Talk:Terraforming

How much must be added to the atmosphere for terraforming?

We can figure out the mass of the atmosphere on Earth and from that estimate what is lacking on Mars. Atmospheric pressure results from the weight of the atmosphere between the planetary surface and outer space. Over every square inch of Earth's surface at sea level there is a one square inch column of air reaching to outer space that weighs 14.7 pounds. 99.9% of the atmosphere is below the altitude of 34 miles. At that height there are only about 0.9% more square inches than there are at the surface. So we can estimate the mass of Earth's atmosphere as 14.7 pounds times the number of square inches of Earth's surface. That overestimates the mass by neglecting the fact that there is no air in the space taken up by mountains. That overestimation is the figure we want for estimating the mass of gas needed to be added to Mars' atmosphere. The radius of Earth is 3.96 E 3 (3960) miles. So the area equals 1.969 E 8 (19690000) square miles or 7.906 E 17 square inches. So the atmosphere of Earth weighs 1.16 E 19 pounds or 5.28 E 18 kilograms. To get the amount of gas needed to have an atmospheric pressure on Mars equal to Earth sea-level pressure we multiply by the ratio of Mars' area to Earth's area by the ratio of Mars' gravity to Earth's gravity. This underestimates the mass because Mars' atmosphere extends to heights at which the gravity is less than the surface gravity and overestimates the mass because it neglects the lessening of the scale height on Mars by the higher average molecular weight of the gas we will use (carbon dioxide, sulfur hexafluoride and 1,1,1-trichloroethane). We assume that the combined effect of these factors is insignificant. So the mass of atmosphere needed on Mars is 3.89 E 15 metric tons. If we raise the pressure to only one tenth of Earth's sea-level pressure and only one tenth of the atmosphere is to be added manufactured gasses, then these gasses would mass 3.89 E 13 metric tons. Spreading the manufacture of the gas over 1000 years we get 3.80 E 10 metric tons per year or 4.44 E 6 tons per hour. The Edmund Fitzgerald carried 26,000 tons. So, what would be needed would be 170 Edmund Fitzgerald cargo mass equivalents per hour for a thousand years. --Farred 05:57, 8 September 2010 (UTC)