I shudder to think how badly we'd fuck up an attempt to terraform a world. We're centuries away from being able to handle that degree of complexity with any reliability.

The only upside is that it -would- make for some nice experimental data on the dangers and gotchas of geo-engineering.

Hoax my ass, it is well known that 10,000 years ago the place I live in Alaska was under a mile of ice, and that bleeding heart liberal time travellers from the year 2050 arrived and started terraforming this entire hemisphere in order to prepare it for various forms of new taxation in our current era.

Nuclear weapons are tools, just like guns, and should be made legally attainable by the public for protection, deterrence and terraforming..

>> ^jwray:
Mars is not terraformable. Its gravity is too weak to hold water (literally) at earth-like temperatures. In theory we could send a shitload of methane and CO2 over there to warm it up, but that would escape into space rather quickly.
Titan has a similar situation (with half the escape velocity and a bit less than half the surface temperature of mars) but its atmosphere is probably constantly being replenished from frozen and liquid hydrocarbons in its mantle and cryovolcanism induced by tidal interactions with Saturn.


More to the point, because Mars doesn't have an active magma region to interact with the upper crust, Mars doesn't create much of a magnetic field. This would mean that even a Mars with a terraformed surface and a breathable atmosphere would still be subjected to potentially lethal solar radiation.

Mars is not terraformable. Its gravity is too weak to hold water (literally) at earth-like temperatures. In theory we could send a shitload of methane and CO2 over there to warm it up, but that would escape into space rather quickly.

Titan has a similar situation (with half the escape velocity and a bit less than half the surface temperature of mars) but its atmosphere is probably constantly being replenished from frozen and liquid hydrocarbons in its mantle and cryovolcanism induced by tidal interactions with Saturn.

I heard a plan for terraforming Mars described as simply as 'crash a couple of ice asteroids and set up a big solar mirror'. Easy!

There's no question that NASA's next job is getting a probe to that methane, and no funding request should be turned down to do it. Potentially era-defining discovery. I do think the video's a little optimistic.

This is awesome indeed. Since reading the Mars Trilogy of books, I've not been able to shake the wondrous idea of terraforming Mars... it would be wonderful indeed.

I dunno but with spore I can terraform pretty quick. Soooo lets get Will Wright on the phone, see what he thinks...

>> ^NinjaFish:
now what would take longer... Traveling to a VERY distant planet or terraforming mars? hmmmm... food for thought.


Hmm, Planetery changes occur over billions of year, yes? No doubt with human intervention, we can speed up the process, but just how much faster can we make it?

now what would take longer... Traveling to a VERY distant planet or terraforming mars? hmmmm... food for thought.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'spore, ea, maxis, space, aliens, creatures' to 'spore, ea, maxis, space, aliens, creatures, abduction, terraforming, lasers, giant bongs' - edited by my15minutes

I don't have time to watch the video right now, but I fail to see how there are ethical concerns with terraforming Mars. I don't see how it's any different than transforming the desert into a sprawling cityscape.

>> ^kronosposeidon:
...Trying to stop human expansion into new livable territory is like trying to hold back the tide with a broom...

Oh so true, and given the problems we have here we're not leaving any time soon. Still gives me hope that we're thinking about the ethics of such an act, however improbable. I'm a little confused about the indignation of the woman during the Q&A. I guess that's good too. Some one who cares so deeply for a planet. That's 2.5 AU from here. That's dead. Or just about dead. For a couple of billion years now.

I just watched the show "The Universe" last night, and the episode was all about man going to Mars. They also briefly discussed the ethical concerns about terraforming Mars. It's an interesting point, but I think it's moot because IF we are able to colonize and terraform Mars then it WILL happen. Trying to stop human expansion into new livable territory is like trying to hold back the tide with a broom.

The more important thing that needs to be addressed is "How do we colonize Mars without turning it into a toxic waste dump like we did to our home planet?"