Could we really terraform Mars? - Ask a Spaceman!

What killed Mars billions of years ago? How can we kickstart a warming trend to transform Mars to look like Earth? What kind of technology do we need, and how well will it work? I discuss these questions and more in today’s Ask a Spaceman!


Keep those questions about space, science, astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology coming to #AskASpaceman for COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF TIME AND SPACE! Music by Jason Grady and Nick Bain.

00:00 What Went Wrong with Mars
02:55 Creating an Artificial Greenhouse Effect
07:22 Radical Ideas
09:33 Recreating the Martian Magnetic Field
11:13 Technological Challenges

Image credits: NASA, JPL, ESA, Rigel Woida, Steve Bowers

[andrel]

There is no way I can imagine people will accept wearing a mask on Mars when they go outside.

[MitchCrane]

Me: Can we get Mars?
Mom: We have a planet at home.

[larnotlars]

Lobby congress to build the Venus to Mars Atmospheric Pipeline... Problem solved!

[EmergentUniverse]

Seems like it might be more feasible to build 3D structures (above and below ground) and control the environment within them for the purpose at hand.

[Corvaire]

I like to coin & adjust an old phrase "Not in a hundred years" ;O)-

[therealEmpyre]

It sounds like it would be easier to build lots and lots of O'Neil cylinders to comfortably house billions.

[alwaysdisputin]

I appreciate the efforts made to include video that illustrates the points you're making. your views are going to snowball

My 3 favourite things you said (that I've found in your videos so far):
1) your explanation of the Dirac sea of negative particles that give rise to positrons
2) light is trapped between a) black hole gravity & b) the anti-gravity that's created by the BH spinning
3) the idea that gravity disappears when you make a mapping from a holographic universe to a 2D surface.

I like 3) because no one can say why energy/mass curves spacetime (apart from wizards which is dumb). I've been watching a lot of videos on hyperbolic geometry because of what you said & the Poincaré disk is really cool IMO because e.g. you get nice hyperbolic trajectories that look like cannon ball trajectories (but they are straight lines - which is like if gravity had disappeared cannon balls would travel in straight lines) & if there was a black hole on the edge of the Poincare disk, then light would follow geodesics that start from the edge of the disk & then immediately curve back to the edge of the disk. They can't get away from the edge of the disk. So it just makes a lot of sense. But then I try to read about Ads/CFT correspondence & everywhere is immediately PhD maths is a requirement so it sucks. This is why I appreciate 1 & 2 a lot so TY

[sergio_botero]

So being insanely expensive and time consuming, the idea of terraforming Mars is a silly proposition. It's way cheaper and more practical to bioengineer a few volunteers so they can survive the Martian environment, and sell the process to more volunteers if it turns out successful.

[jeramiahrossnz]

thanks man, yeah i was telling a friend the same thing...the core dont work like on earth so the solar winds been blowing all the atmosphere into spacex ...sure, another planet it great as a back up and if we have to live in domes before we get to the summers on mars situation like you said, 2000 years till average levels, also the gravity is different so im not sure if that messes with how our bones grow so yeah there's that...but amazing huh? wworld wide pandemic and we chatting about setting up shop on another planet. Welcome to the future! love your shows, thanks ;)

[kajbyman]

Okay, let's say we are able to terraform mars.But are we able to keep the atmosphere and the magnetic field?How did they vanished in the first place?Isn't there a risk it will happen again?

[infinitemonkey]

I thought Elon was just going to detonate a bunch of nucs funded with doge coin to terraform it.

[matteogiberti]

Find a big cave system on Mars, make it airtight and start from there. (We have been men of the caves after all). P.S. On Mars we need nitrogen and oxygen to make a breathable atmosphere... question is where we can find the first one ?

[jamesshava]

Wow ... Very interesting and informative. Thanks

[takemu]

Apparently terraform is harder than I thought.

[maybenorthern]

I mean, assuming that this is done by an advanced version of ourselves, we could, theoretically, freeze Venus' atmosphere with orbital mirrors, taking ¬60 years, use the frozen carbon dioxide, transport it to Mars, and melt it into the atmosphere of Mars, and repeat alot, this would get all the carbon dioxide that Mars would need

[jackesioto]

There's probably not enough material on Mars for full on terraforming, But, it could be possible for the materials already on the planet to raise atmospheric pressures on Mars to survivable levels.

[russellneitzke]

Would the shield also block the light from the sun?

[bobinmaine]

Wouldn't the gravity on Mars, or lack there of, create additional problems for terraforming? The atmosphere could never be as dense as it is here on Earth. Can Mars even hold onto lighter elements like Helium, Hydrogen and even the big one, Oxygen? And wouldn't there be many more drownings on a wet Mars? Water would not be as dense I assume. Just stuff I wonder about answers appreciated.

[nazhatkhan]

It was a nice video to step humanity on the planet Mars .

[pudma]

Dr. Sutter, you are the best thing to happen to HTUW. Regarding all the talk and ideas of finding another planet, moon, whatever, to inhabit with the human species, and this is just my opinion, if I were to be alive when that becomes necessary I would choose to stay here and just let nature take its natural course. Serious question. Do you believe it is really a possibility of making an outer space object habitable for what is at this time almost 8 billion people?