Mars is the focus of much speculation and serious study about possible human colonization. Its surface conditions and the availability of water make it arguably the most hospitable of the planets in this solar system, other than Earth. The Moon has been proposed as the first location for human colonization, but unlike Earth's moon, Mars has the potential capacity to host human and other organic life. With an environment suitable for colonization, and potential for alteration into a stable ecosystem in the far future, Mars is considered by most scientists, including Stephen Hawking, as the ideal planet for future colonization and renewal of life. The colonization of Mars is a thought-provoking subject that captures the imagination of many people in science and science-fiction. The project of colonizing Mars provides a useful thought experiment for contemplating the future of humanity. Cities, bases and even biosphere bubbles can be established before terraforming Mars.
Terraforming of Mars[]
Some groups have speculated that Mars might one day be transformed so as to allow a wide variety of living things, including humans, to survive unaided on Mars' surface. Others make a variety of objections to doing so, some relating to technical feasibility, and others to desirability.
Magnetosphere[]
The Martian Magnetosphere is dead. When it died, cosmic rays would have fried any life on the surface, and did boil away all bodies of water. Then the Solar Wind stripped away the majority of the atmosphere the planet once had. To truly and fully Terraform Mars, Mars would need a Magnetosphere. Without a Magnetosphere to shield against cosmic rays and solar wind, terraforming can only be done in domes, where the dome provides protection from those and retains atmosphere.
With a magnetosphere, the planet can have oceans, lakes and rivers again.
- Restarting the Geothermal Engine that created & sustained the old magnetosphere.
Not viable. Even IF a way could be found to do that, you still have the problems that led to it dying in the first place. Not enough mass to retain heat. Without the ability for the core to retain heat, the core will cool and solidify again, repeating history.
- Creating an Artificial Magnetosphere
How might we create and safely sustain an artificial magnetosphere? Satellites? Skyhooks? Generator installations on the surface? Whatever methods we may develop, this option is the more practical, and more feasible one overall.
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