Terraforming: Peat bogs

1
Terraforming Peat bogs

• Arable soil from regolith

2
Organics

• Regolith finely ground rock
• No organics, no carbon
• No soil nitrogen found so far
• Low potassium, high iron
• How do we convert vast fields of regolith to
  arable soil?

3
Acid breaks down feldspar

• Hydrochloric acid dissolves anorthite bytownite
• Strong acid breaks down most minerals
• Sphagnum produces phenolic acid, pH 3-4.5
• leach nutrients from rock
• calcium, potassium, phosphorus, sodium, magnesium
• Leave hydrated mineral clay, gypsum, crandallite
• Cyanobacteria grows in symbiosis
• fixes nitrogen from air
• generates oxygen

4
Circulation pumps

• Rapid conversion of rock to hydrated minerals
  requires moving strong acid through finely ground
  rock.
• Mars soil is already fines, finer than dust.
• Pump to raise water from bedrock to surface
• Slow sand filter will keep fines out of pump
• Solar powered, each pump
• Slow water flow, dont disturb the peat
• Peat requires stagnant water

5
Pioneer plant

• Sphagnum prefers sand in clean water
• no alkali
• water must be 0-3 (0-7.6cm) from surface
• Creates microenvironment to keep stalks humid
• O2 from cyanobacteria also in microenvironment
• doesnt require oxygen atmosphere
• Holds rainwater, doesnt require irrigation
• Creates environment for other plants

6
Mature bog

• plastic to contain O2
• holes to drain rain into soil
• high PP O2, but leaks O2
• sedges, forbes, willows
• Berries
• blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, saskatoon
  berry, cranberry, huckleberry, sarsaparilla (root
  beer), lingonberry, and cloudberry
• Black spruce trees

7
Boreal Forest

• Black spruce pH 3.5-7
• Sphagnum pH 3-4.5
• Forest in bog pH 3.5-4.5
• Forest serious oxygen generation
• Lumber
• Environment for animals

8
Animals

• Wood Bison
• largest animal in North America
• adult males 350-1000kg
• native to boreal forest
• Muskox
• native to islands of high arctic
• ideal for colder areas of Mars
• Barren-ground Caribou
• taiga forests tundra
• Woodland Caribou, Moose, Elk

9
Prairie Farmland

• Lime soil to neutralize pH
• limestone or wood ash
• Convert deep organic soil into farmland
• Slightly acid soil is good for crops
• continue to leach nutrients from rock
• Interconnected roots of grass prevent soil
  erosion
• further work is just farming

10
Terraforming in Manitoba

• Purpose form soil from rock
• Method blast rock, grid into rock flour, grow
  peat bog