[Windflier]

They’re not going to terraform Mars. I predict some idiot is going to say it’d be some form of man-made pollution and that we should regard the current Martian state as somehow sacrosanct and unspoiled.

I hear the sarcasm, but it would be pointless to try anyway. Mars doesn't have a molten core, so it doesn't have a magnetic field strong enough to protect an earth-like atmosphere. The solar wind will blow it away, just as it did when Mars cooled.

Without the pressure of an atmosphere, there can't be oceans, rivers, and lakes.

If man is ever going to inhabit that dead rock, we'll have to figure out a way to reheat the core. I don't doubt that we will, but it'll probably be a couple hundred years from now.

[buwaya]

It may be possible to regenerate some sort of atmosphere on Mars, but it wont be Earth-like, and it wont persist very long. However, “very long” may be a very long time by human standards. A million years would be quite long for a temporary lease on that much real estate.