Can we ACTUALLY terraform Mars?

Mars was once an Earth-like world. Many people have suggested ideas of how we could revive the breathable air, running water, and magnetic protection that Mars now lacks making it a habitable option for humanity's future. But are any of these suggestions really possible?

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About The Planetary Society:
The Planetary Society has inspired millions of people to explore other worlds and seek other life. With the mission to empower the world's citizens to advance space science and exploration, its international membership makes the non-governmental Planetary Society the largest space interest group in the world. Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman founded the Planetary Society in 1980. Bill Nye, a longtime member of The Planetary Society's Board, serves as CEO.

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[bobertrelish]

1:10 theoretically, we could transfer the excessive amounts of atmosphere on venus, and transfer some of it to mars, increasing martian atmosphere, while decreasing venusian atmosphere, and then storing away any excess gas left over from venus in air tanks, that could periodically release gases into mars’ atmosphere, at the same rate that mars loses it’s atmosphere, until we can generate a new magnetic field on mars

that’s all theoretical though, and would require us to have ISS-like satellites stationed orbiting both Venus AND Mars, along with our own, current, ISS (which would be crazy expensive)… considering how expensive this would be, though, it’s unlikely to occur, considering our current economic situation… also, it would require A LOT of time, effort, and tech to accomplish, on top of the already insane amounts of money it would be cost… i’d say it’s theoretically possible, but not currently probable, and far from practical

[PalimpsestProd]

Don't terraform the surface, terraform the caves.
2:30 or you could just harvest the oxygen from the much feared perchlorates and get a huge amount of energy in the process.
Nitrogen and phosphorous are likely to be the big stumbling points and there isn't enough thorium to synthesize them in breeder reactors. On the other hand we will be customizing bosons by 2072 so a lot of impossible things will be possible.

[dave]

Just get a Genesis Device like on Wrath of Khan.

[markholm]

How would we replicate Earth’s nitrogen, you know, 78% of our atmosphere that happens to produce, not only the bulk of our atmospheric pressure, but also the amino in amino acids, the pyrimidines and purines in DNA and RNA and the cores of both chlorophyll and hemoglobin?

[fluffywarhampster]

we'll never terraform other planets without trying and the only way we will try is if we have to. that means a permanent colony on mars and possibly even Venus. it may take generations but for the future human colonies that work will be worth it. as of right now the human race has no evidence that some other alien race could come to save us so for the time being we need to take our destiny into our own hands.

[luckyblank]

I can terraform Mars with 1) technology that doesn't exist, 2) resources we don't have access to, and 3) wealth that we are unlikely to produce, 4) in a period of time that no one alive today will live to begin. So.

[MjkeG]

Hurl frozen astroids at the planet for about 100 years. See what happens. You wouldn't really have to hurl them. You could just push them into the Mars orbital plane. 1 year or less... Boinga boinga.

[zaguar]

We won't devise workable techniques for terra-forming Mars until we need to, and we won't need to until we _*Occupy Mars!*._ We probably won't ever find an alien obelisk on the Moon, or discover a Prothean data cache on Mars, or be visited by Vulcans after testing a prototype warp drive. We'll have to build our multi-planet, space-faring civilization the hard way, one step at a time. Lunar and Martian colonies are long overdue - Ad Astra!

[dougspace]

Paraterraforming (ever larger greenhouses) answers most all of these issues.

Don't need for magnetic field to stop atmospheric loss. Much less wait time for air than can be breathed. Don't need to transport any gasses or greenhouse gasses. A scalable approach, . Hiwever, maintenance would be required. Radiation and hypogravity would still remain unresolved.

[pacotaco]

Loved the video! You should look into making a video on terraforming venus, or even earth. Both planets have suitable gravity for us and are great jumping off points for further discussions

[Yutani_Crayven]

"It's unlikely to happen" – in what timeframe? Absolute statements like this are silly. Terraforming will always take at least hundreds of years. Speaking about likelyhood for something that far in the future is just strange.
"The Sun will undo all the work" – The video mentions a lot of concepts but barely any numbers. This was the worst example of that. NASA's MAVEN mission measured this, and atmospheric mass loss is only on the order of 1-2 kg/s. For comparison, Earth is gaining 40, 000 tonnes of material (not atmosphere) each year in spite of also being unable to hold onto lighter elements like helium and hydrogen.1-2kg should be easy enough to offset in any serious geo-engineering program. And that's without putting up an artificial magnetic field.
Moreover, Venus also doesn't have an internal dynamo. Venus is closer to the Sun, so it faces far harsher solar wind than Earth and Mars do. And yet, Venus has a thicker atmosphere than both.

[aaronelijahcolyer]

This video makes some really interesting points. Maybe in a thousand years we'll have the technology to terraform Mars but we're a long way away from that capability.

[adamjbond]

Betteridge's law of headlines strikes again. I just want nice O'Neill Cylinders orbiting around key planets and asteroids rather than focusing on terraforming other planets.

[willemvandebeek]

Terraforming the entire planet Mars is a mistake.
Terraforming a single Martian crater, by building a glass dome over it and creating a pressurised atmosphere under that dome, is a way more efficient approach.

[sorrowschism]

To terraform Mars one must begin by increasing its mass. I suggest throwing very large rocks at it.

[sarun]

Very unlikely until, at least, when we can terraform earth and solve the global warming and other environmental issues.

[DavidODuvall]

Use thousands of autonomous rockets to redirect asteroids into a slow decay orbit around Mars to increase its mass. After the mass has been increased then we redirect oxygen abundant comets into the Mars atmosphere. In a couple of hundred years it will be suitable to start new colonies.

[reasonforlife]

Beyond dispicable. Strawman argument at its worse.

[twonumber]

I don't know why anyone would want to mess with it. At least not until it's been researched extensively.

[Jamtron]

It's disingenuous to claim that we would need a magnetic field, the rate of atmospheric loss is so low it would occur over geological timescales not human ones.