Planetary science - biology

Hello @ all,

I'm also into space exploration and I thought about bacterial
terraforming. I know it will be far in the future, not in the next
decades... So it's very hypothetically.
Just thought it may be interessting for some of you too, so I share my
thoughts...

There have been experiments suggesting that lichens could survive
Martian conditions...

Mars is the most friendly and still nearest planet we know.
Yet the problem about Mars is that there is too less pressure in most
areas to make water be liquid.
But there's one region, Hellas Planitia, which is far below the
standard topographic datum of Mars.
Water could be liquid there (11.55 mbar). When water conitains much
salt, studies showed, it will be liquid also up to -50 degrees
Celsius!

If you wold put bacteria there, that create atmosphere, there would be
more pressure globally thus bacteria could spread all over the
planet.
How bacteria could create an atmosphere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denitrification

It's the opposite of nitrification, and releases Nitrogen and in some
cases also nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere. Nitrous oxides are also
very effective greenhouse gasses that fit perfectly to rise global
avarage temperatures from -50°C to maybe some -30 or -20°C. That means
that in sumer around the equator, temperatures will get friendly (even
nowadays at the eqator in summer you get +20 to +25°C!! )
Nitrogen is very common in rocks and soil on terrestrial planets
(Earth, Mars, Venus) so it would surely be abundant enough to create a
thick atmosphere.

What bacterium would fit best?
It should: denitrificate (exotherm or endotherm?) , maybe also use
fotosynthesis, survive at low pressures (should be no problem), in
very salty water, at cold temperatures. It should be also able to
survive radiation as UV and radioactive rays...
A high growth rate would also be very good.

I'd like to hear some of your thoughts on that topic...

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