This, of course, all assumes terraforming something like Mars is even an achievable feat, as we know enough about Mars now to know it’d take a heck of a lot more than just getting plants to grow there to terraform it, as due to Mars’s very weak magnetosphere, any oxygen added to the already thin atmosphere is liable to get ripped away again by solar radiation, so it wouldn’t even “stick” unless we find a way to greatly strengthen Mars’s magnetosphere. And since that would involve either dramatically altering the behavior of the planet’s core itself (something we presently have no idea how to safely do) or installing extremely powerful magnetic field generators all across the planet’s surface, an almost ridiculously complex and resource hungry feat, terraforming the darn planet is going to take a heck of a lot more work than Hollywood typically suggests it to be, so much so it might not even be worth it, or, worst-case, not even possible.
And yet in spite of all that…Mars is easily still the best candidate to even try with in our solar system, so if terraforming it is really going to be so demanding a task regardless, then unless we get lucky enough to find an even better candidate world in another star system (requiring, of course, a reliable way to travel to and from it with all the supplies needed for it), I’m honestly not sure humanity really will ever be trying to terraform anything. Not unless we make some dramatic technical breakthrough that completely changes the game (and quite probably our total understanding of the problem) and that’s something that can’t currently be predicted on whether it’ll ever actually happen or not.
scyphi26 about 2 months ago
This, of course, all assumes terraforming something like Mars is even an achievable feat, as we know enough about Mars now to know it’d take a heck of a lot more than just getting plants to grow there to terraform it, as due to Mars’s very weak magnetosphere, any oxygen added to the already thin atmosphere is liable to get ripped away again by solar radiation, so it wouldn’t even “stick” unless we find a way to greatly strengthen Mars’s magnetosphere. And since that would involve either dramatically altering the behavior of the planet’s core itself (something we presently have no idea how to safely do) or installing extremely powerful magnetic field generators all across the planet’s surface, an almost ridiculously complex and resource hungry feat, terraforming the darn planet is going to take a heck of a lot more work than Hollywood typically suggests it to be, so much so it might not even be worth it, or, worst-case, not even possible.
And yet in spite of all that…Mars is easily still the best candidate to even try with in our solar system, so if terraforming it is really going to be so demanding a task regardless, then unless we get lucky enough to find an even better candidate world in another star system (requiring, of course, a reliable way to travel to and from it with all the supplies needed for it), I’m honestly not sure humanity really will ever be trying to terraform anything. Not unless we make some dramatic technical breakthrough that completely changes the game (and quite probably our total understanding of the problem) and that’s something that can’t currently be predicted on whether it’ll ever actually happen or not.