What would it take to green the red planet? For starters, a massive amount of global warming.
Could we “terraform” Mars—that is, transform its frozen, thin-aired surface into something more friendly and Earthlike? Should we? The first question has a clear answer: Yes, we probably could. Spacecraft, including the ones now exploring Mars, have found evidence that it was warm in its youth, with rivers draining into vast seas. And right here on Earth, we’ve learned how to warm a planet: just add greenhouse gases to its atmosphere. Much of the carbon dioxide that once warmed Mars is probably still there, in frozen dirt and polar ice caps, and so is the water. All the planet needs to recapture its salad days is a gardener with a big budget.
January 25th, 2010
Making Mars the New Earth National Geographic
August 28th, 2009
Robot Designed to Help Earth Plants Grow on Mars TreeHugger
Well, it’s good to know that in the event that our planet collapses under the weight of climate change, overpopulation, a water crisis, nuclear holocaust or whatever, there are designers out there already preparing for life on Mars. If we do indeed set out to colonize Mars, the first thing we’re going to need is ample breathable oxygen. Enter Le Petit Prince, a greenhouse robot designed to keep plants safe while scavenging for more nutrients. More pics and a video of the robot in action after the jump.
July 16th, 2007
Mexican volcano is test bed for trees on Mars
Scientists are using the pine-forested slopes of a Mexican volcano as a test bed to see if trees could grow on a heated-up Mars, part of a vision of making the chilly and barren red planet habitable for humans one day. Planetary scientists at NASA and Mexican universities believe if they can warm Mars using heat-trapping gases, raise the air pressure and start photosynthesis, they could create an atmosphere that would support oxygen-breathing life forms. Getting trees growing would be a crucial step.
June 25th, 2007
Scientist Calls Mars a Terraforming Target for the 21st Century
Mars will be transformed into a shirt-sleeve, habitable world for humanity before century’s end, made livable by thawing out the coldish climes of the red planet and altering its now carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.
How best to carry out a fast-paced, decade by decade planetary facelift of Mars – a technique called “terraforming” – has been outlined by Lowell Wood, a noted physicist and recent retiree of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a long-time Visiting Fellow of the Hoover Institution.
Lowell presented his eye-opening Mars manifesto at Flight School, held here June 20-22 at the Aspen Institute, laying out a scientific plan to “experiment on a planet we’re not living on.”
August 18th, 2005
Merlot is from Mars South African WineNews
Imagine strolling between vineyard rows thriving in the rusty red soils of Mars, or sipping that maiden Martian vintage. Since humans have advanced from rudimentary cave dwellers to explorers of space, Leonie Joubert considers whether the next fashionable terroir might, quite literally, be out of this world.
April 6th, 2005
Using global warming to create conditions for life on Mars MarsToday.com
Injecting synthetic “super” greenhouse gases into the Martian atmosphere could raise the planet’s temperature enough to melt its polar ice caps and create conditions suitable for sustaining biological life. In fact, a team of researchers suggests that introducing global warming on the Red Planet may be the best approach for warming the planet’s frozen landscape and turning it into a habitable world in the future.
March 30th, 2005
Student’s project out of this world Orlando Sentinel
At 18, Matthew Draper might just have an answer for which NASA and others have searched for years. “This is the answer to how we [could] live on Mars,” he said of his science fair project, the result of two years of hard work, $44,000 worth of equipment donated by a national company, $2,000 from another company and $2,000 of his own money. The Eustis High School senior said this is the second year he has taken his project to the Lake County Science Fair.
March 22nd, 2005
Rock dust grows extra-big vegetables (and might save us from global warming) The Independent
For years scientists have been warning of an apocalyptic future facing the world. With the prospect of an earth made infertile from over-production and mass reliance on chemicals, coupled with an atmosphere polluted by greenhouse gases there seems little to celebrate. But belief is growing that an answer to some of the earth’s problems are not only at hand, but under our feet. Specialists have just met in Perth to discuss the secrets of rock dust, a quarrying by-product that is at the heart of government-sponsored scientific trials and which, it is claimed, could revitalise barren soil and reverse climate change.
March 2nd, 2005
Reflected Light To Save Earth From Natural Disasters RIA Novosti
This spring two Russian satellites will be orbited with the task of blocking natural disasters and lighting certain spots on the Earth’s surface. They will use the simple method of reflected light from thin-filmed space reflectors, writes Moskovsky Komsomolets. According to Aerospace Systems, thin-filmed reflectors are a kind of a sail made of modern materials that feel like a mixture of foil and cellophane. The most difficult task is to open the 25m sail in space. It is believed that the miracle sail will be able to correct weather, sending reflected light and warming the clouds to ensure good weather for a football match, for example.