terraforming is the process of modifying things like atmosphere ecology
even surface topography of another world to make it hospitable for life as we know it
think of it like buying a rundown house with no insulation and holes in the floors and then fixing
it up so you can live in it except you know your house being an entirely different planet
science fiction has played with the idea of terraforming for years but there's as much
science as there is fiction involved and people have been devising ways to make it a reality
10. we've already terraformed earth if you take terraforming by its definition of altering ecology
atmospheric landscape then the best proof we have that it will work is that it's already worked even
though the earth started out being hospitable to life and that's how we evolved we have still
terraformed the planet in some very dramatic ways the very landscape itself has been altered
constantly throughout history by mankind there are islands that exist today only because we built
them in the oceans we level mountains and hills or build other ones as we see fit you can see
the network of roads and cities from outer space dams create lakes and redirect rivers it happens
everywhere the climate of our world has changed dramatically due to human influence there's enough
evidence available to show how pollution has contributed to that people still want to debate
whether climate change is real but there's an abundance of evidence to indicate that it is and
mankind has exacerbated its effect not to mention that we burned a hole in the ozone layer just a
few years back so if the idea of terraforming seems to sci-fi just remember that we've already
done it without planning to do it right here on earth 9. it would take millions of years with
today's technology the exact method by which we could terraform mars is not as simple as having
maintainment plants and potatoes and then hope for the best the popular theory is that we just melt
martian ice and release co2 gas and then sit back and watch as it turns subtropical according to
nasa while that sounds good on paper the practical application has some hiccups for instance mars
does not have enough trapped co2 to do that the atmosphere on mars right now is too thin to do
anything with it even releasing water would be pointless because it would freeze or evaporate
the atmosphere needs density martian atmospheric pressure is currently less than one percent of
what we have on earth pressure like that on earth needs to exist for liquid water to be present and
that can't be done with the gases that are present on mars already we need to set up some industrial
revolution style factories belching pollution into the air if we want to get it up to snuff
failing that we need to dig very deep into the martian surface to find the elements that we need
at our current level of technology nasa determines that making mars hospitable and earth-like
would take around 10 million years number eight it might be less expensive than fixing earth
terraforming sounds like a monumental task and that means a monumental price tag some estimates
suggest about a century of work with a cost of 2 to 3 trillion despite the hefty price tag it
may be a more financially sound option than trying to fix the problems on earth the global investment
in fighting climate change between 2015 and 2035 is estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood
of 40 trillion dollars that three trillion dollars is starting to look like a bit of a bargain even
though initial terraforming could take a hundred years and actually getting mars to a livable state
could take another three to six hundred years it might take earth a full century to recover
from climate change if we actually manage to do that number seven the moon probably can't
be terraformed some people might think that mars is too lofty a goal for our terraforming projects
at least to start why not aim closer to home and terraform the moon it's nearby we already know the
neighborhood and it'll cost far less time money and effort the problem with the moon is that it's
very small has no magnetic field and no atmosphere if you consider terraforming like painting and
the planet the canvas on which you do it the moon is like toilet paper there's not enough substance
on which to build anything it has been theorized that you could build the moon up enough to develop
an atmosphere you might even have to crash a few dozen comets into it to make it work that
could release the necessary gases and also bulk up the mass of the moon but the atmosphere would
not last either it might remain for the length of a human lifespan or two but it would slowly
be stripped away making it a process that would have to be repeated number six there are several
terraforming candidates in our solar system usually when we think of terraforming the moon
and mars are the only things that come to mind the moon is close and mars is about as earth-like as
the solar system is going to offer scientists have set their sights a little wider however and have
come up with a handful of potential candidates all in our little corner of the galaxy mars is
of course everyone's number one choice but venus is an option as well at first it seems like a
terrible choice it's over 800 degrees fahrenheit and the atmosphere is 90 times as dense as that
on earth the planet does have a lot of magnesium and calcium which could store co2 if we exposed it
during a terraforming project however add in some elements and the atmosphere could be toned down
to livable conditions jupiter's moon callisto has also been optioned as a place to terraform as well
the icy surface would need to be heated but then jupiter's radiation could finish the job of making
the atmosphere livable throw in some bacteria and you've got a world fit for human life titan
has also presented itself as a choice moon for terraforming it would be a job and a half but the
abundance of resources on the moon leave the earth in its dust his estimated hydrocarbon reserves on
titan are hundreds of times greater than those on earth number five asteroids may get the job done
it's one thing to know you want to terraform a world but knowing how to do it is quite another
if the end result is to totally change the environment of a planet there have to be some
shortcuts and there is one very big one that has already changed the earth more than once in the
past asteroids a big enough asteroid strike can drastically alter the course of an entire planet
remember this is what most scientists believe ended the reign of the dinosaurs but if we were
to hit a planet like mars with an asteroid that we redirected through space it could introduce
beneficial elements as well as alter the climate and release elements trapped deep in the martian
surface one plan proposed to use satellites to fly an asteroid into the planet it would not terraform
the whole world but could produce a livable zone the impact would create a surface water lake and
heat rock to create an environment suitable for human life potentially for thousands of years
number four giant space mirrors have been proposed the idea of small-scale terraforming
has become more popular over time the idea that we can terraform just the space we need for now
maintaining it presents new challenges but potentially easier solutions as well one
proposed idea for terraforming a portion of mars involves the use of massive orbital or suborbital
mirrors these mirrors could be affixed on balloons and direct beams of concentrated sunlight to the
surface that would increase temperatures and also provide solar power for colonists below
an array of 300 reflective balloons could focus on a one kilometer patch of martian land
raising the temperature to around 20 degrees celsius scientists could easily work in those
conditions and any ice would be turned into water 3. greenhouse gas producing factories may help
earth's terraforming is the result of years of industry we level forests mine mountains and build
factories as much as a detriment those factories were to our environment they taught us a lot about
how certain chemicals affect an atmosphere knowing what we know about the operation of factories we
can apply that knowledge terraforming martian colonists could set up factories to process
elements and the resources needed to actually build an infrastructure while at the same time
benefiting from the waste materials of processing those resources greenhouse gases will be needed
in abundance to adapt the martian atmosphere so it would take a similar endeavor to the one that took
place on earth to make it work along with co2 cfcs and other things we basically outlawed on earth
would need to be pumped into the air then all you need to worry about is the ethical considerations
of changing a whole planet to suit your needs number two bioengineered bacteria is another
option darpa the organization best known for developing america's most effective and sometimes
bizarre weapons isn't just looking at guns and tanks the defense advance research projects
agency is also playing around with synthetic life and bioengineering they feel like they've
got a chance of developing bioengineered bacteria that could terraform mars into an earth-like world
using some technology that would fit into the plot of a horror movie darpa wants to pick and choose
the genetic traits from any organism on earth that they feel is best suited to their goal they then
combine those genes into a bacteria that they then let loose on the martian surface towards the goal
of bringing life to an otherwise dead landscape the same technology could be used on earth to
repair environmental damage caused by pollution and even bring deserts to life as well number one
nasa has already discovered numerous potential exoplanet candidates although our solar system
offers a few candidates for terraforming that is far from the be-all and end-all of terraforming
the universe is vast after all some estimates guess as many as 6 billion earth-like planets
just in our galaxy in the whole universe that could be upwards of 19 sextillion that's 19 with
21 zeroes after it a number so preposterously big it may well be bazillion of all those basically
endless planets we have only identified just over four thousand exoplanets as they are called exist
anywhere outside of our solar system around 58 of them currently sit on our list of potentially
habitable planets that means they are relatively the right size and right distance from a sun it's
possible that every single one of them would be a galactic hellscape never suitable for life but
for now they look like possibilities so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did
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