Martian Gaiaformation: a few proposals

Here are a few proposals for Martian Gaiaformers:

1. Turn poo into electricity on the voyage over! http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/astronaut_electricity_040519.html

2. Build MELISSA, a micro (picture at http://www.space.com/images/melissa_explained_0108_02.gif), a Micro Ecological Life Support Alternative. I prefer to call it a Gaian Agent myself.

3. Plant a tree in a Mars meteor, and pray it'll grow. ("Rummel suggests a more pragmatic approach to finding out whether plants could grow in Martian soil: Bring the soil back to Earth. "If we're going to challenge Earth organisms with Mars soil," he said, we could do it with returned samples.

Mike Meyer, NASA's Astrobiology Discipline Scientist, agrees with Rummel. He believes that it's important to take a step-by-step approach to understanding the potential for life on Mars. "If we learn enough about the soil on Mars," said Meyer, "we can simulate Mars here. Then we'd know what we want to test. Otherwise, we'd end up saying, 'Golly, it died, now what?'")

See http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_seed_010514.html

4. Go caving on Mars for Gaia (a translucent, inflatable balloon could be used to seal openings while still allowing light in. Settlers might then fill the cave with oxygen. Add a little water and an entire ecosystem might be possible. See http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_caves_000321.html

5. Practice humanure http://www.weblife.org/humanure/default.html, an entire 302 pages of crap.