Terraforming Mars On the Cheap? New Solution Proposed by Scientists

I have been watching your videos since six grade, about eight years. Please keep being a wonderful person Anton.

I read a trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson ("Red Mars", "Green Mars", and "Blue Mars") several years ago... early 2000s I think. The terraforming of Mars took a couple generations. It is a really good read, highly recommended.

Thank you Anton! I am glad you talked about the magnetosphere.

Producing big amounts of a world-destroying nanomaterial seems a bad idea.

Remember the Space Homestead Act? It was to bring colonists to Mars on a competitive qualified basis, one way trip (estimated to take 10-30 years to arrive depending on project scope), to set up the essentials for future colonists. Like, shelter, food/air/water, recycling, etc.. As you said though, Anton, it was the ionizing radiation they discovered about the time they were accepting applications. This determined a 100% failure risk for any venture, and the program went silent. After that, there was the "extract hydrogen from asteroids' fiasco so they could make extra-planetary fuel stations for all the space craft they assumed would be permanently space bound, built and operated outside of atmospheres. Heh, so many cool ideas back then! I wish people would have as much inspiration today. I thank you for your videos, Mr Petrov. Always a pleasure to watch and listen.

The elephant in the room is always going to be magnetosphere. Apart from towing in an appropriate sized moon and putting into a stable orbit to activate the core.

Thank you so much for bringing up the magnetic field generator for Mars. I see sooooo many posts by people saying we can't terraform Mars because it has no magnetic field. That's actually one of the easier problems we can solve!

The simplest solution would be to live underground where humans would be protected against solar radiation and micro-meteorites.

Here's a thought - Do we have the right to terraform another planet? Not saying human beings have a habit of jumping into "could we" without thinking about "should we"... and not saying that everything we touch we destroy... and certainly not implying that there could be implications of terraforming that we can't possibly anticipate... but we are looking to terraform another planet because we are destroying our own. We haven't explored Earth. We don't ensure everyone on this planet has what they need to live. We still have wars. Contaminating another planet won't put our "house" in order. Love your video's, Anton! You are a bright light! It's nice to have really interesting content to watch and learn from every day!

Oh, good. All those mesothelioma lawyers will have something to do once all the asbestos cases are done.

I always learn something new and cool with you. You are the only one that I trust you with astronomical developments. Thank you Anton. Your are my hero.

I think the first step would be the magnetic field generator to protect reinforce the magnetosphere.

The atmospheric pressure of Mars is 0.6% of that of Earth, which means that even if it gets the right temperature we would still need to bring or dig out quintillion tones of material to build up that atmosphere to livable pressure.

If subsurface life were discovered on Mars, it might just throw a wrench into the gears of terraforming plans. Imagine the interplanetary headlines: "Martian Microbes Protest Terraforming!" It's possible that such a significant scientific discovery would prompt a reevaluation of terraforming initiatives to preserve potential Martian ecosystems.

I watch Anton EVERY day! Great video, as usual!! Greets from the Netherlands ❤

I think before terraforming it we should investigate it more. I feel like mars had life at some point, so I feel like we should learn about any martian fossils before terraforming the entirety of mars.

My opinion is that the utilization of numerous space habitats would be a lot more constructive for us as a space faring species than terraforming a planet. We could make these habitats the exact gravity, humidity, rotation and other specifications that we require. Doing that on a planetary scale would be significantly more difficult, and might destroy Martian specifics that would be forever adapted in a potentially short sighted endeavor.

My Physics degree level project was on the warming effect of sulphur hexafluoride. Short answer - it would work.

Terraform Mars? We can’t even get the potholes fixed on our local roads….

I would think re-starting Mars' global Magnetic field would be the 1st important step; else wise the solar wind will just strip away any Atmosphere that a terraforming process might be able to create.