DARPA: We Are Engineering the Organisms That Will Terraform Mars

I almost posted this in the Military Projects forum, but I felt it would be more at home for a proper discussion here.

DARPA believes that it's on the way to creating organisms capable of terraforming Mars into a planet that looks more like Earth.

For those of you who don't know, DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, they're the people who invent the future pretty much.

The goal of terraforming Mars would be to warm up and potentially thicken its atmosphere by growing green, photosynthesizing plants, bacteria, and algae on the barren Martian surface.

“For the first time, we have the technological toolkit to transform not just hostile places here on Earth, but to go into space not just to visit, but to stay,” Alicia Jackson, deputy director of DARPA’s new Biological Technologies Office said Monday at a DARPA-hosted biotech conference. As she said this, Jackson was pointing at an artist's rendering of a terraformed Mars.

With enough practice turning Earth’s damaged landscapes back into places hospitable for life, Jackson thinks we’ll have what it takes to eventually try to colonize the solar system. This is something that obviously doesn’t even really have a timeline, it’s technology that’s in its infancy, and much of the work being done is classified—but the implications are exciting nonetheless.

“After a manmade or natural disaster, we can think about recovering the environment,” she said. “These are the tools that, for the first time, are allowing us to go after that problem.”

Source

So the first goal would be to utilize this technology to fix the environment here on earth, a noble endeavor!

Next? Terra-forming the solar system!

Pretty exciting, but is it our place? I for one say YES. We need to go forth and spread life where there is not. BUT, if life already exists somewhere, I'm tempted to say leave it be, and not introduce our own, potentially hostile, lifeforms.

It will be a long, long time before this comes about, but it's exciting.

Also, I love the part at the end of this stuff being classified. Leave it to DARPA...

Nice thread, I wonder how fast this stuff is able to spread? Would it need to be in a certain area or would it be a planetary thing?

Neat topic....pity they cant try growing green photosynthesizing plants here on Earth

We're going to trust the same people who BOMBED an extra-planetary object with our relocation, hahahahaha. Count me out. The first thing that would happen is some universal karma for attacking the moon. Which btw, is probably considered neutral space, unless we're willing to bomb other celestial object too.

I honestly think that what they did by crashing that satellite into the moon has ruined our chances of EVER getting off this rock.

We should just focus on this planet for now and forget about Mars until we're ready to peacefully integrate.

How about
.........

We creating technology that will assist every human being to get a job, reduce housing costs and pretty much a better place to live~!!!?

In other words, SAVE earth AND IT'S inhabitants FIRST~!!!

a reply to: gatorboi117


The perfect place of DARPA to introduce
a new organisms would be Europa, and
we are going there in 2025.

"Under a thick crust of ice, Europa might
have an ocean warmed by tidal interactions
with Jupiter. This tidal flexing could also
produce a geologically active core that
might in turn create hydrothermal vents
on the ocean floor."

NASA Eyes Ambitious Mission to Jupiter's Icy Moon Europa by 2025

NASA hopes to launch a mission to the Jupiter moon Europa, perhaps the solar system's best bet to host alien life, a decade or so from now, officials announced Tuesday (March 4).

The White House's 2015 federal budget request, which was released Tuesday, allocates $15 million to help develop a mission to Europa, which harbors a potentially life-supporting ocean of liquid water beneath its icy shell.


www.space.com...

Great!

Then the 1% can finally GTFO and leave this beautiful rock for rejuvenation!

Also then, we can fix this seemingly broken system and deal with issues on Earth and with humanity on all levels!

I hope Mars has oil for thise bloodsucking buggers!

Looks like things are on the right track, yea..

its educational for all of them especially the younger people pursuing a career in activities like that, its my guess that the folks on mars and every other planet in this solar system do not need our assistance in any way, some are supposedly very advanced much more so than we are here

so they must mean terraforming this planet in the future

a reply to: Joneselius


Trust your government!!

So out of curiosity, what are the chances of reawakening ancient lifeforms through terraforming that are more or less dormant at this point on Mars/Europa?

Also, how would that process interact with any lifeforms currently occupying Europa or Mars?

“For the first time, we have the technological toolkit to transform not just hostile places here on Earth....

Proof that even DARPA is excited for Fallout 4.

a reply to: wasaka

The perfect place of DARPA to introduce
a new organisms would be Europa, and
we are going there in 2025.

Not exactly. Introducing any organism into an environment that has been isolated from Earth's could produce drastic consequences.

I wont go into details because I'm quite sure you understand why. Whether it be an invasion or contamination, I cringe at the prospect of finding life outside of our planet and us possibly contributing to it's own demise.

Terraforming is one thing. But to get life to cling they would have to figure out how to shield Mars from cosmic radiation.

m.sciencemag.org...

There is no magnetic field to shield the atmosphere in and the bad stuff out. So what's the point of atmosphere making critters?

Edit: That was a knee jerk reaction. I read the article and as I suspected the mars comment is hyperbole. Their umbrella corp like genetic modification may help our planet tho.

Wonder if Mars is the first planet to be engineered by introducing alien organisms. Perhaps this isn't the first Terra forming project Mars has seen.

originally posted by: Komodo
How about
.........

We creating technology that will assist every human being to get a job, reduce housing costs and pretty much a better place to live~!!!?

In other words, SAVE earth AND IT'S inhabitants FIRST~!!!

Didn't they (DARPA) already invent the internet?

originally posted by: Sillyosaurus
Terraforming is one thing. But to get life to cling they would have to figure out how to shield Mars from cosmic radiation.

m.sciencemag.org...

There is no magnetic field to shield the atmosphere in and the bad stuff out. So what's the point of atmosphere making critters?

Edit: That was a knee jerk reaction. I read the article and as I suspected the mars comment is hyperbole. Their umbrella corp like genetic modification may help our planet tho.

The speed at which Mars lost it's atmosphere was only due -in part- to lack of a magnetic field. What was more responsible for that was a much younger Sun which out out more ionizing radiation than it does now.

As it stand today we know that Mars, Earth and Venus are all losing their atmospheres at basically the same rate.

So if for some reason they were able to terraform Mars or if Earth lost it's magnetic field, they'd be safe for at least a billion years (and by such time the Sun's evolution to being a hotter star would already have made life on Earth on earth very rare if not eliminated entirely).

a reply to: gatorboi117
A lot of people like the idea of terraforming Mars but engineering an organism to warm up a planet might not be a good idea, they have to test it somewhere and some think it is getting warm enough here, isn't that part of their global warming? What happens when it gets loose either accidental or on purpose? I'm not saying the government doesn't have good security to contain it or they would experiment on its own people or this planet. What could go wrong, they only have our best interest in mind, right.

Gonna piss of the MARTIANS living underground...

There is no magnetic shield around Mars, the 'air' pressure is 0.15 that of Earth's, Mars is much too close to the asteroid belt without the protection of a thick atmosphere, plus without the magnetic shield, the planet is blasted by the sun's radiation.
I presume there is no astronomer in darpa?

Right, so they want to send humans there on a one way trip (Mars One), and they want to terraform Mars as well?

I can see that being an interesting mix.

It can only be one or the other, not both.

originally posted by: gatorboi117
BUT, if life already exists somewhere, I'm tempted to say leave it be, and not introduce our own, potentially hostile, lifeforms.

Yeah good luck with that unicorn dream.

Humanity will expand wherever and whenever possible until someone with a bigger stick is able to stop us. If no such person exists, we will continue forward. Perhaps some planets will have "Planetary Parks" but a whole planet left alone where there is life? not gonna happen.