Blog #8

My Topic

                Some of the difficulties of colonizing on the martian soil involved the sun, the surface temperature and the thinness of the martian atmosphere.  First of all, Mars is far too cold to be habitable for humans.  The surface temperature from about -87 Celsius in the early morning, to -20 Celsius in the afternoon.   Next, the atmosphere is too thin to block the surface from anything harmful that comes from outer space.  Harmful affects include, solar radiation,  solar winds and just about anything that comes from the sun that involves heat.  

                 How NASA plans on dealing with the inability of the martian atmosphere is by terraforming it.  The process of terraforming includes slowly melting the dry ice polar caps, that way carbon dioxide flows upward resulting in a thicker and more habitable atmosphere.  NASA plans on melting the polar caps by using a heat mirror from outer space to reflect the suns heat downwards. Once the atmosphere can protect the surface from the harmful effects, it will be time to start engulfing the surface with plants.  Since plant life takes in carbon dioxide, it exhales oxygen which is what we, humans, breathe in.  Humans exhale carbon dioxide and then it turns into a cycle making Mars habitable for humans to explore! 

Here we have one of the polar caps, which is dry ice.