopping quandary, but may not rule out living in the shade.

Partially true. It does have a weak, nonuniform magnetic field. But it's not nearly enough to stop solar and cosmic radiation.


This all said, I don't think ants would be ideal. It'd be better to find existing extremophiles, and send them instead. There are already bacteria here on Earth that can live off of hydrogen sulfide, a toxin to most other life. We should send stuff like that if we want to terraform another planet.
In either case, it'd probably take several generations, if not thousands of years, to terraform Mars.

 

[ForumMaster]

interesting idea! wonder how'd they do that.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Roaches..... They could handle it. Just don't come complaining to me when they launch an assault from Mars, trying to get all of our Cheetos.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
Roaches..... They could handle it. Just don't come complaining to me when they launch an assault from Mars, trying to get all of our Cheetos.

Only to discover that Cheetos haven't existed for thousands of years, so they decide to switch around that old adage, used by humans against roaches for so many years, and see if humans can survive a nuclear war.

 

[illusion88]

Originally posted by: Dumac
I still don't know that if that somehow worked the process world be near complete in your lifetime.

EDIT: AND I WOULD RUIN YOUR PLANT BY SHIPPING ANTLIONS!!! MUAHAHAHA!

Oddly enough, fedex offers overnight special delevery to Mars.

 

[Mermaidman]

Bad idea--what if the ants mutate and conquer Earth?

I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: Kelnoen
I don't understand why we feel the need to increase population, we need less people not more.

Also there needs to be some more survival of the fittest or we will never better the gene pool.

No reason we need less population if we can figure out how to easily populate areas off Earth. And don't worry about the gene pool, we'll soon be doing our engineering without the need for evolution to do it for us.

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: SagaLore

Originally posted by: Dumac
I still don't know that if that somehow worked the process world be near complete in your lifetime.

EDIT: AND I WOULD RUIN YOUR PLANT BY SHIPPING ANTLIONS!!! MUAHAHAHA!

Why.

I hope that within my lifetime, they would have discovered multiple ways of extending our lifetimes.

From what I understand the first person to reach 200 is already 50 now.