Four Billion Years Ago Was A Warm And Wet Planet, Possibly Supporting

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Term Paper Title	Four Billion Years Ago Was A Warm And Wet Planet, Possibly Supporting
# of Words	2189
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	8.76

Four billion years ago  was a warm and wet planet, possibly supporting
life.  Spacecraft that once orbited Mars tells us liquid water once flowed
on the planet's surface. Today Mars is a cold, dry, desertlike world with a
thin atmosphere.  Without any water on the Martian surface (The main
thing all life must have) no living life that we no of can survuve on Mars.
More than 20 years ago the Mariner  and Viking missions failed to find
evidence that life exists on Mars's surface, although all the chemical
elements needed for life were present. That result inspired a biologist
Robert D. MacElroy  to consider seriously  whether Mars's environment
could be made hospitable to colonization by Earthings. Since then, several
scientists, using climate models and ecological theory, have said “it is
posssible,” with today's technology, we could transform the climate on the
planet Mars, making it suitable once more for life. Macelroy said “such an
experiment would allow us to examine, on a grand scale, how biospheres
grow and evolve. And it would give us the opportunity to spread and study
life beyond Earth. “
Many of the key  elements to live on Mars are similiar to those of Earth.
On both planets the length of day is about 24 hours. Mars also experiences
seasons, as the planet's axis is tilted to a similar degree as Earth's. Because
Mars is farther from the sun, a Martian year is almost twice the length of
an Earth year, but plants should be able to adapt to such a difference. One
unalterable difference between Earth and Mars is gravity: Martian gravity
is about one third that of Earth's. How life would adapt to reduced gravity
is unknown. It is likely, however, that microbes and plants would adjust
easily to Martian gravity, and some animals too.
Other planets and moons in our solar system also might be considered
potential sites for life, including ,  and . Each of these bodies, however,
possesses some basic physical parameter that is inconsistent with
habitability. Titan and Europa  are satellites that are too far from the sun to
support our life. Venus is too close, and its extremely dense atmosphere
makes the planet much too hot for life. The planet rotates so slowly that its
day is equal to about four months on Earth, which might make life difficult
for plants. The technology needed to alter these planets and satelites are
well beyond are technonlogy.
Mars is currently too cold, too dry and its carbon dioxide atmosphere is
too thin to support life. And  this c...

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