Topic
Planetary engineering
About: Planetary engineering is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 24 publications have been published within this topic receiving 516 citations.
Papers
TL;DR: This review on habitability defines it as the ability of an environment to support the activity of at least one known organism and adopts a binary definition of "habitability" and a "habitable environment".
Abstract: Habitability is a widely used word in the geoscience, planetary science, and astrobiology literature, but what does it mean? In this review on habitability, we define it as the ability of an environment to support the activity of at least one known organism. We adopt a binary definition of “habitability” and a “habitable environment.” An environment either can or cannot sustain a given organism. However, environments such as entire planets might be capable of supporting more or less species diversity or biomass compared with that of Earth. A clarity in understanding habitability can be obtained by defining instantaneous habitability as the conditions at any given time in a given environment required to sustain the activity of at least one known organism, and continuous planetary habitability as the capacity of a planetary body to sustain habitable conditions on some areas of its surface or within its interior over geological timescales. We also distinguish between surface liquid water worlds (suc...
353 citations
California Institute of Technology1, Southwest Research Institute2, University of Washington3, Arizona State University4, Marshall Space Flight Center5, Northern Arizona University6, Cornell University7, University of Alberta8, Purdue University9, University of Colorado Boulder10, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory11, Pennsylvania State University12, University of Copenhagen13, University of Chicago14, Goddard Space Flight Center15, University of Nantes16, Brown University17, École normale supérieure de Lyon18, Western Washington University19, University of California, Davis20, University of Toulouse21, Tokyo Institute of Technology22, Massachusetts Institute of Technology23, University of Oslo24, Harvard University25, Georgia Institute of Technology26, Planetary Science Institute27, Ames Research Center28
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review current understanding and update the timeline of key processes in early Mars history and draw on knowledge of exoplanets and the other solar system terrestrial planets to identify six broad questions of high importance to the development and sustaining of habitability (unprioritized): (1) Is small planetary size fatal? (2) How do magnetic fields influence atmospheric evolution? (3) To what extent does starting composition dictate subsequent evolution, including redox processes and the availability of water and organics? (4) Does early impact bombardment have a net deleter
Abstract: What allows a planet to be both within a potentially habitable zone and sustain habitability over long geologic time? With the advent of exoplanetary astronomy and the ongoing discovery of terrestrial-type planets around other stars, our own solar system becomes a key testing ground for ideas about what factors control planetary evolution. Mars provides the solar system's longest record of the interplay of the physical and chemical processes relevant to habitability on an accessible rocky planet with an atmosphere and hydrosphere. Here we review current understanding and update the timeline of key processes in early Mars history. We then draw on knowledge of exoplanets and the other solar system terrestrial planets to identify six broad questions of high importance to the development and sustaining of habitability (unprioritized): (1) Is small planetary size fatal? (2) How do magnetic fields influence atmospheric evolution? (3) To what extent does starting composition dictate subsequent evolution, including redox processes and the availability of water and organics? (4) Does early impact bombardment have a net deleterious or beneficial influence? (5) How do planetary climates respond to stellar evolution, e.g., sustaining early liquid water in spite of a faint young Sun? (6) How important are the timescales of climate forcing and their dynamical drivers? Finally, we suggest crucial types of Mars measurements (unprioritized) to address these questions: (1) in situ petrology at multiple units/sites; (2) continued quantification of volatile reservoirs and new isotopic measurements of H, C, N, O, S, Cl, and noble gases in rocks that sample multiple stratigraphic sections; (3) radiometric age dating of units in stratigraphic sections and from key volcanic and impact units; (4) higher-resolution measurements of heat flux, subsurface structure, and magnetic field anomalies coupled with absolute age dating. Understanding the evolution of early Mars will feed forward to understanding the factors driving the divergent evolutionary paths of the Earth, Venus, and thousands of small rocky extrasolar planets yet to be discovered.
119 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this article, a two-stage terraforming scenario for Mars is presented. But the proposed method is probably insufficient and is not suitable for the current conditions of the planet.
Abstract: Previous proposals for terraforming Mars mostly involve an initial phase of planetary engineering to warm the planet by ∼60 K so that its mean temperature is above the freezing point of water. Suggested methods of achieving this warming are reviewed and found to be probably insufficient. A new, two stage, terraforming scenario is outlined.
22 citations
1 Jan 2007
TL;DR: In this article, a multidisciplinary approach to the geology and the Habitability of terrestrial worlds is presented, from Planets to Mud Micro-Habitats, on Earth and on Mars.
Abstract: Introduction: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Habitability.- The Geology and Habitability of Terrestrial Planets: Fundamental Requirements for Life.- Emergence of a Habitable Planet.- Creating Habitable Zones, at all Scales, from Planets to Mud Micro-Habitats, on Earth and on Mars.- Conversations on the Habitability of Worlds: The Importance of Volatiles.- Water, Life, and Planetary Geodynamical Evolution.- to Chapter 6: Planetary/Sun Interactions.- A Comparative Study of the Influence of the Active Young Sun on the Early Atmospheres of Earth, Venus, and Mars.- Planetary Magnetic Fields and Solar Forcing: Implications for Atmospheric Evolution.- Planetary Magnetic Dynamo Effect on Atmospheric Protection of Early Earth and Mars.- Epilogue: The Origins of Life in the Solar System and Future Exploration.
21 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a postulate that a planet is or was habitable requires that the physiological requirements of microorganisms on Earth known at the time of assessment match the empirically determined combined physical and chemical conditions in the extraterrestrial or early Earth environment being assessed as a means of evaluating "habitability".
Abstract: One principal challenge in biology is defining a postulate by which the habitability of other planets can be assessed. Current assessments suffer from two potential weaknesses. With respect to other planets, either assumptions are made about the physical and chemical conditions of environments that err on the side of biological optimism without empirical constraint by spacecraft observations or novel physiologies of microorganisms are invented to fit extraterrestrial environmental conditions with no demonstrated microbiological counterparts on Earth. Attempts to assess the habitability of the early Earth suffer from similar problems. We discuss the following postulate : ' the proposition that a planet is or was habitable requires that the physiological requirements of microorganisms on Earth known at the time of assessment match the empirically determined combined physical and chemical conditions in the extraterrestrial or early Earth environment being assessed' as a means of evaluating ' habitability'. We use as tests for our postulate the early Earth and the cloud deck of Venus (a habitat that has been a source of optimistic debate for forty years). We conclude that, although the early Earth was habitable, Venus is a dead world. Received 1 October 2004, accepted 31 October 2004
11 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 1 |
| 2016 | 7 |
| 2015 | 1 |
| 2014 | 2 |
| 2013 | 1 |
| 2012 | 2 |