Do you think we ever can, or will terraform Mars or any other planets? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Maybe, but there are a lot of challenges. One of the big ones is that Mars doesn't have much internal heat. Mars also has a very thin atmosphere and lacks accessible water.

There seems to be a solution to everything, though. Basically, the idea is to send intentionally polluting factories to Mars. They'll convert coal, etc. into CO2 - a greenhouse gas that makes the planet warmer. Second, we'd send big ol' mirrors to reflect more light onto Mars's surface. More light = more heat.

At that point, the temperature should be high enough that the polar caps melt. It's not much water, but it is something. If we send the seeds of a diverse variety of (esp. desert) plants all over the planet, some will surely start to grow. Photosynthetic algae could also be sent to Mars. They will convert CO2 into O2.

BUT Mars lacks a magnetosphere. Magnetospheres deflect high energy particles from the sun. This is what stripped it's atmosphere in the first place, and this is what will strip away any other atmosphere you give it.

It may be more possible to terraform Venus. Currently, the only *major* issue with terraforming Venus is that it has too much CO2 and, therefore, heat. It is, if you will, the extreme result of global warming. Perhaps some extreme bacteria would thrive in this environment. Let's assume that's true, it would take a very long time (10,000 years or longer) to terraform Venus.

Europa, a moon of Jupiter, is within a radiation belt. Otherwise, it would be perfect for terraforming - it is covered in water! I have read theories about smashing Europa into Mars. However, it has been suggested that Europa already has life on it, living under the ice.

So ... the big reason that I don't think we will terraform any planets? It's not cost effective for the people starting the process, only the people who finnish it. Most of the cost of terraforming is at the beginning and there is no way for there to be a return to the investors.

Therefore, the ONLY way to start a terraforming-sized project would be to have a religious or government entity decide it is in their own best interest. This could only reasonably occur if there was no other projects we could spend engineer's time on and we needed them to stay employed. Not likely.

Or Bill Gates could do it.

Answer 2

We can terraform Venus but not Mars. Mars has hardly any atmosphere and does not have enough mass to hold onto any significant atmosphere even if we were to put all of earths resources into giving it one.

Venus has plenty of atmosphere consisting of CO2, nitrogen and watervapour. The planet is just too hot. If it could be cooled down somehow (possibly with a huge sunblocker in between Venus and the sun) to the point where just some of that watervapour can condense and flow on the surface the soil would begin to violently react with the CO2 in the atmosphere, gobbling it all up to form carbonate rock. Venus would then be quite livable as the atmosphere would suddenly consist of mainly nitrogen gas and some CO2 at about 1 atmosphere of pressure. Just like another planet we all know and love...

-edit-
Oh and Richard:
The amount of sunlight that falls on just the Nevada desert contains enough energy, if converted to electricity via photovoltaics, to make the US completely independent of oil... So don´t give up just yet.

Answer 3

The only way I can foresee terraforming being accomplished would be through some combination of VERY advanced biotechnology and nanotechnology. These could be used to liberate the oxygen in the Martian soil into the air. In addition it would be useful to have very advanced spacecraft that could operate in the asteroid belt, the Kuyper belt and Oort cloud, capturing comets and asteroids and sending them into collision courses with Mars. That would add more water, mass, and gasses into the atmosphere.
So, yes I believe it could be done in the not too distant future, and it would probably take several centuries to complete the task.

But no, I don't believe it will be done. Our civilization is built on oil and oil is running out. There don't seem to be any good substitutes for oil, and as it becomes scarce, wars will be fought to possess it. No nation can allow its citizens to freeze in the dark. I cannot imagine the oil wars NOT going nuclear when facing the prospect of losing.

Answer 4

NO. This is not possible, and will not happen.

WHY?

Payload delivered to the surface of the Moon costs an estimated $100,000 per Pound. Mars which is the only
planet within reasonable distance, and having somewhat
friendly environmental characteristics (Not violently hot, or
having an acidic atmosphere, solid material surface - not
a gas giant planet) is many, many times the distance from
the Earth to the Moon.

Earth to Moon = 240,000 Miles
Earth to Mars = At closest approach 48,000,000 Miles
So the distance is roughly 200 Times as far,
and
Our estimates for travel time are 7 months as opposed to
3 or 4 Days to the Moon.

With all of that in mind...visualize the weight of say four large
BullDozers. Multiply that weight by $100,000 per pound times
200 ( difference in distance between Moon and Mars ) and
you begin to get the idea of the transportation cost for heavy
machinery to Mars.

Now that we have some vision of the costs to transport something that we know about and understand - for terraforming...also please consider the following:

1.) Machines here on Earth powered by Diesel Engines breathe oxygen to combust the diesel fuel and develop
horsepower for turning wheels and gears and hydraulic
pumps. There is no atmosphere on Mars for the diesel
engines to breathe (no oxygen). So none of the heavy
earth moving equipment we are accustomed to seeing
would be useable on the planet Mars. For the time being,
all equipment would have to be Solar Powered. This
necessity limits machinery to very small sizes which are
certainly not sufficient to do much "TERRAFORMING".

Of course, if you consider planting one flower pot full of soil
to be terraforming, we might have to back off of that earlier
statement. For all intents and purposes we will be unable to
do much of anything about the vast majority of the surface of Mars except junk it up a little bit with leftover transporter equipment.

If you have ever watched a rocket ship blast off from Earth on
TV or in a film deocumentary, please try and visualize a
rocket with one or two bull dozers mounted on top. Now the trick is to fire that rocket off into space at an Escape Velocity of around 25,000,000 Miles Per Hour.

Each bull dozer will have to be equipped with air tanks and fuel tanks suitable to run the equipment for say one year. Wow, that is a lot of fuel and air for all that equipment. Oh,
did I mention the temperatures on Mars? On really warm days it gets to around 70 Degrees F in the daytime. At night
in the Winter it goes down to Minus 195 Degrees F. So, at
night the bull dozers would have to have heaters running on
them all night long...more fuel and air needed. You will need to transport all of that fuel and air to the surface of Mars also.

None of this takes into consideration the manpower needed to drive and operate the machines, their air supply, water supply, food and expendable materials/supplies. All of that
will also have to be transported to the surface of Mars before any work can be started.

That sounds like a massive undertaking that none of us can fund in this century.

Answer 5

No. Mars is not in a condition to hold liquid water. The solar wind blew away the atmosphere. Its magnetic field shut down and cannot stop the solar wind from blowing off its atmosphere.

Answer 6

Think of Mars as a desert island.

Some rich dude wants to build a resort, but there is no water, plants or soil. So, he spends $ and imports soil. The island shrugs it off into the ocean. In order to build his resort, the rich dude has to dig an underground resort. It's certainly not the most popular place to go. He goes bankrupt.



Thank you! Thank you! You like me! You really like me!

Answer 7

I think we will.

Think back 500 years. Would the British, French or Spanish have ever imagined that they would transform the USA to the world power it is today?

Answer 8

If we can't do it here, what makes you think we could do it there?
Besides, Mars doesn't have enough gravity to hang onto an atmosphere for long.

Answer 9

Yes. It's a long term goal and it's not gonna happen in our lifetime.

Answer 10

whether we have the technology for this or not, it wouldn't be economically feasible. also, the results wouldn't be instant. it would years upon years, and some people don't want to have to wait that long.