How Terraforming Mars Will Work

    • dheeraj.jangra@timesgroup.com
    • Publish Date: Jul 19 2016 3:47PM
    • |
    • Updated Date: Aug 5 2016 4:42PM
How Terraforming Mars Will Work

This question was asked by Juhi Bhanot, class XII, Maharaja Agrasen Vidyalaya, Ahmedabad

Terraforming is the process of transforming a hostile environment into one that is suitable for human life. Once just the subject of science fiction, it is now becoming a viable research area. But Terraforming Mars will be a huge exercise. The process of making the red planet conducive to human life life will take thousands of millennia and require enormous resources. Here are some of the terraforming methods that have been proposed by experts: 


Orbital Mirrors

There is a consensus among the scientific community that the temperature of the red planet must be raised to turn it into an Earth-like planet. Mars’ average surface temperature is between minus 140° C and minus 60° C. The concept calls for 300 reflective balloons, each 150 metres across, arranged side by side to create a 1.5-km-wide mirror in orbit around Mars. If attempted, it will indeed be a Herculean task. Nonetheless, once in place, at an altitude of nearly 133,000 miles above the surface, the energy directed by mirrors back on Mars would be enough to melt the ice on polar caps and release the CO2 that is believed to be trapped inside the ice. Over a period of hundred of years, the rise in temperature would release greenhouse gases, which are essential to warm the planet.  


Smash asteroids on its surface

One of the most widely accepted theories is that the building  blocks of life and much of Earth’s water arrived on asteroids. Scientists say that asteroids and comets were also instrumental in forming Mars’ previously warm and wet climate. Scientists have contemplated attaching rocket engines on an asteroid and redirecting it so that it crashed into one of the Martian poles. If two asteroids hit both the poles, that would be an ideal situation. The impact would vaporise the carbon dioxide gas that lies frozen at the Martian poles and spread it around the planet. This, in turn, would the trigger greenhouse effect. The asteroid impact would also release water trapped in the poles and create lakes and streams.


Greenhouse Gas Factories

Is it possible to make the one thing that is destroying our planet work in our favour? It’s pollution we’re talking about. We have a lot of experience in releasing tons of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere – a factor that is leading to a rapid increase in Earth’s average surface temperature. The same heating effect could be reproduced on Mars by setting up hundreds of solar-powered, greenhouse-gas producing factories. Their sole purpose would be to pump out CFCs, methane, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Whether the raw material required for the construction of factories is sourced from Mars or transported from Earth is a question that could be answered later.


Human-engineered Microbes 

Instead of towing an asteroid or setting up factories, the best option might be to simply engineer micro organisms to do all the terraforming of Mars for us. US defence scientists are planning to use genetically engineered algae, bacteria and plants to radically transform the climate of Mars by converting the CO2 into breathable oxygen. They will be able to withstand severe cold, dryness and radiation. A team of researchers is also working on a bacteria that could extract minerals from Martian sediment to support a human colony. So, what is the time frame for terraforming Mars? Not anytime soon. We will set foot on Mars by 2040. Therefore, we have to wait till the mid-22nd century before terraforming can be considered seriously.



Fun Facts about Mars

  • Mars and Earth have approximately the same landmass: But Mars has only 15% of Earth’s volume and just over 10% of Earth’s mass
  • Mars is home to the tallest mountain in the solar system: Olympus Mons, a shield volcano, is 21 km high and 600 km in diameter.
  • Mars has the largest dust storms in the solar system: they can last for months and cover the entire planet. The seasons are extreme because its elliptical (oval-shaped) orbital path around the Sun is more elongated than most other planets in the solar system.
  • One day Mars will have a ring: In the next 20-40 million years, the planet’s largest moon, Phobos, will be torn apart by gravitational forces leading to the creation of a ring that could last up to 100 million years.
  • Mars is the only  planet besides Earth that has polar ice caps: The northern cap is called Planum Boreum, with Planum Australe in the south. 


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