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Date: Tue, 8 Sep 92 05:01:47
From: Space Digest maintainer <digests@isu.isunet.edu>
Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu
Subject: Space Digest V15 #176
To: Space Digest Readers
Precedence: bulk
Space Digest Tue, 8 Sep 92 Volume 15 : Issue 176
Today's Topics:
Is NASA really planning to Terraform Mars?
Welcome to the Space Digest!! Please send your messages to
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(THENET), or space-REQUEST@isu.isunet.edu (Internet).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 8 Sep 92 06:52:32 GMT
From: Nick Janow <Nick_Janow@mindlink.bc.ca>
Subject: Is NASA really planning to Terraform Mars?
Newsgroups: sci.space
knapp@spot.Colorado.EDU (David Knapp) enquires:
> Thomas, would you expound on which bacteria or fungi can exist in a hot
> sulfuric acid/sulfur dioxide environment [Venus' upper atmosphere]?
I don't know if there are any microorganisms that can survive those conditions
(I don't know that there aren't, either). However, Perhaps advances in
understanding enzymes and other building blocks of life will lead to engineered
life forms that can survive--even thrive--in that environment. These new
building blocks needn't be based on Terran life; they need only meet the
requirements for life on Venus (survival and replication, and possibly
mutation). They could even be wild & weird, such as buckyballs stuffed with
sulfur and/or some metal available as dust in the upper atmosphere, and with
chlorine or fluorine inside or out.
Of course, the real problem with Venus is the lack of hydrogen, or the excess
of oxygen. Might Venus lose oxygen at a significant rate if there was free
oxygen in the upper atmosphere? Might free metal in the crust take in some of
the excess oxygen? The possibilities are interesting to think about, if
nothing else. :)
--
Nick_Janow@mindlink.bc.ca
------------------------------
End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 176
------------------------------