As more than one book about Mars says, the red planet has been the center of attention of sci-fi novels dealing with space travel, colonization and terraforming. But what if, once again, science-fiction is about to drop the 'fiction'? What if history is about to be made? I believe the technology to colonize and indeed begin a(n evidently-long-term) terraforming effort on Mars already exists or will exist in no more than two or three decades. Regrettably, there are very important obstacles: for one, governments don't seem to care much about this and aren't providing organizations like ESA or NASA with enough resources, attention or financial resources; for another, there are heated debates about the political/social/ethical/ethnical/philosophical aspects of terraformation, and it doesn't look like they might be solved soon. Another problem, of course, is that perhaps we are farther away from the necessary technology and resources than we think. But what if it's possible? Nitrogen is abundant in the soil, which would allow genetically-engineered plants to live. The plants would release oxygen, thickening the atmosphere and making it breathable. Martian gravity is .38 of terran gravity, which, i believe (but i'm not quite sure; maybe someone else is able to provide more insight on this), is enough to hold an atmosphere of at least 0.5 bars, which would be inhabitable (think of high-altitude settlements on Earth). There is evidence of (not-necessarily-dead) volcanic and hydrologic activity, and the planet has two moons, which would cause tide. There are still strong winds on Mars (which at first would be a problem because of global dust storms but would eventually become useful). The terrain is very varied and even impressive in more than one way. There is frozen water in polar latitudes, which could be used to turn Vastitas Borealis into an ocean and maybe even Hellas and Argyre basins into big lakes. What if Mars is centuries or even decades away from becoming inhabitable?
If the number of people who believe that Mars can be terraformed and eventually inhabited by humans is lower than i would like it to be, i don't want to begin to wonder about the number of people who believe that Venus is terraformable. With an atmospheric pressure of around 90 bars, an atmosphere consisting almost-entirely of carbon dioxide and a mean surface temperature 450 degrees higher than that of Earth's, it sounds like Hell itself. But what if it's terraformable? There are serious problems, such as the impossibility of landing humans on it and the fact that a day on Venus lasts almost 117 days, but say we built a huge orbital mirror which reflected sunlight and placed it between Venus and the sun for a few years or decades and then tried to land there.
The situation of Venus could be considered similar to the one on Mars in some ways and opposite to it in others, so terraforming Venus would be a challenge to science as interesting as terraforming Mars.
On the other hand, we could try looking a bit closer to home: The moon, or even our own oceans. While the moon might not be terraformable, we might be able to build tented cities or underground settlements there. And, while pressure in the sea increases by one atmosphere with every ten meters we go down, domed submarine cities might be possible in a near future.
If the number of people who believe that Mars can be terraformed and eventually inhabited by humans is lower than i would like it to be, i don't want to begin to wonder about the number of people who believe that Venus is terraformable. With an atmospheric pressure of around 90 bars, an atmosphere consisting almost-entirely of carbon dioxide and a mean surface temperature 450 degrees higher than that of Earth's, it sounds like Hell itself. But what if it's terraformable? There are serious problems, such as the impossibility of landing humans on it and the fact that a day on Venus lasts almost 117 days, but say we built a huge orbital mirror which reflected sunlight and placed it between Venus and the sun for a few years or decades and then tried to land there.
The situation of Venus could be considered similar to the one on Mars in some ways and opposite to it in others, so terraforming Venus would be a challenge to science as interesting as terraforming Mars.
On the other hand, we could try looking a bit closer to home: The moon, or even our own oceans. While the moon might not be terraformable, we might be able to build tented cities or underground settlements there. And, while pressure in the sea increases by one atmosphere with every ten meters we go down, domed submarine cities might be possible in a near future.
