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From: ESG7@DFVLROP1.BITNET
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Another reason for Martian colonization
Message-ID: <8610171353.AA05955@s1-b.arpa>
Date: Fri, 17-Oct-86 09:55:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: s1-b.8610171353.AA05955
Posted: Fri Oct 17 09:55:53 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Oct-86 22:48:03 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
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Another amusing point about Martian industrialization is that on Mars

"pollution is your friend".  On Earth you want to avoid having factories

spewing out vast volumes of smoke due to problems with the green house

effect, acid rain, etc.  Nuclear energy is generally incompatible

with a living planet because of the ionizing radiation.  However this

is not true with Mars.  Anything that adds pressure to the atmosphere

is good towards terraforming the planet.  With used up nuclear fuel

rods, rather than burying them deep into the earth, one should cut them

up into small hunks and scatter the pieces over the Martian ice caps.

If one could get enough CO2 into the atmosphere of Mars one could in

principle get the atmospheric pressure above the partial pressure of

water.  Once it was possible to have liquid water on the surface of

Mars, one could then introduce geneticly engineered microorganisms to

modify the atmosphere into something breathable.  This is just one more

reason why Mars is ideal for industrialization.

                Gary Allen