Edeski wrote:

1. Make the atmosphere more breathable, by using extrolysis to liberate O2 from ice, 2. Increase pressure by amplifying the amount of atmospheric H20 (heating of subsurface ice or comet impacts) 3. Heat the world by increasing Chloro-Flourocarbons, redirected solar heating, decreasing albedo 4. Building simple ecosystems - introducing micro-organisms (like Water bears and bacteria) and simple, cold/radiation/low o2/low pressure resistant plants

I think these are the local, small-scale things terraformers are involved in. 1 is probably less about oxygen than getting water onto the surface and into the atmosphere: it is a good greenhouse gas, and enables the ecosystems. This is also why there are big comet impacts, which (for the right choice of source) has more nitrogen in the form of ammonia. Nitrogen is the headache: it is scarce on Mars, yet necessary for bulking up the atmosphere (cannot use too much CO2 if Earthlife is to thrive, oxygen is too reactive) and enabling a biosphere. It would be great if those Titanians were to cooperate rather than play commonwealth, but in lieu of that prospectors scour the outer system looking for high-ammonia ice to send inwards. Water also has the annoying tendency to freeze in inaccessible places, and form high albedo ice. That has to be stopped: channels must be dug (so many ditches to dig on Mars!) to channel it away from the highland craters, and ice must be covered with low albedo dust so it melts. This is plenty of heavy unglamorous work for the terraformers. Dust must be bound: it interferes with everything, it can bury ice and insulate it, and it can likely act as a reflective material. Another reason to seed lichens, crabgrass or whatever can grow and bind it. Or just spray nano-glue on dunes and other problematic landforms to try to catch it. In space Red Eden is likely setting up solettas to shine extra light on the poles and aquifers to warm them. When they do, ground staff better stand ready for unexpected flash floods. Getting UV down is likely a low priority, given the good genetic engineering.

Jay Dugger wrote:

Martyn Fogg argues in his Terraforming (1992) the best source for such nitrogen would lie on Mars itself in mineral deposits. This means prospecting for nitrate beds would count as day-to-day work for terraformers or miners.

And finding a good deposit would be worth a fortune. Fogg's book is old, but still THE book on the topic. He likely has newer papers we ought to consult.

Quote:

Fogg also proposes thickening the Martian atmosphere by vaporizing such deposits with lots (4 billion to 4 million) of high-yield (700 kT-707 MT) atomic explosives. He estimates this would cost between 414 and 1 times Earth's 1975 Gross World Product. The civil engineering explosions would make lousy weapons, and if pure fusion bombs exploded subsurface, actually pose little radiation risk. (Just tritium, with a 12.3 year half-life, but you'd need to check your water supplies for HTO vice H2O.)

Hehehe... the terraforming nukes. They played a fun role in my Land of the Ten Suns campaign, where some noble families had a few stashed away. Chekov's nuke and all that. One fun use mentioned by Fogg is to use a very long pipeline with fusable material and a trigger to explode channels. This is a great way to quickly fix some of the hydrology. Edward Teller would approve.