--- title: "Terraforming Mars: Inside the Insane (True) Plans to Make Mars Habitable" description: "Look up into the sky on even a not-so-dark night, and there's a good chance you'll see it: Mars. The Red Planet.\n\nNot so long ago, this remote world was thought to be teeming with life. The late-19th Century saw a craze for spotting \"canals\" on the distant surface. In the 1920s, it was thought radio transmissions by intelligent beings might be emanating from it. As recently as the mid-20th Century, some scientists still held out hope that lichen might cling to Martian rocks—a sign that life on Earth is not alone.\n\nSadly, that hope has long since died. Today, we know Mars is a sterile, desiccated world. A desert planet that once hosted rivers and oceans, but has now been barren for billions of years.\n\nBut what if we could change that? What if we humans could reverse the process—resurrecting Mars like some planet-sized Lazarus?\n\nRight now, some very clever people believe this sci-fi dream is possible. Guys like Elon Musk, or Jim Green, the former director of NASA's Planetary Science Division. Guys who believe terraforming Mars is not just hypothetically possible… but something our great-grandkids might live to witness.\n\nIn this article, we're taking a quick look at the recent science and research into terraforming Mars. And trying to figure out if this really is a possibility, or just the ultimate pipe dream.\n\n## The Waters of Mars\n\nIf aliens had arrived in our solar system about 4 billion years ago, there'd have been no doubt which planet they considered the best for supporting life.\n\nMars at this time was a water world. One on which great seas were fed by surging rivers. One in which waterfalls cascaded over rocks, warm waters lapped at rugged shores and maybe—just maybe—simple life managed to evolve.\n\nIn this era, the Martian atmosphere wasn't a thin, wispy thing, but thick enough to hold in heat. The core still generated a magnetic field, protecting the young world from radiation.\n\nFrom the perspective of our visiting aliens, it would've looked like the most-promising place in the solar system. A huge step above the magma-spewing dumpster fire we call Earth.\n\nSadly, though, this temperate Mars would turn out to be a mere blip in the planet's evolution.\n\nLike homebuyers who snap up a property only to discover it's built across a faultline filled with termites, our fictional aliens would quickly discover Planet Four was far from a paradise.\n\nAround 3 billion years ago, Mars's magnetic field disappeared.\n\nWhat followed was a slow, unstoppable death. Its shield gone, the planet's atmosphere was slowly stripped away by the solar wind, until what remained was too thin to sustain surface water.\n\nBy the time the first humans evolved on Earth, Mars was a long-dead world. A place inimical to life as we know it.\n\nAll of which will present something of a challenge if we attempt to colonize it.\n\nWhile we've established outposts in hostile environments here on Earth—like Antarctica for example—we've rarely done so in a place where the air itself is constantly trying to kill us.\n\nBut that's what the Martian atmosphere will absolutely try to do! A stunning 96 percent of it is carbon dioxide, with the rest mostly made up of argon and nitrogen.\n\nThis is a challenge, as an atmosphere made up of only 10 percent CO2 is enough to cause humans to suffocate. But this pales next to the issue of atmospheric pressure.\n\nAt just 0.6% the thickness of our atmosphere, Mars falls into the uncomfortable region where your blood will literally boil in your veins if you step outside without a spacesuit.\n\nNot that you'd want to do so, given how cold it is.\n\nWhile a summer's day on the equator can see the thermometer rise to a respectable 20°C, the average temperature is a bone-chilling -63°C.\n\nFor those of you who prefer patriot units, that's equivalent to -81.4 °F. And that's just average temperatures.\n\nIn the depths of the Martian winter, things get so cold that even Canada would be afraid to venture outside. Like, -140°C cold.\n\nThen there's the radiation. With the magnetic field gone, the Martian surface gets bombarded by radiation. Land there, and you'd get an average daily dose of something like 0.67 millisieverts.\n\nDoesn't sound like much, right? Well, that's about 20 percent of your average yearly dose here on Earth. In one day!\n\nImagine how that would build up over the course of a year-long mission to Mars. Now imagine how it would build up over the lifetime of a colonist permanently living there.\n\nEvidently, the Red Planet is no more built for humankind, than Arby's is built for haute cuisine.\n\nThis may be why NASA ended a 2018 study on the feasibility of making Mars habitable with the pointed phrase:\n\n> \"Terraforming Mars cannot be done with currently available technology. Any such efforts have to be very far into the future.\"\n\nSo, we guess that's the end of the article, then. Thank you all for reading—!\n\nBut no. Obviously, this isn't the end. Because, even if terraforming is just a far-off dream, there are still people working feverishly on tech that could one day make that dream come true.\n\nPeople who wholeheartedly believe we can—eventually—make Mars great again.\n\n## Farmsteads of the Future\n\nWith a project as big as terraforming an entire planet, there are many, many steps you need to take to get it anywhere even remotely habitable.\n\nThat means there are also many, many ways you can structure an article about it: from a gradual, step-by-step overview, to just jumping ahead to the part where Elon Musk sets off nuclear bombs over the poles.\n\nWhat we've decided to do, though, is start small and gradually build up to the big stuff. Hence why this chapter will be about something that sounds a little like an afterthought, but in reality is essential to making Mars a liveable world.\n\nThat essential something? Improving soil quality.\n\nIf we want to create a self-sustaining colony on Mars, then that colony needs to be able to grow its own food. If our goal is to turn the entire planet into a habitable world, then crops and vegetation need to be able to grow almost everywhere.\n\nRight now, that's impossible, and not just due to the conditions outside.\n\nEven inside a sealed Mars base, growing crops would be a nightmare, thanks to the regolith.\n\nBasically a fancy-ass way of saying \"soil,\" regolith is the stuff that covers Mars's surface. The stuff we'd need to grow our crops in.\n\nThe issue is that the Martian regolith absolutely sucks for growing.\n\nIt's hard and claylike, and contains almost none of the nutrients Earth plants require. What it does contain, is a whole lot of perchlorates—which just happen to be toxic to humans.\n\nOn top of that, any Martian water used to keep plants alive will be extremely briny. And there are very few delicious vegetables that thrive when doused with salty water.\n\nIn a small Mars base, NASA will probably be able to get around these issues by using hydroponics—in which plants are grown with their roots suspended in the air.\n\nBut to scale up to a full colony, we'll need to improve the soil, desalinate the water, and—somehow—get rid of the perchlorate.\n\nLuckily, scientists are already on the case.\n\nOne recent method came from a team at Iowa State University headed by undergraduate researcher Pooja Kasiviswanathan.\n\nIn a 2022 paper, the group outlined how a combination of cyanobacteria and circular farming could be used to gradually increase soil quality across the planet.\n\nOne of the cool things about cyanobacteria, is that they can be used to desalinate water—swapping out salt's ions to make Martian H2O palatable for plants.\n\nUsing water treated this way, the team found they could grow alfalfa in simulated Martian regolith.\n\nThis is great news, because alfalfa is crammed full of nutrients. But the team doesn't intend for future colonists to eat it.\n\nInstead, the alfalfa will be turned into compost and mixed back into the regolith. New plants will then be grown on top, creating a loop where every round of composting infuses the regolith with more nutrients needed to grow and sustain tastier and more-delicate fruits, seeds, and veg.\n\nDo this enough, and you'll eventually have soil that can grow much of what we grow here on Earth. Nor are the University of Iowa team the only ones thinking along these lines.\n\nAlso in 2022, the Laboratory of Applied Space Microbiology at the University of Bremen, Germany released a paper advocating the use of cyanobacteria as feedstock to grow duckweed—another fast-growing, nutrient-packed plant that could be composted into the regolith.\n\nIn short, it seems that if we want to improve the quality of Martian soil, we'll need to first use circular farming to make it suitable for more crops.\n\nBut what about all that poisonous perchlorate?\n\nWell, the good news is that it's water-soluble, meaning it could likely be removed in the same process that extracts and treats the briny Martian water.\n\nIf not, we could potentially introduce anaerobic microbes known to feed on it, letting them run rampant until enough has been devoured.\n\nOf course, all this is still just a first step. A very labor-intensive one, but far from the biggest part of terraforming.\n\nNope, that would be the urgent need to return Mars's atmosphere.\n\n## In the Great Magnetic Field…\n\nFrom the moment the magnetic field vanished, Mars was doomed.\n\nThe death that followed wasn't a quick process. It was the result of the charged particles of the solar wind gradually stripping away the atmosphere, until Mars was left with the thin one it has today.\n\nThat atmosphere is still being stripped away, although it seems to have reached an equilibrium. Processes on Mars create things like carbon dioxide and methane in large enough quantities to maintain the current status quo.\n\nBut that also raises an intriguing possibility.\n\nIf you could—somehow—reactivate Mars's magnetosphere, the atmosphere would start to thicken again.\n\nIt would be a slow process, but—sure enough—the pressure would eventually increase. And that would likewise raise the temperature, until both pressure and temperature reached the human habitable zone.\n\nOf course, restarting planetary magnetic fields is something waaaaaaay beyond our current capabilities. So much so, that we'd probably stand a better chance just trying to summon Q from Star Trek and asking him to do it for us.\n\nBut what if we didn't need to do something so drastic? What if there was a way to give Mars the benefit of a magnetic field without having to mess around with its core?\n\nJames Green thinks such a method might exist. The former director of NASA's Planetary Science Division (prior to retirement in 2022), Green put forward a proposal in 2017 for doing just that.\n\nHis solution: to hide Mars behind a giant magnetic shield.\n\n1,084,569 km from Mars lies the planet's L1 point with the Sun—the point at which the gravity of the two bodies is basically equal.\n\nGreen's idea is to park a large dipole there: what the Many Worlds blog helpfully describes as \"a closed electric circuit powerful enough to generate an artificial magnetic field.\"\n\nIf this dipole is capable of producing a magnetic field at the strength of 1 or 2 Tesla—and, to be clear, this is still futuristic tech—then Mars should be permanently protected behind it.\n\nPicture the way a large parasol works, casting a shadow below it to shield you from the sun.\n\nIn an incredibly-simplified way, this is what Green's magnetic shield would do. Mars would remain in its shadow, protected from the ravages of the solar wind just as a sunbather can be protected from sunburn.\n\nThis means the atmosphere would no longer get stripped away on a constant basis. And that means it would be able to start thickening again through natural processes.\n\nEventually, the pressure increase would lead to heat increase. Green envisages it one day causing a 4°C temperature spike across the Red Planet.\n\nAt which point, things will get interesting.\n\nA 4°C hike is enough to melt the frozen CO2 over Mars's northern polar cap. The release of so much greenhouse gas would warm the planet up even faster; hopefully enough to start melting the ice water at both poles.\n\nSince the ice at the poles is thought to contain enough water to cover the whole of Mars, this could lead to some seismic changes. A return of the ancient oceans that once covered our cosmic sibling.\n\nBut even if things don't go that far, Green's magnetic shield would still be extremely useful.\n\nThe Armstrong limit is a terrifying, invisible ceiling above our planet where pressure drops to 60 millibars.\n\nAt that point, the pressure is so low that water can boil at the temperatures found in the human body. Cross that limit without a protective, pressurized suit, and your blood will literally boil in your veins.\n\nThe pressure on Mars's surface is currently a tenth of the Armstrong limit, meaning yucky death for anyone who goes outside without a spacesuit. Install Green's shield, though, and the pressure would eventually increase until it crossed the Armstrong limit.\n\nNow extreme sub-zero temperatures and heck tons of CO2 would mean you still couldn't stand on the Martian surface without specialized equipment. But the stuff you needed to wear could be far simpler, far-more flexible.\n\nHeck, during Martian summer, you'd really only need breathing equipment!\n\nAnd that added flexibility and ease of movement would make doing everything on Mars so, so much safer and faster.\n\nIt's like the difference between repairing a broken window on the ISS, and on an Antarctic base. Both are serious breaches, but one is a quickly-fixed annoyance, while the other is a giant operation that could end in everyone's deaths.\n\nReduce the need for protective gear, and humans could quickly move to doing more outdoor activities on Mars. Maybe even beginning agriculture.\n\nAnd, hey, if the atmosphere doesn't warm up fast enough for that, there are other ways to boost the temperature.\n\nWays that involve some of the craziest terraforming plans you've ever heard.\n\n## God of (Nuclear) War\n\nIf you have even a passing interest in the terraforming of Mars, you've doubtless encountered the clip of Elon Musk's plan.\n\nIn it, Musk suggests quite calmly that the secret to terraforming Mars might be to detonate nuclear bombs over its polar caps. The resulting flash of heat would turn the carbon dioxide ice into gas, raising the overall temperature enough to start melting the trapped water ice.\n\nBasically, it's the flashy version of James Green's plan. It has the same end goal, but changes the delivery method from \"hard sci-fi\" to \"maniacal supervillain\".\n\nStill, it's not clear there's enough CO2 locked up at the poles to make this a workable solution.\n\nExperts think it might only be enough to double the pressure, which would still leave the Martian atmosphere far too thin to support surface liquid for any significant length of time.\n\nNo, if we want to make Mars sustainably wet and warm-ish, we'll need to find additional sources of greenhouses gasses to utilize.\n\nOne of these could be the other carbon dioxide deposits locked away in the Red Planet.\n\nOn the surface of Mars alone, we know there are enough carbon dioxide sources to theoretically raise atmospheric pressure from 0.6 percent of Earth to around 14 percent.\n\nThe good news is that would boost planetary temperatures by about 10°C. The bad news is that strip mining the entire planet is clearly beyond our abilities—especially for such a paltry return.\n\nThis is why NASA is showing some interest in possible deep deposits of carbon-bearing minerals that could be mined in a more traditional way. While it's unknown the extent of these deposits, it could be that there's enough CO2 locked away there to boost pressure to sustainable levels.\n\nIf not, then we could always try mining methane.\n\nWe know from data sent by various probes and rovers that Mars experiences spikes of methane in the atmosphere, presumably from some natural process.\n\nFind a way to harvest or utilize this, and we might be able to create a greenhouse effect much more efficiently than we ever could with CO2.\n\nYeah, we know. This is incredibly speculative. Almost on a par with assuming we'll find greenhouse gas generating wizards hiding in Martian caves.\n\nAnd it comes with its own set of problems. While CO2 and methane might thicken the atmosphere and warm the planet, they will also do so in a way that leaves behind air that is supremely toxic to humans.\n\nThankfully, this isn't the last potential step humankind could take.\n\nThere are also ways we could work to make this thick new atmosphere breathable.\n\n## The Gift of Life\n\nBack when Mars was still a water world, our Earth was a nightmare hellscape. One with an atmosphere stuffed full of carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, and other stuff you really wouldn't want to breathe in.\n\nYet, over the course of millions of years, it slowly changed. Eventually becoming the sort of atmosphere in which complex lifeforms could evolve.\n\nAnd it's all thanks to cyanobacteria.\n\nSupremely ancient creatures, cyanobacteria may have arisen as far back as the Archean Era.\n\nFor our purposes today, though, what's cool about them is that they went on to start converting a whole load of the CO2 in Earth's early atmosphere into oxygen.\n\nThis didn't just help create the gas we'd later need to breathe. It also resulted in the arrival of ozone, which today protects us all from harmful solar radiation.\n\nThe best part is, that it's thought some of these cyanobacteria could possibly survive on Mars. Species such as *Chroococcidiopsis thermalis* require only very low light levels to survive—a big deal since sunlight is far weaker on the Red Planet.\n\nRelease enough of these little guys at the same time as undertaking other methods for producing a greenhouse effect, and they'd naturally begin modifying the atmosphere. Taking a bite of carbon dioxide here. Emitting a bit of oxygen there.\n\nEventually, they'd be capable of turning Mars's toxic air into something breathable to humans.\n\nEven then, the Red Planet still wouldn't be anyone's dream holiday destination.\n\nWith a lower gravity than our world, Mars can maintain an atmosphere of about 0.38 bar—similar to what you'd get high up in the Andes here on Earth. In other words, a thin, chilly atmosphere that would be uncomfortable even if you were capable of breathing it.\n\nNonetheless, even getting to this stage would represent one of the supreme achievements in all human history.\n\nFor all it may seem impossible, the idea that we might—one day—terraform Mars isn't just a mad dream.\n\nIt's definitely not something we can do now, of that there is no doubt. But it also might not be something that can only be achieved in another two thousand years.\n\nJames Green's magnetic shield, for example, is something he envisages being doable by the mid-21st Century. Other stuff we've covered—like the circular farming or cyanobacteria—is possible today.\n\nHeck, even the large-scale methane mines might not be more than 100 to 150 years out. Far too late for us to witness them, but potentially something our grandchildren could live to see.\n\nIn short, a temperate Mars with oceans may well lie in the future of our solar system. A future still a long ways off, but perhaps closer in time to us now than many would believe.\n\nIt's a shame we'll miss it. But, as we close this out, it's with a plea to any future historians looking back on this article from their Martian colony, hoping to understand how folks in the early-21st Century thought about the Red Planet.\n\nA plea for these future chroniclers of days not yet past to think of us next time they look up at the Martian skies. To remember, if only for a moment, all the humanity that came before.\n\nA humanity that only wishes it could be stood alongside them, on the great terraformed world of Mars.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- Mars was once a water world with a thick atmosphere and magnetic field.\n- Current Mars conditions are hostile to human life with extreme temperatures, low pressure, and high radiation.\n- Terraforming Mars involves restoring its atmosphere and soil quality to support human life.\n- Scientists propose using cyanobacteria and circular farming to improve Martian soil for agriculture.\n- Proposed methods to thicken Mars' atmosphere include magnetic shields and releasing greenhouse gases.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What was the initial perception of Mars in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?\n\nIn the late 19th century, Mars was thought to be teeming with life, with observations of 'canals' on its surface. In the 1920s, it was believed that radio transmissions from intelligent beings might be coming from Mars. Even in the mid-20th century, some scientists hoped that lichen might be found on Martian rocks, indicating the presence of life.\n\n### What is the current state of Mars' atmosphere and climate?\n\nMars is currently a sterile, desiccated world with a thin, wispy atmosphere composed mostly of carbon dioxide. The average temperature is -63°C (-81.4°F), and it can drop to -140°C (-220°F) in the winter. The atmospheric pressure is so low that human blood would boil if exposed to it.\n\n### What are the main challenges in making Mars habitable?\n\nThe main challenges include the thin atmosphere composed mostly of carbon dioxide, extremely low temperatures, high radiation levels due to the lack of a magnetic field, and the presence of perchlorates and briny water in the regolith, which make it difficult to grow plants.\n\n### What is the regolith on Mars and why is it a problem for growing plants?\n\nRegolith is the soil-like material covering Mars' surface. It is hard, clay-like, and lacks the nutrients needed for Earth plants. It also contains perchlorates, which are toxic to humans, and the water on Mars is extremely briny, making it difficult to grow crops.\n\n### What methods are being considered to improve the soil quality on Mars?\n\nScientists are exploring the use of cyanobacteria and circular farming to improve soil quality. Cyanobacteria can desalinate water and grow in simulated Martian regolith, and plants like alfalfa can be composted to add nutrients to the soil.\n\n### What is the role of cyanobacteria in terraforming Mars?\n\nCyanobacteria can help desalinate water and grow in Martian regolith, producing nutrients that can be composted to improve soil quality. They can also convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, making the atmosphere more breathable over time.\n\n### What is the proposed magnetic shield for Mars and how would it work?\n\nThe magnetic shield proposed by Jim Green involves placing a large dipole at Mars' L1 point with the Sun to generate an artificial magnetic field. This would protect Mars from the solar wind, allowing its atmosphere to thicken and potentially warm the planet.\n\n### What are some of the proposed methods to warm Mars and thicken its atmosphere?\n\nProposed methods include detonating nuclear bombs over the polar caps to release carbon dioxide, mining carbon-bearing minerals or methane to increase greenhouse gases, and using cyanobacteria to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.\n\n### What is the current feasibility of terraforming Mars?\n\nTerraforming Mars is not currently possible with available technology. However, some proposed methods, like the magnetic shield and circular farming, could be achievable in the mid-21st century or within the next 100-150 years.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original MegaProjects video: Terraforming Mars: Inside the Insane (True) Plans to Make Mars Habitable](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaVNX0rBbxk)\n- [https://www.planetary.org/articles/can-we-make-mars-earth-like-through-terraforming](https://www.planetary.org/articles/can-we-make-mars-earth-like-through-terraforming)\n- [https://www.inverse.com/innovation/mars-terraform-sustainable](https://www.inverse.com/innovation/mars-terraform-sustainable)\n- [https://www.universetoday.com/157198/cyanobacteria-will-be-our-best-partner-for-living-on-mars/](https://www.universetoday.com/157198/cyanobacteria-will-be-our-best-partner-for-living-on-mars/)\n- [https://www.universetoday.com/139481/could-cyanobacteria-help-to-terraform-mars/](https://www.universetoday.com/139481/could-cyanobacteria-help-to-terraform-mars/)\n- [https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/2018/mars-terraforming](https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/2018/mars-terraforming)\n- [https://manyworlds.space/2017/03/09/how-to-give-mars-an-atmosphere-maybe/](https://manyworlds.space/2017/03/09/how-to-give-mars-an-atmosphere-maybe/)\n- [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/02/science/jim-green-nasa-mars.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/02/science/jim-green-nasa-mars.html)\n- [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Pinglo_Tuskegee_%28martian_crater%29.png) by Uploaded a work by The original authors of this work are the team behind the Murry Labs such as the lab manager 'Jay Dickson' and his team. This also includes those who work at NASA JPL as they shared the 5.7 Terapixel Data with them to the research lab institute of Murry Labs and Caltech from I found this work from the offcial website of the Murry Lab at Caltech as an interactive 360° Map of Mars using the Esri Online Map Portal and screenshotted it from here: https://murray-lab.caltech.edu/... NASA/JPL-Caltech / openverse, by.\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://megaprojects.pub/article/terraforming-mars-insane-true-plans-make-mars-habitable.md canonical: https://megaprojects.pub/article/terraforming-mars-insane-true-plans-make-mars-habitable datePublished: 2023-08-26 dateModified: 2026-07-28 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://megaprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: MegaProjects image: "https://media.megaprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=600,height=338,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/eaVNX0rBbxk/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 4417b321d90db905dd8a0fe2f624ab247f9924997f4efe5239398b384a3e0d92 tokens: 6328 summaryUrl: https://megaprojects.pub/article/terraforming-mars-insane-true-plans-make-mars-habitable.md.summary.md --- Look up into the sky on even a not-so-dark night, and there's a good chance you'll see it: Mars. The Red Planet. Not so long ago, this remote world was thought to be teeming with life. The late-19th Century saw a craze for spotting "canals" on the distant surface. In the 1920s, it was thought radio transmissions by intelligent beings might be emanating from it. As recently as the mid-20th Century, some scientists still held out hope that lichen might cling to Martian rocks—a sign that life on Earth is not alone. Sadly, that hope has long since died. Today, we know Mars is a sterile, desiccated world. A desert planet that once hosted rivers and oceans, but has now been barren for billions of years. But what if we could change that? What if we humans could reverse the process—resurrecting Mars like some planet-sized Lazarus? Right now, some very clever people believe this sci-fi dream is possible. Guys like Elon Musk, or Jim Green, the former director of NASA's Planetary Science Division. Guys who believe terraforming Mars is not just hypothetically possible… but something our great-grandkids might live to witness. In this article, we're taking a quick look at the recent science and research into terraforming Mars. And trying to figure out if this really is a possibility, or just the ultimate pipe dream. ## The Waters of Mars If aliens had arrived in our solar system about 4 billion years ago, there'd have been no doubt which planet they considered the best for supporting life. Mars at this time was a water world. One on which great seas were fed by surging rivers. One in which waterfalls cascaded over rocks, warm waters lapped at rugged shores and maybe—just maybe—simple life managed to evolve. In this era, the Martian atmosphere wasn't a thin, wispy thing, but thick enough to hold in heat. The core still generated a magnetic field, protecting the young world from radiation. From the perspective of our visiting aliens, it would've looked like the most-promising place in the solar system. A huge step above the magma-spewing dumpster fire we call Earth. Sadly, though, this temperate Mars would turn out to be a mere blip in the planet's evolution. Like homebuyers who snap up a property only to discover it's built across a faultline filled with termites, our fictional aliens would quickly discover Planet Four was far from a paradise. Around 3 billion years ago, Mars's magnetic field disappeared. What followed was a slow, unstoppable death. Its shield gone, the planet's atmosphere was slowly stripped away by the solar wind, until what remained was too thin to sustain surface water. By the time the first humans evolved on Earth, Mars was a long-dead world. A place inimical to life as we know it. All of which will present something of a challenge if we attempt to colonize it. While we've established outposts in hostile environments here on Earth—like Antarctica for example—we've rarely done so in a place where the air itself is constantly trying to kill us. But that's what the Martian atmosphere will absolutely try to do! A stunning 96 percent of it is carbon dioxide, with the rest mostly made up of argon and nitrogen. This is a challenge, as an atmosphere made up of only 10 percent CO2 is enough to cause humans to suffocate. But this pales next to the issue of atmospheric pressure. At just 0.6% the thickness of our atmosphere, Mars falls into the uncomfortable region where your blood will literally boil in your veins if you step outside without a spacesuit. Not that you'd want to do so, given how cold it is. While a summer's day on the equator can see the thermometer rise to a respectable 20°C, the average temperature is a bone-chilling -63°C. For those of you who prefer patriot units, that's equivalent to -81.4 °F. And that's just average temperatures. In the depths of the Martian winter, things get so cold that even Canada would be afraid to venture outside. Like, -140°C cold. Then there's the radiation. With the magnetic field gone, the Martian surface gets bombarded by radiation. Land there, and you'd get an average daily dose of something like 0.67 millisieverts. Doesn't sound like much, right? Well, that's about 20 percent of your average yearly dose here on Earth. In one day! Imagine how that would build up over the course of a year-long mission to Mars. Now imagine how it would build up over the lifetime of a colonist permanently living there. Evidently, the Red Planet is no more built for humankind, than Arby's is built for haute cuisine. This may be why NASA ended a 2018 study on the feasibility of making Mars habitable with the pointed phrase: > "Terraforming Mars cannot be done with currently available technology. Any such efforts have to be very far into the future." So, we guess that's the end of the article, then. Thank you all for reading—! But no. Obviously, this isn't the end. Because, even if terraforming is just a far-off dream, there are still people working feverishly on tech that could one day make that dream come true. People who wholeheartedly believe we can—eventually—make Mars great again. ## Farmsteads of the Future With a project as big as terraforming an entire planet, there are many, many steps you need to take to get it anywhere even remotely habitable. That means there are also many, many ways you can structure an article about it: from a gradual, step-by-step overview, to just jumping ahead to the part where Elon Musk sets off nuclear bombs over the poles. What we've decided to do, though, is start small and gradually build up to the big stuff. Hence why this chapter will be about something that sounds a little like an afterthought, but in reality is essential to making Mars a liveable world. That essential something? Improving soil quality. If we want to create a self-sustaining colony on Mars, then that colony needs to be able to grow its own food. If our goal is to turn the entire planet into a habitable world, then crops and vegetation need to be able to grow almost everywhere. Right now, that's impossible, and not just due to the conditions outside. Even inside a sealed Mars base, growing crops would be a nightmare, thanks to the regolith. Basically a fancy-ass way of saying "soil," regolith is the stuff that covers Mars's surface. The stuff we'd need to grow our crops in. The issue is that the Martian regolith absolutely sucks for growing. It's hard and claylike, and contains almost none of the nutrients Earth plants require. What it does contain, is a whole lot of perchlorates—which just happen to be toxic to humans. On top of that, any Martian water used to keep plants alive will be extremely briny. And there are very few delicious vegetables that thrive when doused with salty water. In a small Mars base, NASA will probably be able to get around these issues by using hydroponics—in which plants are grown with their roots suspended in the air. But to scale up to a full colony, we'll need to improve the soil, desalinate the water, and—somehow—get rid of the perchlorate. Luckily, scientists are already on the case. One recent method came from a team at Iowa State University headed by undergraduate researcher Pooja Kasiviswanathan. In a 2022 paper, the group outlined how a combination of cyanobacteria and circular farming could be used to gradually increase soil quality across the planet. One of the cool things about cyanobacteria, is that they can be used to desalinate water—swapping out salt's ions to make Martian H2O palatable for plants. Using water treated this way, the team found they could grow alfalfa in simulated Martian regolith. This is great news, because alfalfa is crammed full of nutrients. But the team doesn't intend for future colonists to eat it. Instead, the alfalfa will be turned into compost and mixed back into the regolith. New plants will then be grown on top, creating a loop where every round of composting infuses the regolith with more nutrients needed to grow and sustain tastier and more-delicate fruits, seeds, and veg. Do this enough, and you'll eventually have soil that can grow much of what we grow here on Earth. Nor are the University of Iowa team the only ones thinking along these lines. Also in 2022, the Laboratory of Applied Space Microbiology at the University of Bremen, Germany released a paper advocating the use of cyanobacteria as feedstock to grow duckweed—another fast-growing, nutrient-packed plant that could be composted into the regolith. In short, it seems that if we want to improve the quality of Martian soil, we'll need to first use circular farming to make it suitable for more crops. But what about all that poisonous perchlorate? Well, the good news is that it's water-soluble, meaning it could likely be removed in the same process that extracts and treats the briny Martian water. If not, we could potentially introduce anaerobic microbes known to feed on it, letting them run rampant until enough has been devoured. Of course, all this is still just a first step. A very labor-intensive one, but far from the biggest part of terraforming. Nope, that would be the urgent need to return Mars's atmosphere. ## In the Great Magnetic Field… From the moment the magnetic field vanished, Mars was doomed. The death that followed wasn't a quick process. It was the result of the charged particles of the solar wind gradually stripping away the atmosphere, until Mars was left with the thin one it has today. That atmosphere is still being stripped away, although it seems to have reached an equilibrium. Processes on Mars create things like carbon dioxide and methane in large enough quantities to maintain the current status quo. But that also raises an intriguing possibility. If you could—somehow—reactivate Mars's magnetosphere, the atmosphere would start to thicken again. It would be a slow process, but—sure enough—the pressure would eventually increase. And that would likewise raise the temperature, until both pressure and temperature reached the human habitable zone. Of course, restarting planetary magnetic fields is something waaaaaaay beyond our current capabilities. So much so, that we'd probably stand a better chance just trying to summon Q from Star Trek and asking him to do it for us. But what if we didn't need to do something so drastic? What if there was a way to give Mars the benefit of a magnetic field without having to mess around with its core? James Green thinks such a method might exist. The former director of NASA's Planetary Science Division (prior to retirement in 2022), Green put forward a proposal in 2017 for doing just that. His solution: to hide Mars behind a giant magnetic shield. 1,084,569 km from Mars lies the planet's L1 point with the Sun—the point at which the gravity of the two bodies is basically equal. Green's idea is to park a large dipole there: what the Many Worlds blog helpfully describes as "a closed electric circuit powerful enough to generate an artificial magnetic field." If this dipole is capable of producing a magnetic field at the strength of 1 or 2 Tesla—and, to be clear, this is still futuristic tech—then Mars should be permanently protected behind it. Picture the way a large parasol works, casting a shadow below it to shield you from the sun. In an incredibly-simplified way, this is what Green's magnetic shield would do. Mars would remain in its shadow, protected from the ravages of the solar wind just as a sunbather can be protected from sunburn. This means the atmosphere would no longer get stripped away on a constant basis. And that means it would be able to start thickening again through natural processes. Eventually, the pressure increase would lead to heat increase. Green envisages it one day causing a 4°C temperature spike across the Red Planet. At which point, things will get interesting. A 4°C hike is enough to melt the frozen CO2 over Mars's northern polar cap. The release of so much greenhouse gas would warm the planet up even faster; hopefully enough to start melting the ice water at both poles. Since the ice at the poles is thought to contain enough water to cover the whole of Mars, this could lead to some seismic changes. A return of the ancient oceans that once covered our cosmic sibling. But even if things don't go that far, Green's magnetic shield would still be extremely useful. The Armstrong limit is a terrifying, invisible ceiling above our planet where pressure drops to 60 millibars. At that point, the pressure is so low that water can boil at the temperatures found in the human body. Cross that limit without a protective, pressurized suit, and your blood will literally boil in your veins. The pressure on Mars's surface is currently a tenth of the Armstrong limit, meaning yucky death for anyone who goes outside without a spacesuit. Install Green's shield, though, and the pressure would eventually increase until it crossed the Armstrong limit. Now extreme sub-zero temperatures and heck tons of CO2 would mean you still couldn't stand on the Martian surface without specialized equipment. But the stuff you needed to wear could be far simpler, far-more flexible. Heck, during Martian summer, you'd really only need breathing equipment! And that added flexibility and ease of movement would make doing everything on Mars so, so much safer and faster. It's like the difference between repairing a broken window on the ISS, and on an Antarctic base. Both are serious breaches, but one is a quickly-fixed annoyance, while the other is a giant operation that could end in everyone's deaths. Reduce the need for protective gear, and humans could quickly move to doing more outdoor activities on Mars. Maybe even beginning agriculture. And, hey, if the atmosphere doesn't warm up fast enough for that, there are other ways to boost the temperature. Ways that involve some of the craziest terraforming plans you've ever heard. ## God of (Nuclear) War If you have even a passing interest in the terraforming of Mars, you've doubtless encountered the clip of Elon Musk's plan. In it, Musk suggests quite calmly that the secret to terraforming Mars might be to detonate nuclear bombs over its polar caps. The resulting flash of heat would turn the carbon dioxide ice into gas, raising the overall temperature enough to start melting the trapped water ice. Basically, it's the flashy version of James Green's plan. It has the same end goal, but changes the delivery method from "hard sci-fi" to "maniacal supervillain". Still, it's not clear there's enough CO2 locked up at the poles to make this a workable solution. Experts think it might only be enough to double the pressure, which would still leave the Martian atmosphere far too thin to support surface liquid for any significant length of time. No, if we want to make Mars sustainably wet and warm-ish, we'll need to find additional sources of greenhouses gasses to utilize. One of these could be the other carbon dioxide deposits locked away in the Red Planet. On the surface of Mars alone, we know there are enough carbon dioxide sources to theoretically raise atmospheric pressure from 0.6 percent of Earth to around 14 percent. The good news is that would boost planetary temperatures by about 10°C. The bad news is that strip mining the entire planet is clearly beyond our abilities—especially for such a paltry return. This is why NASA is showing some interest in possible deep deposits of carbon-bearing minerals that could be mined in a more traditional way. While it's unknown the extent of these deposits, it could be that there's enough CO2 locked away there to boost pressure to sustainable levels. If not, then we could always try mining methane. We know from data sent by various probes and rovers that Mars experiences spikes of methane in the atmosphere, presumably from some natural process. Find a way to harvest or utilize this, and we might be able to create a greenhouse effect much more efficiently than we ever could with CO2. Yeah, we know. This is incredibly speculative. Almost on a par with assuming we'll find greenhouse gas generating wizards hiding in Martian caves. And it comes with its own set of problems. While CO2 and methane might thicken the atmosphere and warm the planet, they will also do so in a way that leaves behind air that is supremely toxic to humans. Thankfully, this isn't the last potential step humankind could take. There are also ways we could work to make this thick new atmosphere breathable. ## The Gift of Life Back when Mars was still a water world, our Earth was a nightmare hellscape. One with an atmosphere stuffed full of carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, and other stuff you really wouldn't want to breathe in. Yet, over the course of millions of years, it slowly changed. Eventually becoming the sort of atmosphere in which complex lifeforms could evolve. And it's all thanks to cyanobacteria. Supremely ancient creatures, cyanobacteria may have arisen as far back as the Archean Era. For our purposes today, though, what's cool about them is that they went on to start converting a whole load of the CO2 in Earth's early atmosphere into oxygen. This didn't just help create the gas we'd later need to breathe. It also resulted in the arrival of ozone, which today protects us all from harmful solar radiation. The best part is, that it's thought some of these cyanobacteria could possibly survive on Mars. Species such as *Chroococcidiopsis thermalis* require only very low light levels to survive—a big deal since sunlight is far weaker on the Red Planet. Release enough of these little guys at the same time as undertaking other methods for producing a greenhouse effect, and they'd naturally begin modifying the atmosphere. Taking a bite of carbon dioxide here. Emitting a bit of oxygen there. Eventually, they'd be capable of turning Mars's toxic air into something breathable to humans. Even then, the Red Planet still wouldn't be anyone's dream holiday destination. With a lower gravity than our world, Mars can maintain an atmosphere of about 0.38 bar—similar to what you'd get high up in the Andes here on Earth. In other words, a thin, chilly atmosphere that would be uncomfortable even if you were capable of breathing it. Nonetheless, even getting to this stage would represent one of the supreme achievements in all human history. For all it may seem impossible, the idea that we might—one day—terraform Mars isn't just a mad dream. It's definitely not something we can do now, of that there is no doubt. But it also might not be something that can only be achieved in another two thousand years. James Green's magnetic shield, for example, is something he envisages being doable by the mid-21st Century. Other stuff we've covered—like the circular farming or cyanobacteria—is possible today. Heck, even the large-scale methane mines might not be more than 100 to 150 years out. Far too late for us to witness them, but potentially something our grandchildren could live to see. In short, a temperate Mars with oceans may well lie in the future of our solar system. A future still a long ways off, but perhaps closer in time to us now than many would believe. It's a shame we'll miss it. But, as we close this out, it's with a plea to any future historians looking back on this article from their Martian colony, hoping to understand how folks in the early-21st Century thought about the Red Planet. A plea for these future chroniclers of days not yet past to think of us next time they look up at the Martian skies. To remember, if only for a moment, all the humanity that came before. A humanity that only wishes it could be stood alongside them, on the great terraformed world of Mars. ## Key Takeaways - Mars was once a water world with a thick atmosphere and magnetic field. - Current Mars conditions are hostile to human life with extreme temperatures, low pressure, and high radiation. - Terraforming Mars involves restoring its atmosphere and soil quality to support human life. - Scientists propose using cyanobacteria and circular farming to improve Martian soil for agriculture. - Proposed methods to thicken Mars' atmosphere include magnetic shields and releasing greenhouse gases. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What was the initial perception of Mars in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? In the late 19th century, Mars was thought to be teeming with life, with observations of 'canals' on its surface. In the 1920s, it was believed that radio transmissions from intelligent beings might be coming from Mars. Even in the mid-20th century, some scientists hoped that lichen might be found on Martian rocks, indicating the presence of life. ### What is the current state of Mars' atmosphere and climate? Mars is currently a sterile, desiccated world with a thin, wispy atmosphere composed mostly of carbon dioxide. The average temperature is -63°C (-81.4°F), and it can drop to -140°C (-220°F) in the winter. The atmospheric pressure is so low that human blood would boil if exposed to it. ### What are the main challenges in making Mars habitable? The main challenges include the thin atmosphere composed mostly of carbon dioxide, extremely low temperatures, high radiation levels due to the lack of a magnetic field, and the presence of perchlorates and briny water in the regolith, which make it difficult to grow plants. ### What is the regolith on Mars and why is it a problem for growing plants? Regolith is the soil-like material covering Mars' surface. It is hard, clay-like, and lacks the nutrients needed for Earth plants. It also contains perchlorates, which are toxic to humans, and the water on Mars is extremely briny, making it difficult to grow crops. ### What methods are being considered to improve the soil quality on Mars? Scientists are exploring the use of cyanobacteria and circular farming to improve soil quality. Cyanobacteria can desalinate water and grow in simulated Martian regolith, and plants like alfalfa can be composted to add nutrients to the soil. ### What is the role of cyanobacteria in terraforming Mars? Cyanobacteria can help desalinate water and grow in Martian regolith, producing nutrients that can be composted to improve soil quality. They can also convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, making the atmosphere more breathable over time. ### What is the proposed magnetic shield for Mars and how would it work? The magnetic shield proposed by Jim Green involves placing a large dipole at Mars' L1 point with the Sun to generate an artificial magnetic field. This would protect Mars from the solar wind, allowing its atmosphere to thicken and potentially warm the planet. ### What are some of the proposed methods to warm Mars and thicken its atmosphere? Proposed methods include detonating nuclear bombs over the polar caps to release carbon dioxide, mining carbon-bearing minerals or methane to increase greenhouse gases, and using cyanobacteria to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. ### What is the current feasibility of terraforming Mars? Terraforming Mars is not currently possible with available technology. However, some proposed methods, like the magnetic shield and circular farming, could be achievable in the mid-21st century or within the next 100-150 years. ## Sources - [Original MegaProjects video: Terraforming Mars: Inside the Insane (True) Plans to Make Mars Habitable](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaVNX0rBbxk) - [https://www.planetary.org/articles/can-we-make-mars-earth-like-through-terraforming](https://www.planetary.org/articles/can-we-make-mars-earth-like-through-terraforming) - [https://www.inverse.com/innovation/mars-terraform-sustainable](https://www.inverse.com/innovation/mars-terraform-sustainable) - [https://www.universetoday.com/157198/cyanobacteria-will-be-our-best-partner-for-living-on-mars/](https://www.universetoday.com/157198/cyanobacteria-will-be-our-best-partner-for-living-on-mars/) - [https://www.universetoday.com/139481/could-cyanobacteria-help-to-terraform-mars/](https://www.universetoday.com/139481/could-cyanobacteria-help-to-terraform-mars/) - [https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/2018/mars-terraforming](https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/2018/mars-terraforming) - [https://manyworlds.space/2017/03/09/how-to-give-mars-an-atmosphere-maybe/](https://manyworlds.space/2017/03/09/how-to-give-mars-an-atmosphere-maybe/) - [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/02/science/jim-green-nasa-mars.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/02/science/jim-green-nasa-mars.html) - [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Pinglo_Tuskegee_%28martian_crater%29.png) by Uploaded a work by The original authors of this work are the team behind the Murry Labs such as the lab manager 'Jay Dickson' and his team. This also includes those who work at NASA JPL as they shared the 5.7 Terapixel Data with them to the research lab institute of Murry Labs and Caltech from I found this work from the offcial website of the Murry Lab at Caltech as an interactive 360° Map of Mars using the Esri Online Map Portal and screenshotted it from here: https://murray-lab.caltech.edu/... NASA/JPL-Caltech / openverse, by. ## Related Coverage