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Plans for a futuristic “forest under a bubble” are already being drawn up for Mars. While once the stuff of science fiction, pioneers like Elon Musk are helping Paul Smith’s dream come true. Smith laid out the foundation for his ideas in a recently published paper.
A thriving forest on Mars
Don’t expect the whole forest but you can have a few trees. Botanist Paul Smith likes to hang out in the civil engineering department at the University of Bristol.
A paper of his was published last month by the International Journal of Astrobiology, where he “lays out the foundation for creating a thriving, contained ecosystem on Mars.”
Colonists of the red planet will face a huge number of challenges including a “harsh climate that isn’t conducive to life.” They also have to cope with radiation and limited sunlight.
Starship takes beings of Earth to Mars pic.twitter.com/6qaIc3p4yA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 5, 2022
Even so, “certain Earth life could adapt.” It will be helpful psychologically to have some familiar surroundings as well. Any forest, even one under a pressure dome, is better than sterile red desert with hardly any air.
Smith says kidnapping and relocation to another planet isn’t fair to most critters. “We shouldn’t look to create an exact replica of an Earth forest on Mars, as nonhuman vertebrates, like birds, fish, and raccoons shouldn’t be forced into an extraterrestrial habitat that would not allow them to engage in their natural behaviors.”
Even so, there are a number of suitable candidates which might not mind a change of surroundings.
Earth life can adapt
While not all life on Earth is suitable for transplant to Mars, there is a wide selection of Terran life which could adapt.
“Fauna such as soil microbes, fungi, and invertebrates like earthworms and spiders could all live on Mars.” They can live in a self-contained forest of junipers and birches which can “survive on little sunlight.”
Human beings have come to realize that we are only one single species and part of a much larger and totally intertwined infrastructure. That’s why “designers should consider species as ecological cogs that might be assembled into functional ecosystems.”
Smith is fully aware that his paper remains out on the “theoretical” edge of speculation and not currently “feasible.” That doesn’t stop him from dreaming of a forest on Sol-4. The whole idea of a Mars colony was once nothing but similar hallucination.
“Replication of Earth forests is currently unfeasible but development of new ecosystems, functioning in unexpected ways, is conceivable.” He’s convinced that “the idea of an ecosystem on Mars that brings life other than humans to the red planet is a compelling idea.”
He’s also realistic enough to note in his paper that “he hasn’t considered the economics of the enterprise.” The good news is that every forest starts with a handful of seeds.
