XPost: alt.astronomy, alt.fan.heinlein
Well, I suppose if we didn't have some pretty far-fetched ideas
out there, we might never hear of some good plans.
It just seems that without our magnetic core / tectonics
giving protection from solar rays and solar wind, it seems
hopeless.
from
https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/turning-the-red-planet-green-its-time-to-take-terraforming-mars-seriously-scientists-say
Turning the Red Planet green? It's time to take terraforming Mars
seriously, scientists say
News
By Stefanie Waldek published June 2, 2025
New research suggests that the idea of transforming the Red Planet might
not be so far-fetched after all.
Comments (32)
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Artist's illustration depicting the terraforming of Mars — turning
into a more Earth-like world.
A visualization of what Mars might look like over time, if humans
managed to terraform the planet. (Image credit: Daein Ballard, CC BY-SA)
The concept of terraforming Mars — transforming the planet's climate to support life as we know it — has long belonged to the realm of science fiction. But a new study argues that it's time to take the idea seriously.
"Thirty years ago, terraforming Mars wasn't just hard — it was
impossible," said Erika DeBenedictis, CEO of Pioneer Labs and lead
author of the new paper. "But new technology like [SpaceX's] Starship
and synthetic biology have now made it a real possibility."
The paper debates the complex ethical questions that must be considered
if we're to terraform Mars and lays the blueprint for a potential path
forward.
You may like
New documentary 'Children of the Sky' asks the bold question: Can we
raise kids in space? (op-ed)
Satellites are polluting Earth's atmosphere with heavy metals. Could
refueling them in orbit help?
Can we actually build a thriving economy on and around the moon?
"Advocates argue that more life is better than less, and terraforming
Mars could mark humanity's first act of planetary stewardship with a net positive environmental impact," said DeBenedictis.
Click here for more Space.com videos...
Why terraform Mars?
Put succinctly, "living planets are better than dead ones," said study co-author Edwin Kite, an associate professor at the University of
Chicago. "We now know that Mars was habitable in the past, from data
returned by the Mars rovers, so greening Mars could be viewed as the
ultimate environmental restoration challenge."
Though full terraforming may take centuries, if not millennia, the
long-term goal would be a Mars with stable liquid water, breathable
oxygen and a thriving ecosystem. In the short term, this might mean only
small patches of microbial life; in the distant future, there could
perhaps be human cities on the planet.
And if we reach the scale of cities, perhaps that's a stepping stone to
even more significant exploration for our species. "As we move out into
the galaxy, we will need base camps, and a base camp on the scale of the
galaxy is a habitable planet," said Kite.
Get the Space.com Newsletter
Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching
events and more!
Your Email Address
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands
Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors
By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and
Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
For co-author Robin Wordsworth, a professor of environmental and
planetary science at Harvard, the argument for terraforming Mars goes
beyond human colonization to the propagation of life in general.
"I see humanity as part of the biosphere, not separate from it," he
said. "Life is precious — we know of nowhere else in the universe where
it exists — and we have a duty to conserve it on Earth, but also to
consider how we could begin to propagate it to other worlds."
What about Earth?
It's not all about looking beyond the bounds of Earth; terraforming Mars
could also help us solve climate and sustainability challenges at home, advocates say.
Nina Lanza, a planetary scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and
a co-author on the paper, sees Mars as a prime testbed for planetary engineering.
"If we want to learn how to modify our environment here on Earth, to
keep it in a configuration that suits us and other life forms, maybe it
would be better to experiment on Mars and say, 'Look, does this work?'"
she said. "I personally would like to be a little more conservative with
our home planet. This is the only place we can live."
There are technological lessons to be learned, too.
"Concretely, developing and adopting green technology on Earth often
falters because it must compete with dirtier alternatives that benefit
from decades of infrastructure investment and entrenched interests,"
said DeBenedictis. "Mars is a unique target market because it has no
oil, no existing infrastructure and no status quo. For this reason,
developing green technologies for space is a powerful strategy for
maturing it for use on Earth."
Why not terraform Mars?
But we should take a few lessons from "Jurassic Park" when thinking
about terraforming, some scientists say: Before asking, "Could we?" we
need to ask, "Should we?"
"If we decide to terraform Mars, then we will really change it in ways
that may or may not be reversible," said Lanza. "Mars is its own planet
and has its own history. When we terraform, then we effectively don't
have the opportunity to study that anymore, and we may lose knowledge
about how planets form and evolve."
Most dramatically, we may destroy potential evidence of ancient Martian
life, if such evidence exists.
"If we modify the environment on Mars, we're going to change the
chemistry of the surface and of the subsurface, eventually," said Lanza, pointing out that such actions might erase any traces of life on Mars.
"I can't say for certain. It's very complicated, but it's a risk."
How to terraform Mars
Terraforming Mars would require massive changes, namely the warming of
the planet to support both oxygen-producing microbes and liquid water.
While all the technologies to terraform Mars are not yet available, the
authors of the paper propose three phases of development.
First, scientists would use abiotic climate engineering techniques —
such as deploying reflective solar sails, dispersing nanoparticles, or
laying aerogel tiles — to warm the surface by at least 30 degrees
Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), enough to melt subsurface ice and
release trapped carbon dioxide. This warming would thicken the Martian atmosphere and potentially support the presence of stable liquid water.
The second phase would introduce extremophile microbes — likely
anaerobic and genetically engineered ones — capable of surviving in
Mars' harsh conditions and kickstarting ecological succession. These
organisms would begin producing oxygen and organic matter, slowly
altering planetary chemistry.
The third and longest phase would focus on building a complex biosphere, increasing atmospheric pressure and oxygen content to eventually support
more advanced plant life, and, in the very long term, potentially allow
humans to breathe unassisted.
Related stories:
— Could we really terraform Mars?
— New Mars terraforming idea: engineered, heat-absorbing dust nanoparticles
— Bad news for terraforming: Mars' atmosphere is lost in space
Next steps
The study's authors agree: If we're to have any chance of terraforming
Mars, we must move forward on multiple fronts simultaneously.
"Answering the question of when and how to start making other worlds
habitable requires a clear understanding of the costs and benefits,
which can only be adequately assessed based on a combination of theory
and experiments, with input from diverse fields including physics,
chemistry, materials science and biology," said Kite.
Right now, we need to continue to study Mars. Lanza advocates for the
Mars Sample Return mission, a NASA-European Space Agency campaign to
bring home material collected on the Red Planet by the Perseverance rover.
"The samples are incredibly well documented and analyzed to the best of
our ability on Mars," she said. "Now we need to bring those back,
because that's going to help us answer some of these fundamental
questions. What is Mars made out of? Are there traces of life?"
And, as we continue to visit the Red Planet, we can put terraforming
concepts into practice.
"Upcoming Mars surface missions in 2028 or 2031 should include
small-scale experiments to de-risk terraforming strategies, such as
warming localized regions," said DeBenedictis.
Then, of course, we need to continue to innovate new technologies that
will allow us to terraform Mars in the future.
All this is to say, while fully terraforming Mars might take
generations, the decisions start now.
"This is how we get from the imagination and the concept to some reality
that has totally changed our world," said Lanza. "We should really keep
doing science — it's transformational."
The new study was published last month in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions,
night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment,
let us know at:
community@space.com.
Stefanie Waldek
Stefanie Waldek
Contributing writer
Space.com contributing writer Stefanie Waldek is a self-taught space
nerd and aviation geek who is passionate about all things spaceflight
and astronomy. With a background in travel and design journalism, as
well as a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University, she
specializes in the budding space tourism industry and Earth-based
astrotourism. In her free time, you can find her watching rocket
launches or looking up at the stars, wondering what is out there. Learn
more about her work at www.stefaniewaldek.com.
Read more
children in space suits float in space
New documentary 'Children of the Sky' asks the bold question: Can we
raise kids in space? (op-ed)
a Y-shaped spacecraft in orbit above earth
Satellites are polluting Earth's atmosphere with heavy metals. Could
refueling them in orbit help?
Use of the Earth's moon is on the agenda of multiple nations.
Can we actually build a thriving economy on and around the moon?
Artist's illustration of SpaceX Starships on Mars.
'Eventually, all life on Earth will be destroyed by the sun': Elon Musk explains his drive to colonize Mars
On a flat, slightly rocky ground, there is a sample tube laying there. A rover's wheel is seen toward the top right.
Mars Sample Return now! (op-ed)
An image of Mars
Mars is covered in evidence of ancient lakes, rain and snow — but
scientists aren't sure how that's possible
Latest in Mars
a red circle lies on top of a white surface
12-mile-tall volcano on Mars punches through clouds | Space photo of the
day for June 9, 2025
The nearly circular 75-mile-wide (120 kilometers) Deuteronilus Cavus
crater lies in a transitional zone between Mars' rugged southern
highlands and smoother northern lowlands.
European Mars orbiter spies crumbling crater 'soaked in layers of
Martian history' (photo)
An image of Mars.
What's at the center of Mars? Maybe the stench of rotten eggs
three orbs: earth, the moon and mars with the text "moon &
mars" between them
How to watch the 2025 Humans to the Moon & Mars Summit May 28 and 29 (video) Engineers conduct a thermal vacuum test with JAXA's MMX Mars moon sample-return spacecraft. JAXA posted this image on X on May 15, 2025.
Japan tests its Mars moon sample-return probe ahead of 2026 launch (photo)
On the road to Krokodillen: One of the navigation cameras on NASA’s Perseverance captured the rover’s tracks coming from an area called
“Witch Hazel Hill,” on May 13, 2025, the 1,503rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
Perseverance rover rolls onto 'Crocodile' plateau on Mars to hunt for
super-old rocks
Latest in News
a bronze and white rocket stands poised on its launch pad set against a
deep blue sky.
ULA launching Amazon's 2nd batch of Kuiper internet satellites today:
Watch live!
The Alters
'The Alters' is a genre-blending sci-fi survival ordeal about the
horrors of being a project manager
This Week in Space podcast 165 — Guardians of Space
This Week In Space podcast: Episode 163 — The Trials of Starship
Yellow text over a blue background
Star Trek actor William Shatner and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse team up
in new space bromance show 'The Universe Is Absurd'
Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle launches on the NS-25 crewed
suborbital mission, on May 19, 2024
Blue Origin reveals passengers for 13th space tourism launch
A yellow shape on a pink background
Go inside the development of NASA's $10 billion James Webb Space
Telescope with new 'Cosmic Dawn' documentary
Advertisement
Advertisement
MORE FROM SPACE...
Liftoff is scheduled for 1:25 p.m. EDT on Monday (June 16).
1
ULA launching Amazon's 2nd batch of Kuiper internet satellites today:
Watch live!
2
Juzihao Star Projector review
3
New model helps to figure out which distant planets may host life
4
Go inside the development of NASA's $10 billion James Webb Space
Telescope with new 'Cosmic Dawn' documentary
5
Astronomers discover ultrapowerful black hole jet as bright as 10
trillion suns lit by Big Bang's afterglow
Advertisement
Space is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)