Summative Project: Design a Biosphere for the Colonization of Mars

SBI 3U

Summative Project: Design a Biosphere for the Colonization of Mars

Biodiversity is considered by many as the most important thing on Earth. It sustains our planet and our lives.

A Dutch company has initiated a global program to send people on a one way trip to Mars to establish a human colony. There were tens of thousands of applicants in the first few weeks after the announcement. The non-profit organization Mars One plans to send a crew to Mars in 2022. Due to the physiological change in the human body after a stay on Mars, there would be no coming back.

Approximately 165 000 people have applied worldwide to become one of the four person team selected for the first phase of the colony. The organization says that the daily routine on the planetwould involve construction work on the colony (installing greenhouses, for example), maintenance of the settlement’s systems and research into Mars’ climate and geological history–all in an inhospitable environment with unbreathable air andan average temperature in the planet’s mid-latitudes of around -58 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mars One saysit is not looking for applicants with specific skills, such as a science degree, that might be useful during an interplanetary posting. Instead, they are looking for people who “have a deep sense of purpose, willingness to build and maintain healthy relationships, the capacity for self-reflection and ability to trust.” They also want volunteers who are “resilient, adaptable, curious, creative and resourceful.” Candidates will receive a minimum of eight years training before leaving Earth, the company says.

Human settlements on other planets can become fully and permanently independent of Earth only of these distant environments are transformed to provide Earth-like living conditions and a local agriculture.

Life is a planetary phenomenon, but Earth is the only living planet in the solar system. Plants and animals are mutually dependent products of Earth’s global ecosystem – the biosphere. All are intricately coupled with each other, and with land, oceans and air by the recycling of water, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and other inorganic materials needed to maintain life. Humans also are component parts of this complex, ever-changing but to some extent self-regulating, biochemical system.

Though presently barren, Mars, nonetheless, is a biocompatible planet. Its unalterable physical characteristics (e.g. size, density, gravity, orbit, rotation rate, incident sunlight) and its possible chemical resources are remarkably consistent with life. Indeed, it was the hope that organisms might be found on Mars that made life-detection the top priority for NASA’s Viking missions in 1976. The Viking data did reveal that environmental conditions on Mars are more severe than ever had been imagined. At the two ‘temperate zone’ landing sites, local temperatures exhibited wide daily variation averaging 60 degrees below zero celsius. The atmospheric pressure was found to be very low, just over six millibars, which is less than one hundredth of that at Earth’s surface.

This thin atmosphere consists of 95% carbon dioxide and 3% nitrogen, with only trace amounts of water vapour, oxygen and other gases. There is no protective ozone layer to shield the planet from the ultraviolet radiation emitted by the sun. Most surprising was the absence from the soil of any detectable organic molecules, the building blocks of life.

Even though such materials arrive on Mars in meteorites, they are subsequently destroyed, at least on the surface of the planet. Thus, any organisms which might arrive there unprotected today would be freeze-dried, chemically degraded, and soon reduced to dust. It would not be possible to ‘seed’ Mars just by sprinkling bacteria over its surface.
Despite its presently hostile environment, Mars did once possess a great northern ocean and substantial quantities of flowing water, together with a thick, mostly carbon dioxide, atmosphere. These conditions may have persisted long enough for early stages of chemical and cellular evolution to have occurred. It is largely for these reasons that some scientists have begun to consider whether Mars might ultimately be returned, by human intervention, to a habitable state.

A major uncertainty in these discussions is whether there remains on Mars today adequate amounts of carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen to allow such a planetary-scale transformation. If most of Mars’ original endowment of these materials has been lost to space, then the regeneration of a habitable state would be impossible.
Preliminary studies have shown that if the surface crust and polar caps of Mars still possess sufficient and accessible quantities of carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen, and if acceptable planetary engineering techniques can be devised to initiate planetary warming and release these volatile materials from their geological reservoirs, then Mars could support a stable and much thicker carbon dioxide/nitrogen atmosphere than it does at present.

This atmosphere would be warm and moist, and water would flow again in the dried up river beds. The average temperature at the surface would rise to about 15 degrees Celsius and the atmospheric pressure would be roughly twice that on Earth. Appropriately selected, or genetically engineered, anaerobic microorganisms, and eventually some plants, could grow under these conditions.

Obviously, this would not provide an environment in which animals or humans could survive outdoors. All oxygen-dependent organisms transported to Mars would have to remain enclosed in life-support modules or appropriate protective gear. The word ‘terraformation’ is used to describe the formation of specifically Earth-like, aerobic conditions on planets.

However approximately 100,000 years would be required if an oxygen atmosphere was to be produced as efficiently as it was on Earth, that is, by microbial and green plant photosynthesis. However, it remains possible that presently unimagined, futuristic technologies could be developed to shorten these time estimates considerably.
Migration and the colonization of initially in hospitable environments has been one of the most astonishing historical features of biological evolution. The first living cells were formed at least 3.8 billion years ago, presumably in the darker reaches of the primeval, anaerobic seas. At that time much of Earth’s surface environment, and certainly its land areas, would have been extremely hostile, if not downright lethal, to most of the organisms which flourish here today.

In 1969 astronauts first set foot on the moon. If all goes well, others are scheduled to arrive on Mars in 2022.

The Summative

Scenario:

We have outgrown the planet. Resources are exhausted, pollution cannot be cleaned up and biodiversity is at an all time low. Animal population sizes are too low to maintain enough births due to habitat loss, overhunting, loss of genetic diversity, pollution and climate change. Many species are now only found in zoos. There is also a major worldwide food shortage. You are a part of a team of scientists in charge of creating a self contained working biosphere on Mars. The purpose of the biosphere is to create a pollution free, sustainable ecosystem capable of supporting human life so that we too do not become extinct.

Your Task:

Design a working biosphere that includes the following:

·  Your colony location on Mars.

·  How you will recycle air, water, and waste.

·  What food production systemsyou will have in place.

·  The use of microbes and other pioneer organisms to create soil.

·  The biodiversity requirements for the biosphere ecosystem.

·  The effects of Mars conditions on human body systems.

·  Specialty clothing needed to protect the body while repairing the outside of the biosphere.

The Specifics:

Part 1: The Plan

Write an explanation for the location you have chosen for your Mars biosphere. Write out the questions you will have at the start of your exploration into creating a biosphere. Where will you look? Who will you ask?

Part 2:

Explain why biodiversity is important to maintaining viable ecosystems. What biodiversity requirements will your biosphere have? What organisms from each of the 6 Kingdoms will be present to maintain a healthy ecosystem? How will the change in climate affect the diversity of living things? (Unit 1: Diversity of Living Things)

Part 3:

Describe how a gene pool with enough genetic diversity is needed to sustain populations of organisms in your biosphere. Will genetic engineering be necessary for a sustainable biosphere? What social and ethical implications might there be if genetic engineering is used? (Genetic Processes)

Part 4:

Going to Mars is a one way trip since the conditions would alter the physiology of living things that stay there for an extended period. What is the impact of this environmental change on natural selection and the reproductive success of organisms? What anatomical and/ or physiological changes would occur to human systems in the new environment on Mars? How does that limit organisms from coming back to Earth? Could societal needs on Mars lead to scientific and technological developments (give current examples to illustrate your ideas)? (Animals: Structure and Function)

Part 5:

What is the importance of plants to the growth and development of a new society on Mars? How have different societies or cultures used plants to sustain human populations while supporting environmental sustainability? Use this information to speculate about how the culture and society on Mars (Plants: Anatomy, Growth and Function)

Part 6: Create a visual to represent your biosphere. Your visual could include one of the following: painting, model, computer drawing, animation, diagram. It can be an overall visual or inside your biosphere. Your visual should have labels or a key/legend. Please see your teacher if your idea for a visual is not mentioned here.

Part 7:

Write a paragraph discussing your opinion about the colonization of Mars. Should we be starting a colony on Mars? What is your personal opinion? Back up your discussion with facts.

NOTE: You MUST cover content from each unit in the course in your summative.

What to Hand In:

Your written component of your project may be completed in any of the following formats: powerpoint presentation, painting, presentation board, written report. All projects must have a written component and a visual component.

Source: http://newsfeed.time.com

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/universo/terraforming/terraforming01.htm

Dutch company sending people to Mars

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/09/78000-people-apply-for-one-way-trip-to-mars/

Rubric (to be attached)

Good places to research

http://science1.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast26jan_1/

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/mars/ask/colony/Extensive_literature_about_terraforming.txt