For around 50 years now, science fiction writers have considered the possibility of terraforming Mars, meaning changing the planet to be more like earth. Scientists have also looked at the idea, and have some plausible ideas. My first thought was water- you need a lot of water to make life work, but apparently Mars has a lot of underground frozen water, so the big challenge is warming it up. This can be done with strategic greenhouses, or putting something in the atmosphere that could cause a greenhouse effect.
What could possibly go wrong? As of yet, these ideas aren't possible because the necessary materials haven't been developed. But we know they could be in the future. Read up on some of the ways we could change Mars to be more habitable. The more relevant question is "should we?" The time, technology, and money that such a project requires would dwarf the amount we could sink into making the planet we already have more habitable. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Philip James (University of Toledo), Steven Lee (University of Colorado), NASA)
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