Martin or Nota

Thank you for the responses. I was just hoping to get the topic moving. Of course Phobos impact would yield negligible results. The data alone would prove useful in gauging transfer of heat through kinetic energy. What velocity, what yield, what over all effects? I'm surprised you didn't comment on the task of moving Ceres, and insuring that it impacted Mars. I couldn't begin to imagine doing the requisite math to show the heat released on Ceres Mars impact at the expected velocities. Let alone how to build the thrusters required to do the job. I only know it'll be Huge. The contribution to Mars mass? Even I know it's nowhere near enough to replicate Earth mass. Vesta having a significant metallic core (which I am loath to throw away on this project being far too valuable and easy to access for other more immediately rewarding purposes), I just threw in because it's much more mass, close at hand but similar in solution to the Ceres case. Ceres to soften Mars up, Vesta to penetrate and add to the core. All to generate heat, induce vulcanization maybe even bring about plate tectonics. If it's not enough, we keep doing it. My question to you is really this. What is the value of an additional livable world to our society, even a hundred thousand years or more off ? As an idea. What's the monetary value of our good earth? Which we seem set on destroying, though we'll end up killing ourselves off and Earth will be just fine. Please feel free to add your own ideas. What will work to produce a stable atmosphere on Mars? The real rewards will be attained in the endeavor.

My high school math teachers weren't the worst or the best, average that's what they were. What killed it for me in spite of an insatiable interest in science of any sort was that fact that basic math BORED me, it was pointless to me. Show me why I should care! Even when I did learn the formulas and the methods I'd hit summer vacation full of activities and excitement. Come back to math class, and all I had learned was Gone. That was when I ran into my worst math teacher. He knew which students he would work with and I wasn't one of those. Needless to say even as an A level student in English, A to B level in Sciences (no math skills) ergo inconsistent. I ended languishing as a student who barely graduated. I did have talent in arts which went nowhere for me. I've read articles which reported that experts in education and psychology have testified that the system of teaching practiced in the western world is a model that guarantees Failure. Courses of study are broken up into unmanageable bits and short snippets that don't allow students any opportunity to learn, practice, use, let alone master the skills they need to complete the courses thus; homework. Thrown out into the wilds of life to figure it out for yourself. (You dummy. Oh Yeah! If you teachers don't care then neither do I). Screw it. I'm doing what I like, homework my sore patoot. As you know that model, unchanged, still holds as education practiced today. I even bought pure math books, sat down to read and learn. I gained a lot of seated snooze time. No interest, no spark, no got'cha. So your failing math? Too bad it's time for French, and I give more homework than any math teacher, so just give up. Now Social Studies. Now Phys/Ed. Now fighting off the school bullies. Physics might have saved me, but that course required high math skills; I was guided away from that hope. Student counsellors. Realists can fail to see the problem. So tell me, though it's 50 years too late, what got you hooked on math? No. Don't tell me. Tell the other students, those with talents and intelligence that are nevertheless failing in math. What is the hook? Richard Feynman, " Mathematics is the language of nature....." I weep.

Mars, as a place to visit isn't easy or attractive. Not even very survivable. It's at the bottom of a deep gravity well and hasn't got enough atmosphere to cushion or slow landing bodies, but we should by all means go to see if there was or is life there and what it's nature is. Are we cousins, or neighbors. Having done that, should we colonize? Why? It's unpleasant, cold, dusty, dreary, deadly. Phobos could come crashing down onto Mars in a few million years, (busting any city domes we might build); we should make that fact part of our terraforming strategy instead of a reason to not proceed. So build a base on Phobos where human activity will hasten it's collision with mars. Mine Vesta or Ceres (both) for materials to build thrusters. Push Phobos into Mars, see what happens. Triggers atmospheric regeneration> Yes/No? Probably not enough. Pilot Ceres into collision with Mars. See how that goes, have we added sufficient to Mars mass and volcanic atmosphere regeneration to foster support life eventually? Still probably not enough. Sacrifice the immense metallic value of Vesta and pilot/collide it into Mars as well, adding significantly to mars core mass. By now we should have greatly changed Mars potential to generate support preserve an atmosphere. Maybe we've even triggered a magnetically active molten metal core. We've made a hot smoking outgassing volcanic mess, but it will cool. It will have an atmosphere that it will keep for a time. We can prepare it and ourselves for occupation. We've learned how to think big, to work in space while living there. We're free of earths gravity well prison and inherited all of space. That's what I call terraforming. Not the silly, not even fractionally effective (so useless) methods I've heard proposed so far.