The City of Humans on Another Planet May Be Built Under a Sparkling Sky Made of Nano Metal Particles.
It may sound crazy, but a planet with a sky full of glitter might just be Mars.
Specifically, a group of scientists led by engineer Samaneh Ansari from Northwestern University (USA) has proposed a special plan on how to transform the red planet into a habitable environment.
Spraying glitter-like material into the Martian sky is believed to gradually make the planet more Earth-like over several centuries – (Image: NASA)
According to Science Alert, the plan to colonize Mars has been on the radar of many space agencies around the world. However, there are numerous obstacles, such as the planet’s frigid climate.
The temperature on Mars drops too low for human tolerance, averaging -64 degrees Celsius.
The new strategy, referred to as “nanorod”, is based on previous proposals to pump additional greenhouse gases into the Martian atmosphere to warm the planet, similar to how Earth is currently being heated.
A warmer Mars would facilitate the development of photosynthetic bacterial communities, which would gradually enrich the planet with oxygen.
The challenge is that Mars lacks many of the components necessary for this strategy, and transporting large amounts of greenhouse gases from Earth or mining them deep within the planet would be prohibitively expensive.
With the new approach, American scientists propose to utilize the very materials that are easily extractable on the red planet: Metals.
NASA’s exploration robots have confirmed that the surface soil of Mars is rich in metals such as iron and aluminum, with iron being the element that gives it its characteristic red color.
Thus, if we mine tons of metal from the planet’s surface and then launch them – in the form of tiny particles – using a super-powerful cannon-like device, we could create metal clouds sufficient to retain the sun’s warm energy for the planet.
According to the authors, their plan is over 5,000 times more feasible than other proposals.
The type of glitter they use takes the form of ultra-small rods, at a ratio of 60:1, the same size as Martian dust particles, and smaller than the glitter typically used at parties.
The size and shape of these nano rods will prevent dust from settling on Mars for ten times longer than natural dust.
If released at a continuous rate of 30 liters per second, these nano rods will generate the necessary warming, causing surface ice to melt and increasing atmospheric pressure as carbon dioxide ice sublimates.
It will take centuries for Mars to actually warm to Earth-like temperatures, but it will warm by approximately 28 degrees Celsius after a few decades. While that remains an uncomfortably cold temperature for humans, it would be sufficient for the bacteria we introduce to grow and photosynthesize, gradually transforming the planet.
This research has just been published in the scientific journal Science Advances.
