Now Nasa looks to change Mars into a garden of Earthly delights

Guardian ^

[GulliverSwift]

We may really be Martian in origin.

Speak for yourself.

"Isn't it delightful?"

Do any of you science FReepers know anything about this? How long would it take?

[rudy45]

Sounds like the Genesis Project, from Star Trek II and III.

[cripplecreek]

A little global warming could work wonders on mars.

[GulliverSwift]

"Ond a litel Totle Recoll!"

[GulliverSwift]

A liberal scientist is probably convinced that one SUV would be all that is necessary to heat up the whole planet.

[sigSEGV]

I've heard anything from 80 to 200 years.

[Gothmog]

Paul Murdin, of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge: "We are mucking up this world at an incredible pace at the same time that we are talking about screwing up another planet."

Morons like this are the reason we need to terraform Mars so the rest of us can get away from people like him.

[RightWhale]

One idea is to build a large mirror

This is insane. Do the moon first.

[hopespringseternal]

It all depends on how much energy (money) we throw at the project. Most timelines fall in the 1000 to 10000 year timeframe. For it to really be worth doing it probably needs to take much, much less time than that.

Since we don't have the will to spend the money to even get there, the whole terraforming idea is pretty moot.

[af_vet_rr]

Sounds like the Genesis Project, from Star Trek II and III.

I was thinking more along the lines of the Mars trilogy from Kim Stanley Robinson, but some of the same concepts, just one takes a lot longer.

[William Martel]

Sounds to me as if someone's been playing a little too much "Master of Orion" over at Nasa....

[kevkrom]

This is insane. Do the moon first.

I disagree -- Mars has a more "normal" gravity compare to Earth, and more importantly, appears to already have water. Terraforming the moon would require importing a huge amount of water -- and the extremely low gravity would prevent children who grew up there from ever being able to function in Earth gravity.

[RightWhale]

That's why the moon could use terraforming. There are technical problems; there are engineering solutions.

[kevkrom]

That's why the moon could use terraforming. There are technical problems; there are engineering solutions.

I agree that they're technological problems -- my point is that I think we can have a thriving Mars colony up long before we can make the moon habitable.

I have no problem doing both.

[RightWhale]

If you want a challenge instead of just another Mars project, try terraforming Venus. Venus is loaded with recources if you can get at them.

[pankot]

Didn't somebody say "Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the World"?
This will be done.

[RightWhale]

We can have a thriving Mars colony now. They need to get the camp set up, then they are home free.

[Frohickey]

In related news, environmental activists have gathered around NASA headquarters to protest against the planned terraforming of Mars. Reknowned activist Sarah 'tweetybird' Mikulsi said "We are planning on submitting a request to put the Martian methano-bacteria on the Endangered Species list. This, we hope, will stop any future development on Mars."

[tbird5]

FYI read Red Mars and the other books by Kim Stanley Robinson. Great books with romance, science, and war!