Technoscreed is a user supported newsletter that talks about science, tech and society in a humorous (or at least very sarcastic) way. Because you need that when you’re dealing with this stuff. Y’know? If you like it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is the third installment in a series around the idea that Spiders from Mars might be something we could actually make. We talked about the environment on Mars, the cold, the low gravity, the radiation and very poor atmosphere. We talked a little bit about genetic engineering and energy requirements, too. This time, we're going to try to show that this isn't just silly dreaming. It might have a point. Previous installments of this series are here and here. One thing that Elon Musk has mentioned as motivation for SpaceX, is the desire to build permanent human settlements on Mars. He says, correctly, that if the human race is to survive over the long term, we must become a multi-planetary species. After all, the Earth has gone through around a half dozen "global extinction events." You know, like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs¹. Yeah. Bruce Willis is retired now. We're going to need a better plan for the next world-breaking meteor². And the next. And the next ... Anyway, Elon Musk is a little late to the game of planning for Mars. Other folks, notably Robert Zubrin, a brilliant engineer and inventor, have been working on the details for decades. But they haven't thought of breeding, or otherwise engineering, spiders to make the trip. They really should. To begin with, while Mars is smaller than Earth, it's still pretty big. 55.7 million square miles. Give or take. We've sent some rovers up there. They are fantastic technical achievements that, over the years, have driven over and taken pictures of ... not much. Compared to the whole surface of Mars, they've looked at a truly insignificant part of the surface. And at upwards of $2 billion per rover³ (And not counting that wonderful helicopter), you can see that this method of exploring Mars is unbelievably expensive. The Earth was explored by people on foot! True, it took thousands of years, because they had to do things like find food and raise families along the way. Still, it seems like we should be able to find some way of scoping out Mars that's in between walking around it and spending billions upon billions on fancy cars with nice cameras attached. Okay, that's a little unfair to the Mars rovers. But only a little. Anyway, by now I'll bet you can see where I'm going with this. How about making some kind of animal that can survive on Mars, go pretty much anywhere and reproduce itself? Given a few generations, these creatures could spread across the whole surface. The spider shape can go almost anywhere, too. I mean, how many places are there on Earth where there are NO spiders? They're almost the perfect life form! For a certain definition of "perfect" I mean. The truth is, I really don't like the things. But that shouldn't stop us from thinking about a creative and interesting solution to our problem. What do you mean, "What problem?" Didn't I already explain that? The problem of what happens to the human race if a giant space rock smacks into the Earth again? Or a super volcano blows up. Or a solar flare strips away half the Earth's atmosphere. Or Godzilla rises from the depths along with a whole bunch of his hungry children. Options! We need options! Also, it's a fascinating problem. And there are a couple aspects of it that we haven't even discussed yet. No, more than a couple. Three? Five? One of those is simple. How does having a bunch of giant spiders running around Mars help us settle the place? There are a couple ways. One is in their instincts. Mars has water but it’s not free flowing like rivers and stuff. Mostly, it's probably under the surface. The spiders will be better than us humans at sniffing it out. So if we follow them, or better yet tag and trace them, they'll help us map out where the water is. That's going to be very important for any humans trying to live on Mars. So many things are easier with water than without. Like not dying of thirst, for instance. If we're going to tag our spiders, maybe we could put cameras on them, too. Or some other kind of sensor. There are things we'll want to find other than water. Minerals of all kinds, maybe. Mars has a lower density than Earth, meaning it probably lacks very much of heavy things like lead and gold. But it has iron! And potassium, magnesium, silicon and aluminum⁴ to name just a few. Those are all useful to a high tech society. And maybe to living things like spiders. There's also calcium, mostly locked up in volcanic rock which Mars has a lot of. Calcium makes bones. It's good to have. And that's just scratching the surface, so to speak. I'm thinking those Martian spiders are going to be very useful to us. And I plan to milk that - I mean explore and explain the concepts here, for at least a couple more columns, with possible breaks in between to address some tech-newsy items, besides. Stay tuned for the next Technoscreed, when we're going to discuss making Mars more like Earth. That's called terraforming and it's wild! Here's that prompt: "A scene on Mars featuring a Mars rover with a helicopter-like drone flying nearby. In the background, several primitive hominids, resembling early human ancestors with simple, rugged features and primitive clothing, are gathered around, laughing and pointing at the rover. The Martian landscape is dusty and barren with reddish-orange soil, and the sky has a pale pink hue. The scene has a humorous tone, contrasting the advanced technology of the rover with the primitive curiosity of the hominids." Small personal note: I like to write these things a week or more ahead of time. That way I have less pressure to get something written and also a little time to do research. Yes, I've been researching Mars and spiders for this series. But I'm a bit behind schedule with this one because I have covid. It's a mild case this time. Not like last time when I was miserable for a couple weeks! But it still means I'm prone to unexpected nap attacks, which has really cut in to my writing time. Not to mention my thinking time. Anyway, I'm still on schedule and I think this column is no more incoherent than usual. Maybe by next week I'll be back to normal. What do you think? 1 Well, sort of. The meteor that hit about 65 million years ago probably triggered one or two super volcanoes. Plus, it probably sent up a dust plume that turned the weather cold and gloomy for years afterwards. Those things combined, changed the world enough that the dinosaurs couldn't adapt. It's not like they all looked up one day, shouted, "Meteor!" And dropped dead. 2 If you don't get the reference to Bruce Willis and meteors, you probably have better taste in movies than I do. Anyway, here: Armageddon. Don’t say I never gave you anything. 3 Actually, the first Mars rover, Sojourner, sent more than 20 years ago, cost a bit over a quarter of a billion, though in current terms, adjusting for inflation, it was the equivalent of half a billion now. Costs of the rovers have gone up for technological reasons, not just inflation. It should also be mentioned that we don't have cost numbers for the rover mainland China put on Mars a few years ago. 4 There's a lot of stuff on Mars that might be useful. See Composition of Mars for a better profile. David Vandervort is a writer, software engineer, science and tech nerd (People still use the word ‘nerd’ don’t they?) and all around sarcastic guy. If you liked this article, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription. |