Arizona student envisions giant space mirrors for terraforming Mars

Anyone who's ever read science fiction knows that in addition to space elevators and transporters, there's another futuristic technology that we'd all dig: terraforming. Being able to transform the moon, Mars, or any other barren celestial body into a new Earth would make human interplanetary colonization a bit more feasible. However, instead of terraforming an entire planet, which at current estimates could take centuries, it appears that altering one single square kilometer first might be a bit simpler. Earlier this year, Rigel Woida, an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, received a grant from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts to study "reflective balloons," which in theory could raise the surface temperature of Mars on that patch to 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius), compared with the typical high of -76 degrees Fahrenheit (-60 degrees Celsius). Woida recently gave a presentation at the NAIC meeting in October and will give another at a second meeting this March, where he will hopefully show NASA how great his concept his, and how the astronauts who study Mars in his little patch of paradise will be able to like, totally, get the best tan ever.

[Jeff @ Nov 16th 2006 11:58AM]

Did we all see that episode of Futurama?

[Brian @ Nov 16th 2006 12:10PM]

Hmmm... a quick Google search suggests that Rigel actually attends the University of Arizona in Tucson and not Arizona State University in Tempe. Although I'm sure ASU fans out there won't at all mind taking headline credit away from the Wildcats. ;-)

Brian (ASU alum)

[Cyrus Farivar @ Nov 17th 2006 7:22PM]

Yes, my apologies. The error has been fixed.

[Michael Schmitt @ Nov 16th 2006 12:14PM]

With all of the environmentalists here on Earth raising their voices as to how we're destroying OUR planet with "global warming" and "excessive waste", isn't it ironic that we don't hear their voices when we talk about sending disposable robots (aka waste)and reflecting our Sun's rays to warm the planet (aka global warming)?

It's progress, I guess....

[Bob @ Nov 16th 2006 12:51PM]

His idea is not that impressive if you've read the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson...

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Mars-Trilogy-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0553560735/ref=pd_sim_b_2/103-5337467-4169433

[Peter Payne @ Nov 16th 2006 12:52PM]

Um, go read Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars, a trilogy of SF books about terraforming Mars. They totally raise the idea of a giant mirror to increase the amount of sunlight being sent to the planet. Jeez, guys. Put the Internet down and read a book every once in a while.

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Mars-Trilogy-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0553560735

[Karl @ Nov 16th 2006 1:04PM]

Um, if you guys read the article you'd see that they acknowledge that the idea itself has been imagined by science fiction authors.

This guys is being given money to study the practical aspects that sci-fi authors get to conveniently ignore, such as the fact (fta) that the mirror must be designed so as not to reflect dangerous radiation that Mars' atmosphere cannot filter out the way Earth's does,

[TomTheGeek @ Nov 16th 2006 4:15PM]

Ah, actually the POINT of the mirror would be to help DEVELOP the atmosphere. There's already unfiltered sunlight hitting mars. They just need more of it to raise the temperature, allowing water to melt and plants to grow creating oxygen.

[Wanker666 @ Nov 16th 2006 6:38PM]

All pie in the sky. We cant even get back to the moon, dont even have a workable space platform.
This is nice Science Fiction!

[Rick Lyon @ Nov 16th 2006 1:09PM]

Ah, so Mars would have a kilometer of warm clay? Good for space baseball I guess?

[kleid @ Nov 16th 2006 1:14PM]

Whatever, If TOTAL RECALL taught us anything, it's that aliens have had it figured out this whole time.

[TVGenius @ Nov 16th 2006 1:13PM]

I think the thought is to get some plant matter there in that area doing its work and putting a dent in the global atmosphere before trying the whole planet.

Wouldn't it be easier to just release a bunch of chlorofluorocarbons into the Martian atmosphere and give it a ozone hole to warm it up?

[tristanfey @ Nov 16th 2006 3:01PM]

Earth has an atmosphere that keeps out some of the radiation and subsequent heat. The CFCs that has caused a hole in the ozone layer is letting more of the heat and radiation into our atmosphere.

Mars' thin atmosphere produces a "greenhouse effect", but it is only enough to raise the surface temperature by 5 degrees (K); much less than what we see on Venus and Earth.

[Mikey @ Nov 16th 2006 1:16PM]

or spaseball.

[Parker @ Nov 16th 2006 2:44PM]

Sounds like using a magnifying glass to fry ants. Okay, terraforming is a nice humanitarian use for it, but how long before THE TERRORISTS get hold of this and use it on AMERICA!?!

Time to pump some more money into the Dept. of Homeland Security. They could use an Aerospace/Big Mirror-in-the-Sky Defense division. Right?

[Alex @ Nov 16th 2006 1:41PM]

Or we could terraform mars over millions of years, like in Spin by Robert Charles Wilson.

[Ken @ Nov 16th 2006 1:48PM]

I would think that the most important obstical in terraforming Mars would be to create the ionosphere we are so lucky to have here. Earth maintains it's ionosphere via the massive dynamo we know as our molten core. Mars has a solid core and hence no ionosphere to protect from solar wind destroying what ever atmosphere we create.

[Bill @ Nov 16th 2006 2:54PM]

So if a meteor were to break that giant mirror, just who gets the bad luck?

[qwerty @ Nov 16th 2006 4:37PM]

Mars is missing it's protective magnetic field. The liquid hot metal core of Mars has cooled and stopped spinning.

[KYDS3K @ Nov 16th 2006 5:17PM]

Anybody else notice that his name is "Rigel"?

[Murc @ Nov 16th 2006 11:02PM]

I've never heard of this concept...its cool that Nasa is funding this guys redearch into it...hope it turns out to actually be feasable. It makes sense...couldn't we (completely theoretically) cover all of mars with the space mirrors...making the whole planet be lit up, and have its entire temp change into something that is more barable for humans.

With constant sun...it seems like we could plant trees there so we could have oxygen begin. I realize taht it would take decades and maybe even hundreds of years until its breathable for us...but still, its a start.