 Terraforming and The Darian
Calendar
 The
concept of terraforming was introduced to me when I was still at highschool.
The late great Carl Sagan got my head into the sulfuric clouds with his
suggestion that simply seeding the right bacteria into the atmosphere of
Venus would be enough to start a remarkable transformation. The closest thing
to hell in the whole solar system (except maybe for the sun) could be turned
into at least a twin Earth and possibly even a new Garden of Eden. With pencils
and crayons, my tools in those primitive days, I made the first geographic
map of Earth's lost sister. Much later I found out that Sagan had made his
proposal before the pressure and composition of the atmosphere became fully
known; besides, I also underestimated the problems you get when a day is
almost as long as a year, like is the case on Venus.
 These
days, our neighbour on the other side, Mars, looks more promising. Mars is
a lot smaller than Earth, but even in it's present state I would prefer this
little red world with it's somewhat cold, but mostly sunny weather above
the oppressive heat on Venus. But can we turn Mars into a little paradise
and how long would it take? And when will we have the necessary technology
at an affordable price? The answer is that nobody can give more than a rough
estimation about how long terraforming Mars might take. But whereas some
of these estimations predict a duration of many thousands of years, some
others are more optimistic.
 In
his article
"Bringing life to Mars" in Scientific American (spring 1999) Christopher
McKay suggests that the local production of "super-greenhouse gasses" like
CF4, C2F6 or SF6, would be a surprisingly easy and efficient way to make
Mars' atmosphere a little warmer. And after this small rise in temperature,
CO2 released from the permafrost and the poles would do the rest. All the
planet needs is a little push in the right direction, or so it seems. McKay
mentions a ten year period to defrost Mars and a sixty year period for a
rise to a comfortable average of 15 degrees centigrade. He adds however that
this is the most optimistic scenario; periods up to ten times longer are
more likely. Still this sounds encouraging: most of us would be able to see
a considerable change on the Red Planet within our own lifetimes.
 After
this first stage of terraforming Mars will not be an Earthlike planet with
breathable air, but a world with a carbon dioxide atmosphere where plants
could live but humans would still need to wear CO2-masks. The plants would
eventually convert the atmosphere into a more Earthlike environment, and
that second stage might take much longer than the first. But by the time
this becomes an issue genetic engineering might have developed "super-convertors"
to speed up the process.
 The most
fascinating idea is that terraforming could start today; according to McKay,
all it takes is a few hundred "Volkswagen-sized" solar-powered greenhouse
units. That wouldn't cost more than a few billion dollars; wealthy citizens
like Bill Gates or Ted Turner could afford it... When the first NASA-crew
arrives around 2019 they may get a big surprise...
 Once
the technical problems have been solved we'll run up against some ethical
dilemma's. Do we have the right, after what we've done to our own planet,
to go and devastate other worlds? Shouldn't we solve the problems on our
homeworld first before we start messing with other planets? In Kim Stanley
Robinson's Red, Green and Blue Mars Trilogy Red "ecoteurs" even resort to
terrorist methods to try and stop the greening of Mars.
 These
objections should of course be taken seriously. The last couple of centuries
show that the application of technology whenever it becomes available doesn't
necessary guarantee a beneficial effect on nature, or on human wellbeing.
But I also think these "Red" argumentations are based on a too pessimistic
view of mankind. From the ricefields of Bali to the polders of Holland and
from the temples of Bangkok to the Manhattan skyline, "we" have also done
a lot of beautiful things on this planet. Can't we assume that greening the
Red Planet will result in some equally stunning Martian counterparts?
And of course the problems on our home planet deserve our full attention,
but Mars may be part of the solution for those problems. What this world
needs right now is a new world...
 As
a matter of fact, let's not overestimate our own part. We may give this first
push in the right direction, and provide some additional material, but Mars
will largely terraform itself (or should I say areoform?).. We'll never be
able to change it's size and it's gravity. The four supervolcanoes and Valles
Marineris will always dwarf anything on Earth. It's unlikely that Mars' oceans
will ever take up a large portion of the surface and as a result the climate
will be dryer than on Earth. Mars will never be a duplicate of our home
world.
 Anyway,
no matter if terraforming really is an option, if it's ethical or not, and
how long it will actually take, there's no doubt that somewhere in the 21st
century people will start living on Mars. The population pressure on Earth
will become so big that a mere reduction of launch cost will get humanity
spread through the Solar system. And Mars, with it's beautiful landscapes
and gentle gravity will be one of the most attractive destinations.
 Like
any off-Earth community, this coming Martian society will need a system of
timekeeping: a clock and a calendar. You'd get pretty confused if you'd use
a 24 hour clock to measure a 24.6 hour day (or sol, as the Martians say)
or a 365 day calendar to measure a 669 sol year. People have been designing
calendars and clocks for Mars for almost a century; an extensive overview
of these efforts can be found on Tom Gangale's
Martian
Time Website.
 Tom
is also the man behind the Darian Calendar, a system of 24 months, most of
them having 28 sols. At the end of every sixth month one sol is dropped,
except at the end of the 24th month which can have a leap sol, to keep in
pace with Mars' orbit, that refuses to completely adapt to human standards.
A fascinating feature of the Darian Calendar is it's regularity: every date
on the calendar is invariably linked to a fixed day of the week. Imagine
how easy life on Mars would be, never having to wonder again: on which day
is, say, the third of next month? The full story of the Darian Calendar can
be read in Tom's
document
on his own site.
 Tom
uses alternating Roman and Sanskrit names of constellations to name the months.
Although I like this ambition to make east and west meet, I thought I could
come up with an even better system. After all, twenty-four months mean a
lot of new names to remember for newcomers. For this scheme, which I dubbed
the Rotterdam Month and Weekday Naming System I've created artificial names
based on alphabetical order. Other tricks, like the U in fall and winter
monthnames and the alternating vowels and consonants at the end of the names,
or the relation of the length of the names with Mars orbital velocity, make
it easy to position the months in relation with each other. A full explanation
of the Rotterdam system can be found in the
article
I wrote for the Martian Time Website.
 The
events of reading McKays Terraforming-article and creating the Rotterdam
naming system happened within weeks from each other. Remembering the activities
with crayons and pencils in my highschool days, and realizing that nowadays
I have much more powerful tools at my disposal, a brilliant idea entered
my mind: an illustrated calendar! It all fell into place when I realized
that the number of 24 not only provides a variety of ways to divide a year
into smaller units. It also can be used to divide the global map of Mars
into logical sections, each linked to a month of the year. This brainwave
got me into an awful lot of work which finally resulted in this Darian Defrost
Calendar.
 These
maps owe a lot to The United States Geological Survey and their Planetary
Data System. Their excellent
PDS-website
provided me with the raw material for the maps. Coastlines and other
topographically sensitive data are based on a more recent source: the map
created by the Mars Orbital Laser Altometer onboard Mars Global Surveyor,
first published in May of 1999. So far there's little more than wild estimations
about the total quantity of water on Mars, and about the technical feasibility
of getting water from elsewhere; therefore I just picked an altitude that
resulted in an interesting coastline; I also assumed that with most of the
southern hemisphere draining into Hellas, the water level in this basin would
become considerably higher than in the northern seas.
 The
whole navigation system on this site is based on the Rotterdam names, but
I've put in parentheses Tom's original names as well as the names according
to Alan Hensel who also developed a different system (only a beautiful name
like Quadruvernalis makes it already worth mentioning).
 I
felt that this illustrated calendar wouldn't be complete without the listing
of historical events that mark important moments in the development of Mars,
so I also invented a future history to go with
it. Some people may say I'm staying on the optimistic side about the
time schedule, but I love the idea that I only have to become hundred
and fifty years old to be able to breath Martian air... As far as the
events in this future history are concerned, they do not necessarily coincide
with my favourite scenario, just like Kim Stanley Robinson is probably not
really looking forward to a violent struggle between Greens and Reds. It's
rather an exploration of events that might occur and risks that could threaten
Martian society. Several of the world's great powers still claim parts of
Antarctica, so will they keep there greedy hands off Mars, once they realize
there's something to get there?
 There
is no Rotterdam-like system behind the naming of towns and regions. Whatever
will happen on Mars in the next centuries, topographic names will follow
their own logic and a great deal of coincidence will determine which places
Martians will call "home". Some of the names on these maps are already existing
denominations of features on the planet, some are obviously named after persons
that are still alive, or even unborn, today and that the future Martians
may want to honour. Some places are, inevitably, named after places on Earth
and some places have mysterious names of unknown origin even to myself. Some
names are based on the assumption that the New Martians will have a sense
of humor. And although I managed to smuggle in some personal favourites (if
you look carefully you may get to know my favourite Belgian beer brand as
well as my favourite Hindu God), no conclusions should be drawn from any
names found here...
 Rotterdam,
the Netherlands, Earth, 2 Medior 12 / 24 June 1999
|
More
about Mars, Time and Terraforming:
The
Darian Calendar created by Tom Gangale
Month
and weekday names, maps and page layout by
Frans Blok , applet by Tom Gangale, Alan
Hensel and Frans Blok
