Terraforming Mars

[zazu (OP)]

Thanks Blue Emu

Think I'm heading into the right direction now.

Btw... do you happen to also be on the Paradox forums? I remember seeing a "Emu" there but it might just be a coincidence

[blue emu]

Thanks Blue Emu

Think I'm heading into the right direction now.

Btw... do you happen to also be on the Paradox forums? I remember seeing a "Emu" there but it might just be a coincidence

That's me, yes... I'm a Moderator on the Paradox board. We play "community" Aurora games in the Off Topic - Forum Games section.

My Ad Astra campaign can be found half-way down this page:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?419-OT-Forum-Games

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I like to use Carbon Dioxide instead of the "Safe" gas... xD

A little bit less handwavium, and apparently it doesnt kill people. Oo

[zazu (OP)]

Woo, there

Finally I can expand this mineral-rich planet!

Thanks for all the help guys!

[Yonder]

I like to use Carbon Dioxide instead of the "Safe" gas... xD

A little bit less handwavium, and apparently it doesnt kill people. Oo

I'm even more anal. I add Carbon Dioxide up to .1 atms, that's a lot more than we have on Earth, so any plants will be fine, but I don't go up any higher than that because you start getting into the human-lethal range (not in game, in real life) so after putting in .1 atm CO2 I switch over to "Safe Greenhouse Gas" if I still need more heat.

[Person012345]

I'm even more anal. I add Carbon Dioxide up to .1 atms, that's a lot more than we have on Earth, so any plants will be fine, but I don't go up any higher than that because you start getting into the human-lethal range (not in game, in real life) so after putting in .1 atm CO2 I switch over to "Safe Greenhouse Gas" if I still need more heat.

Are you sure it's to do with pressure? I thought Carbon Dioxide was deadly in high concentrations (rather than pressures) because it prevents adequate diffusion of oxygen from and carbon dioxide into the blood stream. Deadly at about 4%.

[Yonder]

Are you sure it's to do with pressure? I thought Carbon Dioxide was deadly in high concentrations (rather than pressures) because it prevents adequate diffusion of oxygen from and carbon dioxide into the blood stream. Deadly at about 4%.

You are totally right about CO2 being poisonous earlier than I thought, after some looking it looks like the difference is about split between what we each thought. Symptoms start setting in at a bit before 3%, and progress in seriousness, at 8% loss of consciousness is imminent.

Pretty much all gases work off of partial pressure as far as their affects on... well, really anything. The 10% to 30% Oxygen thing in this game isn't realistic. The Apollo and Mercury astronauts were perfectly fine with 100% oxygen, because the pressure was low enough that the partial pressures were about right. Likewise I remember that during Apollo 13 the CO2 got to around 13%, which would have killed them at 1 atm, but they were alright at the .5 atm of the Apollo. For a chart showing the acceptable region oxygen percentiles at various pressures, and examples of where different spacecraft/stations fell you can go here:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20080032549_2008032394.pdf
The picture is on page 4 of the report, which is page 12 of the PDF. Note that that green line denoting "perfect conditions" follows almost exactly along the ".22 atm partial pressure oxygen" line.

[Person012345]

Oxygen is toxic at high pressures, yes, but I wasn't sure that the pressure of CO2 affected it's toxicity particularly. Provided the percentage was acceptable. I could be wrong though.

[Girlinhat]

My terraforming procedure is rather simple.  A "megaformer" class ship with an OH and 50-100 terraforming modules, towed in by a special tug.  Once there, raise oxygen to acceptable limits (usually ideal for the species, venetian paradise style), then remove any toxic gasses, then add safe greenhouse or anti-greenhouse as needed to adjust temperature.  This is usually done by-hand, adding or removing and watching the temperature ranges from one month to another and tweaking from there.  Very imprecise as far as stellar manipulation goes, but it works.