Terraforming Mars: Mass, Forcing, and Industrial Throughput Constraints
2 days ago
- #Astrophysics
- #Terraforming
- #Mars
- Terraforming Mars involves system-level feasibility constraints linking atmospheric inventories, radiative control, industrial throughput, and persistence against collapse.
- Key metrics include target pressures, surface temperatures, and required industrial throughput and power over build time.
- Human-relevant pressures imply exaton-class atmospheric inventories (10^17-10^18 kg).
- Accessible CO2 on Mars can provide ≤20 mbar, yielding ≤10 K warming under current insolation.
- Achieving surface temperatures of 250-273 K requires an effective IR opacity target of ~2-4.
- Breathable endpoints require significant O2 and buffer-gas mass, with oxygenation work ≥10^25 J.
- Regional habitability via paraterraforming is plausible on near-term industrial scales.
- Global transformation of Mars requires multi-century planetary industry and massive exogenous volatile supply or larger discovered inventories.
- Sustained high-authority climate control is necessary to counteract sinks and loss.