Mars didn’t always look like this.
It may once have been covered in oceans.
But what if we brought
all the Martian water back
and transformed the red planet into
one that’s half blue?
Long ago, Mars could have been covered
by a massive ocean.
And there may have been rivers,
streams and lakes spreading out
across the planet too.
It might be that billions of years ago,
Earth and Mars had similar climates.
Except the Martian ocean covered
only 20% of the planet
compared to Earth’s 71%,
and the surface temperature
was a bit cooler.
All of that thanks to an atmosphere
that didn’t stick around long enough.
Four billion years ago,
Mars lost its protective magnetic field,
and the solar winds started to carry
all of its atmosphere off into space.
A few hundred million years later,
Mars changed from a warm, wet world
to what we know it as today.
Cold and dry.
Only 18% of its ocean remains,
trapped in frozen polar ice caps.
So if you wanted to turn Mars
into a half land,
half ocean kind of planet,
you’d need to add a whole lot of water.
Now before we make Mars a more welcoming place to live,
we should look back at our own planet.
Our citizens need help now more than ever.
With growing income inequality, low wages,
and crisis after crisis,
Americans have been struggling to make ends meet.
And the government has one powerful tool that could improve lives.
The U.S. tax code.
You know, instead of using subsidized programs,
they could put cash into the hands of the people
who need it the most,
so they can spend it in the ways that work for them.
With cash support,
low-income families can have peace of mind,
knowing they have more control over their daily lives.
And now it's crucial.
Because the value of the Federal minimum wage
is the lowest it's been in 66 years.
It's time to take action
and protect those barely making it despite their hard work.
Giving our citizens assistance when they need it
is the most effective way to change the landscape
of our country and our planet right now.
Unlike Mars, most of Earth
is covered with oceans.
So what do you say we donate
some of that water to our red neighbor?
Well, let me tell you, that’s a very,
very bad idea.
To make Martian oceans
as deep as Earth’s,
you’d need to ship out about 20%
of our ocean water.
And this would suck for our marine life.
Yeah, leave the Earth’s oceans
where they belong.
Besides, there are a few
other places in the Solar System
where you could find water.
Like Saturn’s moon Enceladus
and Jupiter’s moon Europa.
They might have twice as much water
as Earth.
But to transport
some of that precious H20,
you’d need to move
massive ice blocks through space.
This would be difficult to pull off,
to say the least.
You’d need rockets
capable of transporting
huge amounts of weight.
And you’d need money.
Yeah, a lot of it.
The price could be as high as $1,500
per kilogram (2.2 lb).
And considering how much water
you’d require,
well, the final price tag
for this operation
would be well into the trillions.
Yeah, expensive, I know.
But there might be another way
of bringing Martian water back.
And you’ll love this one,
because it involves nukes.
Yeah, you heard me right.
You’re about to nuke the red planet.
And yes, this would give it some water.
How?
Well, all that energy would release
frozen Martian carbon dioxide.
This would cause temperatures
to climb and thaw out the poles.
It would be kind of like
causing controlled climate change.
Only you’d need to detonate
around 3,500 nuclear bombs
every day.
And this would mean
shipping twice as many bombs daily
as the U.S. currently has
in its entire arsenal.
That’s an enormous amount
of radioactive material to release.
And it wouldn’t exactly
make Mars habitable.
Plus you’d still need a lot more water
to cover half the planet in oceans.
OK, it seems like nuking
everything in sight
isn’t the best idea.
Maybe you should take
a little planetary history lesson instead.
About four billion years ago
during the Late Bombardment Period,
a non-stop barrage of asteroids
collided with Mars.
This created enough water
to eventually make an ocean
300 m (1,000 ft) deep.
So all you’d need to do
is recreate this event today.
You’d have to redirect
at least a million comets and meteors
so that they’d end up
on a collision course with Mars.
As the comets crashed into Mars,
they’d burn up and release water vapor.
Rinse and repeat
until you get enough water
to cover half the red planet.
But where would this water go?
Well, looking at Mars’ topography,
you’d find that
all this new water
would settle mostly above its equator.
Mars would have new landmasses
that would look like continents.
There would even be mountains
sticking up on some parts of the planet.
Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano
in the Solar System,
would now tower high
out of Mars’ new northern ocean.
But just because you were able
to bring enough water
to cover half the planet,
that wouldn’t mean it would last.
Because of Mars’ low atmospheric pressure,
all this water would easily boil away.
Well, wait, how would it boil away
if water’s boiling point
is 100°C (212 °F)?
Aha, well, that’s the boiling point on Earth.
On Mars, the water would start to boil
at 0 °C (32 °F).
Ugh, that’s frustrating,
especially after all the work you put in
bringing all this water to Mars.
You’d have to hope that this water vapor
would work as a greenhouse gas.
If it could trap enough
heat in the Martian atmosphere,
and turn Mars into
a lush terraformed world,
maybe then you’d be lucky enough
to be the only Earthling
ever to go for a swim on another planet.
What would your first 100 years
on the red planet be like?
Well, that’s a story for another WHAT IF.