How Terraforming Mars Will Work

this site goes into how we might go about altering mars to a degree that we can inhabit it.

link

Mars has almost no magnetic field. I'd love to see Mars terraformed (if it indeed lifeless) however, try to grow bacteria under constant cosmic radiation... it doesn't go so well.

No one ever cares to admit the one thing we can't change about the red planet is one of the most important things the Earth gives us, magnetic shielding.

What they would do is try and pollute the atmosphere enough to start some global warming, in the future i can see large mining machines taking exotic metals from the surface and belching pollution into the atmosphere, once you get to a certain level sunlight will begin to get trapped inside.

This would allow us to introduce plants and probably genetically modified "super plants" that suck in lots of the carbon dioxide and transfer into oxygen.

This is a mammoth project and i can't see it beginning before 2100.

According to nasa mars's atmosphere is 96% CO2 (carbon dioxide).

Ask yourself what is the primary gas thats causing global warming? THATS RIGHT! CO2!

Now if mars is 96% CO2 then even if it recives approx a third of the energy from the sun as earth it should still be above freezing.

As for plants they would love the martian atmosphere! That why i dont believe it is lifeless, plants do not need oxygen, niether do many bacteria etc. Therefore there must be some form of life on mars.

Originally posted by ScienceGuyQ
Mars has almost no magnetic field. I'd love to see Mars terraformed (if it indeed lifeless) however, try to grow bacteria under constant cosmic radiation... it doesn't go so well.

No one ever cares to admit the one thing we can't change about the red planet is one of the most important things the Earth gives us, magnetic shielding.

Exactly! Humans can introduce bacteria and other life forms that can survive under a wide range of temperature and atmospheric conditions, but the real killer issue is the radiation.

Coincidentally, one of the biggest obstacles to getting humans to Mars continues to be the immense amounts of radiation they would absorb. This is an even bigger problem than distance is.