Is it possible to terraform Mars at this point in history?

Question

I am curious what YOU think. Can it be done now? If not, when do you think it might be able to be done? I know large, planetary scale, terraforming might take a long time, but what about creating city sized enclosures and terraforming in there? What other planets and moons are realistic for terraforming? I was thinking like Mars, possibly the poles of Mercury, Ganymede, Triton. I am just very curious what others think about this topic.

Answer 1

This point in history. That is the question. We do it now or never. Human civilization currently enjoys the technical skills and has enough energy available from fossil fuels to successfully design and execute the project of mars colonization. Instead of wasting huge amounts of resources in wars and other stupid things we should concentrate in space exploration and the elimination of poverty and disease in our planet. Space exploration because it is the key to survival, resources in our planet are limited. And elimination of poverty and disease because human beings are unique and special in the universe and must protect ourselves to survive.

I am not sure of "terraforming". I am more pro of enclosed environments. Seems to be easier and cheaper. And Mars seem to have enough water to sustain such colonies.

What other planets are good candidates for terraforming. I think Venus is one of the best as someone already explained.

Answer 2

It will never be possible to terraform Mars unless we can figure out how to make it heavy enough to retain an atmosphere. Just heating the planet up will not do anything but make the gasses left in its thin atmosphere escape more easily. Venus is a much better bet. It has an atmosphere and all you have to do to make it earth like is to block out 88% of the sunlight. It would then begin a dramatic transformation all by itself. It would take some engineering but it is a much easier task then terraforming Mars as even today the earth is slightly shaded by satellites in L1. Do the same for Venus only in a much grander scale and you got yourself a second earth.

Answer 3

Right now we have neither the means nor the necessary understanding to get to Mars and then manage a successful terraforming operation. Even if we could get that far, any ecosystem would be artificial and require constant maintenance until life adapts to the conditions of Mars that we cannot change, ie the gravity and solar luminosity.

I do wonder though- what right to we have to go and ransack an alien environment, even if it is uninhabited (as far as we know)? What if it were destined to develop life sometime somehow in the far future, perhaps seeded in some natural manner (panspermia on Mars?). That could never occur if we have gotten there first.

Answer 4

Not really. Theres no or almost no atmosphere. The planet lost its magentic field so any atmosphere is stripped by solar radiation. You could set up some solar powered devices to convert CO2 to O2, but tehre still wouldnt be enough to breath. We would need to set up contained bases and pressurize them with converted air. But it could be done yes.
They are also debating on using biological terraforming on Mars since we have found bacteria that can grow in martian conditions which produces oxygen as waste.

Answer 5

We can improve the conditions on Mars more towards what we consider livable, but they'll never achieve a condition that we can live in, at least not without some sort of environmental support.
Enclosures would work; theoretically, they could be quite large, but on a planetary scale - at least in the case of Mars, no.