h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Anyone have any information on terraforming Mars?

H-L

Sure, terraforming Mars isn't really a big deal (time consuming, yes. expensive, yes. But we know how!). The best place to start is by throwing a couple of Solar Mirrors, which will redirect more of the sun's light (and HEAT) into the Martian atmosphere, which will increase (a little) the atmospheric pressure and temperature.

From there, things get to be a bit tricky. Some of the best ways may be to throw a couple nukes at the south pole every spring. This will help melt the poles, which will add water, heat, and a couple other nasty things into the mix. Or perhaps we can add thermotubes, which are essentially big holes in the ground that bring up heat, gases, etc. from the inside of Mars.

Once the planet has a thick enough atmosphere, and is warm enough, we can start adding useful gases, by throwing in things like algae, and then building up to larger plants, then animals, and, finally, people.

The biggest problem is, in order for us to do any of this, we have to constantly run 11-month manned flights all the way out to the middle of the solar system... and it's that we haven't figured out all the way yet.

For more information on terraforming, check out redplanet.com (really useful, all sorts of fun stuff, useless knowledge, etc.).

Terraforming Mars

every one wonders where the water has gone i think know 8¬)
mars lots of rusty iron
note to get iron to rust you need oxygen, & hydrogen = water,
the rusting removes the oxygen leaving the hydrogen
that has been detected in small quantites floating around,
being a very light gas it won't stay around.
sorry, i may be the running-man but living in air sealed caves in mars
is the only practal way to stay alive there, you would die in seconds
on the surface and be bombarded by cosmic rays

Heat, water and atmosphere can be released with a handful of uranium deposited down a shaft to the small iron core of the planet where the reaction would cause heat throughout the crust, the thicker atmosphere would trap enough heat from the sun to give liquidity to water on the surface. The state of Mars at present is a dead planet and its appearance would constitute an ice age. I wonder if our planet ever existed in this state, if so who contributed the uranium and did they leave a life form behind. Early mammalian perhaps.