Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!bbn!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!NOTE.NSF.GOV!fbaube
From: fbaube@NOTE.NSF.GOV (Fred Baube)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: 2010
Message-ID: <8803081408.aa10335@note.nsf.gov>
Date: 8 Mar 88 19:07:44 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 25


> I don't think anybody really knows what a bi-solar system would do to
> the planets, but I have a good feeling that it would make mars a hell
> of a more desirable place to live.

I wouldn't bet on it !  Assuming that the new sun is not as
strong as the original (how strong *would* it be ?), most of the
time on Mars you might not even notice any effects on the plane-
tary environment, until that time every 1.2 or so Mars-years,
when Jupiter *did* warm the planet, causing some sort of chaos.

Then again, it might qualify as some sort of season, and any life
that evolved, or that we released, would adapt to it and take
advantage of it, probably by re-arranging reproductive cycles.

On Earth, when seasons change, the net energy flow to Earth is
still a constant, and here we're talking about wide variations in
that flow.  And, since Mars has no oceans and little atmosphere,
these effects would not be moderated, nor would the additional
energy be stored for long, so one could expect some pretty loopy
weather.

Then again, maybe the lack of oceans and near-lack of atmosphere
mean that the temperature would go up, but not much else would
happen !