Inviting Mars to Join Us, Is it possible?

[Beanze]

Hi guys. I was sitting here and reflecting over the possibility of moving Mars closer to us.

Is it possible to ... gravitationally pull Mars close enough to earth and place it within the habitable zone?
If so, what would it take to do this? 2 minds put together is better than one, two planets is a heck of a lot better to split 6-7 billion people into smaller world populations. :roll:

Theoretically, I'd split our population in half and send the other half to Mars to live there and set up birth controls on both planets. 2 kids per couple so to speak. Anyway, I'll leave this one to you guys!

Thanks in Advance - Beanze. :geek:

 

[MeteorWayne]

Moving Mars would be a really really really really bad idea. It would likely disrupt earth's orbit, move hundreds of asteroids on to possible collision paths...etc

 

[silylene]

And it would be very very hard to do! It would take an enormous expenditure of energy to move Mars closer.

 

[Gravity_Ray]

Hi guys. I was sitting here and reflecting over the possibility of moving Mars closer to us.

go ahead and reflect, but we cant move Mars... I dont even think thats science fiction, more like fantasy. If our race had mastery of that kind of energy then we would be moving to other solar systems with ease and no need to move a planet.

 

[neilsox]

Essentially the same orbit for Earth and Mars would lead to an eventual collision of Earth and Mars. With about a trillion times the energy that humans use each year, we could perhaps crash Mars into the Moon, so the two would merge into a circular orbit around Earth with a radius of about one million kilometers. Tides would be about the same size. The combo would appear slightly smaller, but about as bright as the present moon. The month would be about 5? months long. Yes, the asteroid belt would be in chaos due to the absence of gravity in the present position of Mars, but perhaps the number of hits would only double, for a few thousand years. I'm guessing so please correct. Neil

 

[SteveCNC]

yeah we can't go moving mars , at best we could improve the size of one of mar's moon Deimos by sending in asteroids to create tidal shifting in the core and perhaps get the magnetic field back up and running , but of course that would take a lot of effort and many generations .

 

[StarRider1701]

Moving Mars to make it more habitable? Sounds like a good idea, until you actually stop and think about it. As Gravity Ray said, by the time we have the technological and energy capability to do that, we wont need to. Maybe in some far off future... don't hold your breath!

 

[CommonMan]

God, what is wrong with you people! MeteorWayne is right! I don't think you guys give him enough credit. I have an open mind, but sometimes I don't have to use it with some of these posts.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

Hi guys. I was sitting here and reflecting over the possibility of moving Mars closer to us.

Is it possible to ... gravitationally pull Mars close enough to earth and place it within the habitable zone?...

Unfortunately, even if we did have the capability to move Mars, it wouldn't do much for its habitability. In fact, it might make it worse.

Mars doesn't have an atmosphere. It simply isn't massive enough to hold onto one. It also doesn't have an appreciable magnetic field to help protect the surface and atmosphere from solar radiation. Moving it closer to the Sun might result in what water there is trapped in ice being boiled off, leaving it in worse shape than it is for human habitation. And, even if all the extra activity due to rising temps helped create an atmosphere, it'd be stripped away by solar radiation...

Just my uninformed opinion, but I think we'd be better served leaving it where it is if we're interested in eventually colonizing it.

 

[EarthlingX]

Mars moon, heavy enough to start heating of the core and creating magnetic field, would do much better job than messing with the Mars orbit.

I'm wondering, how massive would have to be such a moon ?

As StarRider1701 said, don't hold your breath

I would also be against terraforming, because as a rule, Life adapts to the environment, and humans are supposed to be the most adaptable species on the planet, and for that matter, in the known Universe

We have only one home planet, get used to the idea.

Terraforming and nuking everything are rather common misconceptions about how to expand our presence in the Cosmos, and in my opinion, very unimaginative.

As for two kids per parents, i must say, i look forward to the time, when it will be possible to have more kids without a bad feeling about destroying this and that, and to be able to afford it. I would not hold my breath for this to happen any time soon either.

 

[brandbll]

I say lets do it. If we don't like the new arrangement we can always just move it back. If thigns work well we could then move Titan a little closer, maybe as a fill-in for Mars.