The Wild Plan to Terraform Mars by Slamming Asteroids Into It
1 min read
Summary
Scientists are exploring ways to transform Mars into a planet on which humans could thrive.
Current ideas involve creating enclosed habitats on Mars, which would take care of the lack of atmosphere and extreme temperatures, at least in the short term.
In the longer term, terraforming could change Mars into an Earth-like planet, but this would require a thick atmosphere, something Mars lacks.
One scientist, Leszek Czechowski of the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, has suggested asteroids could help create a thicker atmosphere.
Asteroids would need to be diverted from the Kuiper belt – the disc of material that lies beyond Neptune – and would contain water and nitrogen.
This would require years of planetary energy consumption to complete, but Czechowski believes fusion and ion engines would provide the power to do so.
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