The Cheapest Way to Terraform Mars

Rather than hauling heavy atmospheric pumps from earth, the way to create a habitable atmosphere on Mars is to take advantage of its own topology, geography and nature.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• bigthink
• aol
• 5min

[L00NGB00W]

The prospect of nukeing a planet into a habitable zone is... quite interesting.

[coman5]

thumbs up if you've watched at least three of these Michio videos in a row :]

[RomanNumural9]

just bring 64 dirt blocks... sorry couldnt resist



[Fuxy22]

Would't mars's lack of a molten core be a problem? For one it would leave you exposed to solar radiation. That can't be too healthy. Also would't the solar wind interact with the atmosfere slowly blowing part of it into outer space. Ok I'm not certain on this I'm not convinced that it does or if it does what the quantity would be blown into outer space. Anyone got the answere?

[commofan88]

@coman5 I've watched about 10 of them

[masonTganes]

@coman5 BAZINGA!

[DimitrisMPapadakis]

DISAGREE ON THE PROPOSED TERRA-FORM VIEWS HERE. IT IS BEST TO INTRODUCE PHOTOSYNTHETIC BACTERIA. IT TAKES JUST ABOUT THE SAME TIME. SECONDLY, WE MUST ALSO CREATE AN OZONE LAYER. BOMBING MARS IS FOLLY. WE KNOW NOT OF WHAT WE DO OR ITS REPERCUSSIONS MOST OF THE TIME

[redelman43199]

@jimmywrangles The magnetosphere could be artificial. Scientists are already working on an artificial magnetosphere. Here is the BBC article news(.)bbc(.)co(.)uk(/)2(/)hi(­/)6567709(.)stm

[Polydynamix]

Why not a large solar array in orbit above, condensing maybe 10,000 square feet into a nice 20 foot diameter beam, and aiming it to the surface?

[ShiroKage009]

@basketballjocks Introduce photosynthesizing life forms into the waters of the planet when the temperature seems to reach the about-right zone. Something like rapidly-growing cyanobacteria and algae among others to found a bases of some ecosystem. Maybe even plant trees there that can take on the soil and what have you.

[jmw1500]

@RAYNE0912 Ya that makes sense. It would be simple to take parts of the asteroid belt and use it to add mass to Mars. The genetic engineering will be an odd step though. It seems like any form of adaptation in that way would cause speciation. So theoretically in the future it would be possible to have literal martians as a different race than ours.

[jimmywrangles]

Sure you could raise the temperature but for what purpose, Mars doesn't have enough of a magnetic field to protect it from the sun so nothing could ever live on the surface anyway.

I'm surprised Dr Kaku didn't mention this fact.