Introduction
Terraforming is a process to make a planet, moon or other cosmic body sustainable to live life. However, Terraforming is a hypothetical process of changing a planet’s atmosphere, temperature, etc. into earth’s like sustain that is just perfect for life. It is not an event that would change everything dramatically to something liveable, but a process that can take more than thousands of years to happen to a earth-like atmosphere and everything like Earth. Planets like Venus and Mars can be Terraformed. Venus the hottest planet, also called the Earth’s sister and Mars that is most likely to sustain life for humans. It could be the worst thing humans will ever do to a planet, to sustain life on another planet by destructing the whole planet and making it worse but if it would be a success, it would be life-changing and of course a milestone.
This concept was developed from both science fiction and actual science. This term was coined by Jack Williamson in his book “Collision Orbit” published in 1942. Carl Sagan, an astronomer proposed the planetary engineering of Venus in 1961.
How it will change Humans life?
If you have understood the term “Terraform” so far now, this is no question to ask ‘how it will change our life?’ Being multi-planetary species will be a great achievement in human history. And Terraform which was first coined in Williamson’s book “Collision Orbit” in 1942, as a fictional story that was hypothetic for humans will be our reality. It will dramatically change our life.
Imagine if you can talk to your ancestor and tell them you are able to communicate with the one who is thousands of miles away with a small device. If it is hard to imagine, imagine yourself living in a time where there is nothing, but a long sharp wooden spear for food, forests to live and rivers to drink. And someone tells you that you can order your food (cooked) with some little movements of your finger on a small screen. Hard to believe for me as being an ancestor. But technology is a small gadget to play with for us as we have been growing up with it.
The point of this story was to believe that everything is possible with a small hope. Well, Mars is a totally different thing, it’s a giant and bulky body flying around a big fireball in dark space, it’s not as easy as ordering pizza, but still, before we can tell what colonising Mars will change, we need to believe someday it will happen. Even if we colonise half of the human species to Mars from Earth, it would be a great help to our home Earth. Our goals and aims in the science and tech field will change, it will be about doing one step more advance.
Risk of Terraforming
There are enormous kinds of risks of terraforming. If we melt down every piece of information about other planets to their fundamental truths, we know that everything from Earth is different on every planet. Then whether it is about gravity, atmosphere, natural environment, soil or water. And neither we can do anything about that. We can not change the gravity. Never! Mars's atmosphere is so thin and there is no guarantee that the water on Mars will be not hazardous for human beings. And after terraforming there are possibilities of destruction of indigenous life, even if microbial, if such life exists. That makes less possibility of having life on Mars than it already holds very little hope of life. Most sources claim that Mars had life some time before as we can also claim that Mars had water in abundant quantity as looking at it today. So, it proves that Mars would have life, microbial, definitely! But it would be bad to destroy that too by terraforming or any other harmful activity.
Apart from the risks of terraforming, there are other reasons, as I discussed before, the gravity and the atmosphere of Mars. To say we human beings are living on Earth even before the day when dinosaurs opened their eyes. Ha ha ha! I know! But, there is never ever been another home than our Earth and so our body has a kind of habit to live on this planet. I know it’s kinda weird- ‘habit of living on Earth’ but we have this thing. Our body can not endure the tension of bones. The gravity of Mars is only about one-third that of Earth’s. And this is nothing but physiological changes. Effects on bone density, muscle strength and circulation. Mars gravity can also cause osteoporosis and cardiovascular disorders.
What is Mars?
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second smallest planet in the Solar System, being larger than Mercury. It is a terrestrial planet (a rocky planet) with a very thin atmosphere. The story of Mars's life is estimated about 4.5 years ago. And Mars was not the same as it is today. It is estimated that there was life on Mars (but small life-like, organisms) as we have seen some microbes in the solid water bodies on the poles of Mars. Yet scientists are not conformed if those were microbes that they researched on a piece of rock from Mars but they look the same as microbes. Mars at first was a sufficient body of water but over time it lost its water and the magnetic field. Because of its size, also, it became cooler at a fast pace and because of having a long distance between Sun and Mars. And magnetic field is the area around a magnet in which the effect of magnetism is felt. As we know, Aluminium and then Iron is the most abundant metal that is found in the Earth’s crust and we all know that the liquid metal that flow creates the magnetic field. So back to Mars, it losted its magnetic field when the planet went cold and so the water evaporated into space, left with a small amount of water on the poles (as you can see till today).
What is the process of Terraforming?
The process of Terraforming is basically about doing an activity that will change the condition of that object most similar to the planet or object we know, Earth for example. As we know Earth’s atmosphere and so we know what type of atmosphere is suitable for humans. So we are trying to make another cosmic body, Mars just like Earth to make it a place like heaven to live. You might have heard about Mars colonisation and Elon Musk. So, in simple terms, Musk is trying to colonise humanity to Mars to become multi-planetary species. And to do that, he has targeted our red planet- Mars. There are so many ways according to him to warm it up, first, creating artificial suns with a series of thermonuclear explosions on both poles that will work like the sun and will help to warm it up fast. Dropping nuclear weapons over the poles to warm it up, is the second way. In this way, the frozen water on the poles will again start to turn into liquid and it will help the planet to make an atmosphere. And Terraforming process is not just about warming a planet but also to cool down a planet. A planet like Venus, the hottest planet that was even the first planet, was proposed planetary engineering in 1961 by Carl Sagan. So, we can warm the frozen Mars and cool the hot Venus.
Can we live on Mars?
I ask you, what do YOU think?
If life gets sustainable, there are no issues in living on Mars and that’s a common mind sense. But the question is about the possibility of whether we can live on Mars or not. I personally believe that even if we somehow manage water on Mars by terraforming and other things, still we can’t make changes in gravity and the thin layer of atmosphere that is covering Mars. It is quite possible and quite impossible to live in the natural Mars atmosphere even after terraforming. Even some scientists believe that it is more complex than anything else to make humans keep alive on Mars. So, it is only possible to live in some kind of glass house and use artificial suns for light. Just like we use Igloos in snow areas to keep safe ourselves from the cold that can freeze your nerves. Yes!, definitely, life will be not the same as it is on Earth but it is possible to live on Mars.
Is it worth trying to Terraform Mars?
It is thousands of times more worth trying than anything humans are trying to do. If we can save and help Earth by doing this in any form, then why not?
Tell me in the comments section, what you think about it.
