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To: MtnClimber
In Arthur C. Clarke's story The Sands of Mars, nuclear engineering is used to ignite Phobos, thereby turning it into a tiny sun. The light generated thereby is used to facilitate the rapid spread and growth of a genetically-engineered plant that extracts oxygen from the martian surface cover; in that way, Mars's atmosphere is regenerated, to make the planet habitable by humans.

An engineer who explains the process says, of the ignition of Phobos, "we used a simple meson-resonance reaction."

4 posted on 01/25/2026 11:41:43 AM PST by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: Steely Tom
The Martian Chronicles sci-fi by Ray Bradbury, made into a mini-series for 1980 with Rock Hudson. Mission to Mars, movie with Gary Sinise, 2000, and The Martian, 2015, starring Matt Damon.

All good. Any others?

11 posted on 01/25/2026 3:02:43 PM PST by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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