Terraforming Mars - Fun Board Game or Potential Reality?
AI Space Factory designed a 3D-printed house for NASA's habitat challenge. Image Credit: AI SpaceFactory/Plompmozes
Mars is like the hot new girl on the block - people can't stop talking about her.
It seems like ever since the release of The Martian, people have become obsessed with Mars and the almost-creepy-futuristic idea that it could one day become home.
The chatter about the Red Planet ranges from a board game released in 2016 - to a NASA-sponsored 3-D Printing Habitat Challenge - to the implications of finding liquid water - to the debate on whether or not we'd be able to actually terraform Mars.
What does terraforming mean?
According to Dictionary.com,
to alter the environment of (a celestial body) in order to make capable of supporting terrestrial lifeforms.
In other words: make a planet suit the needs of Earthlings without needing to wear a spacesuit (think oxygen, plants, water...).
Elon Musk has a longstanding dream of making Mars habitable and he won't go down without a fight, despite new research published in Nature Astronomy which illustrated two approaches to terraforming Mars - neither of which seem like they'll pan out due to lack of carbon dioxide (but again, Elon claps back confidently).
Artist's concept of Mars. Image Credit: Moyan Brenn/Flickr
Additionally, the latest discovery of subsurface water on Mars requires a lot more research before we can send humans there, but it's exciting to watch the discussions unfold.
So, is living on Mars nothing more than a pipe dream?
Not necessarily. Technology is advancing at such a rapid pace we'd be shocked if one day there wasn't a colony of Earthlings on Mars. Whether they are walking around an Earth-like environment without the use of spacesuits however, is yet to be determined.
