Link to the science paper
Terraforming Mars—changing the planet so humans could live there—is far more difficult than it first seemed. Scientists now think it will not be possible anytime soon. Research by Slava Turyshev explains why.
Mars today is extremely cold and has very thin air, so humans would need full life-support systems. One early goal would be to raise the pressure above the “triple point” of water (about 6.1 millibars), where ice, liquid water, and vapor can exist together. A more practical step might be building large pressurized greenhouses for farming, a method called paraterraforming.
True planetary terraforming would require much higher pressure—at least 62.7 millibars so human blood would not boil, and ideally about 500 millibars with enough oxygen for breathing. The problem is scale. Even increasing pressure slightly would require trillions of kilograms of gas; a breathable atmosphere would need around 10¹⁸ kg, comparable to the mass of a small moon.
Mars would also need to warm by about 60°C. Ideas such as giant mirrors reflecting sunlight would require about 70 million square kilometers of mirrors—far beyond current technology. Producing enough oxygen by splitting water would require huge amounts of energy: about 1.2×10²⁵ joules, or roughly 20 times humanity’s yearly energy use for 1,000 years.
Because of these challenges, small controlled habitats are the most realistic near-term approach.
by Busy_Yesterday9455
11 Comments
And we need an electromagnetic field. Easy peasy
Totally impossible for us
Did anyone think it was
>Even increasing pressure slightly would require trillions of kilograms of gas; a breathable atmosphere would need around 10¹⁸ kg, comparable to the mass of a small moon.
So strap some rockets on Europa or Enceladus and crash it into Mars! Or a smaller one depending on composition and availability. How hard can it be? Plenty of water and thus oxygen, and with some luck we may even get enough Oomph in the crash to liquify Mars’ core to restart the convection and create a magnetic field. I cannot see any downsides here!!
😀
No shit
Terraforming ~~Mars~~ is not easy> ftfy 🙂
It’s pure science fiction. It cannot be done.
Far more difficult than it first seemed? Who ever thought it wouldn’t be incredibly difficult in the first place?
If it was easy, everyone would be doing it
We are 8 billion on Earth with ressources and infrastructures available and we arent able to remove 1% CO2 in the athmosphere. What makes you think we can transform an athmosphere millions of miles away?
Complete and utter pipe dream.
A small moon’s worth of gas, you say.
Can I bring up my proposal of crashing Europa into Mars.