Terraforming Mars?

Question

Know anything about it? Any interesting facts? Websites?

Answer 1

Zubrin and McKay wrote a scientific paper on what it would take to terraform Mars. I didn't understand half the math, (my short-comings, not theirs) but the concepts were pretty interesting.
The main goal is to create a more appropriate atmosphere. They suggested a few ways to do this including: 1.Smash a couple of big, methane-rich asteroids onto the planet. The methane would act as a greenhouse gas, warm the planet, melt the polar ice caps and you're on your way. 2. Build factories on the surface of Mars that will produce greenhouse gasses. This will eventually warm it up, melt ice and off you go. 3. Station large mirrors in a geosynchronous orbit at the poles to direct the sun's heat there. This would melt water and release CO2, warming up the planet.
The bottom line is to warm it up enough to melt water. Then you can get some photosynthetic bacteria to do their thing and after a few thousand years you would have enough oxygen to get some higher life forms going.
They also speculated that we have the technology to do some of this now, or would have it in the next 10-50 years.
I hope this helps!

Answer 2

What about all the terraforming going on here on Earth?

If we ever get the ability to do that with mere colonists then imagine what the 40 billion on the home planet could do..

Answer 3

While you sit there daydreaming about terraforming Mars, the Venusians are actually happily hard at work venusiforming Earth.

You think it's US that's causing global warming? Think again.

Answer 4

I've read sci-fi books for years that go on about it. See this article and links at the end.

Obviously you need certain things on mars, like an atmosphere, water and food, but lets get our priorities right and wire it up for broadband first.

Answer 5

Ben Bova has some very good books on the subject of Mars exploration and terraforming.
You might want to lool into them.

Answer 6

http://www.enterprisemission.com/