Hi everybody. I am back with my second post.

Now, we know that we are really cutting it close by continously spewing great amounts of harmful gases into the atmosphere. Stopping this destructive habit is gonna take some while, in the meantime we will hav to discuss other topics.

We have to find ano0ther planet, another home, a step-planet, if the human race is to survive. We will start our quest with the obvious option - MARS.

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. Mythologically, Mars is the God of war. This name maybe due to its reddish color. The name of the month March is derived from Mars.

Air.

Oxygen. While there is a thin layer of atmosphere on Mars, it is painfully deficient in oxygen. Only 0.15% of the air is Oxygen, and most of it is Carbon Dioxide. This is bad news. But there is also a plus point. If we learn to oxygenise this CO2, then we will have an abundant supply of oxygen. Nature has given us a natural way of doing this - trees. This is a very wide topic, and before branching into this, i would like to give some more points some thought.

Water.

There are countless rumors which say that the Martian surface has water. But many robotic missions by NASA and other space corporations, have failed to find real water. They have found ice caps which contain water, though. To make water by combining 2 molecules of oxygen and 1 molecule of hydrogen is theoratically plausible, but practically it is unthinkable, because of the losses incurred in terms of energy and finance. There are two possible methods through which the future human society can find water. One way is to search the polar ice caps, scientists say that they are more than likely to contain water, not just dry ice. But this would mean that the humans have to settle near the ice caps, which is physically impossible for the humans, as the temperatures can drop to minus hundred and thirty degrees near the poles. Second method is to search underground. They can find more than water there.

Energy.

Energy is one thing i am not worried about on Mars. Beneath the Martian surface we may find all the things which we fight for here on earth, like, water, coal, petroleum, natural gas, gold, mineral etc. The planet's geology is very similar to that of earth. There is one difference. There are no tectonic plates. But this is out of our topic of conversation.
Another way to harness energy is Solar Power. The solar energy wont be as powerful as it can be on earth due to earths proximity towards the sun, but the solar energy will be an important source of energy.

Temperature.

The temperature range is extreme. Days can get as hot as 27 degrees near the equator during a martian summer. So the best place to settle would be near the equator. Water would have to be got from underground. Temperature is the main reason why Venus lost in its race to compete as our next home. As Venus is very close to the Sun, the temperatures can reach 600 degrees.

Relief.

The martian surface is rugged and is torn by ridges and valleys. There are innumerable craters the largest of which is the Hellas Planitia. It is 6km deep and over 2000km in diameter. Mars also contains the largest mountain in the solar system, housing the Olyumpus Mons, which is 24km or 78000 ft in length. Its base is 500km wide. Tharsis is a huge bulge in the martian surface which is 10 km high and 4000km across. And there is of course the famous face on Mars.
Mars has some of the most spectacular terrain in the solar system.

Mars has two tiny satellites, Phobos and Deimos. They are potato shaped objects that dont have the charm that our own moon has on our hearts. But these satellites can be used as refilling stations and can be explored for metallurgical purposes.

From here on i will branch off into vaious topics such as housing, multitasking( will explain later), oxygen supplies, calendar for Mars, food supplies, energy supplies and medical emergencies, and how to begin the transformation of Mars into Earth. A complete transformation by mother nature will take billions of years, maybe humans can accomplish it in two thousand.
Rohit.

Step-planet.

Hi everyone. This is my first posting at the 'Heavenly bodies' blog. The name of the blog brings to fore a myriad of thoughts, but this blog is mainly about the real heavenly bodies, no way related to women. Here, i will discuss about all the planets in the solar system, their satellites and one more important topic.

In this blog i want to talk about the possibility of living under a different atmosphere. If humans are forced to live on a different planet, what would be the means to achieve that end. I will discuss various ideas of my own, which will help a future settlement of humans to make a habitat on a different planet.

It might feel ludicruous to discuss this topic, but with Kyoto protocol notwithstanding, and the US govt. resolutely and dumbly not giving any heed to the growing signs of global warming, an exile to Mars is not very far off in the future. We are slowly decaying our beautiful planet, and i would like this blog to be a sign of coming times. A sign of coming hardships, if we do not stop this mass suicide attempt.

For, whatever is happening to the planet is our own fault. Some may pass it as mass extinction theory - the way the dinosaurs died out, we will eventually too. But i think that is escapism. They do not want to come face to face with the fact that we are sliding towards our doom, and for all we know, we might have just missed the last niche to hold on to.

I am not trying to be cynical nor pessimistic, but i am trying to make a world where there would be no use for a blog of this kind. A perfect world. But as a perfect world is fictional even beyond the limits of this blog itself, i will continue my next post with the topic of our solar system, the different bodies loating around in it, and which planet might be the next best habitat for the humans after earth is choked with CO2.
Rohit.