Could we birth life into Mars?

Considering Mars has a climate similar to that of Earth which could possibly sustain life, would it be possible for us to turn it into a fertile planet?

Could we perhaps create a biodome on Mars which could sustain vegetation from Earth and slowly introduce life to the barren planet? Perhaps we could genetically modify some plants and organisms to survive harsher climates such as those on Mars.

If possible, this may be one solution to overpopulation of people on Earth; we could turn mars into another Earth for people to populate.

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy


i thought mars atmosphere was to thin for us to inhabit it. would take quite some time to fix that wouldnt it?

I think it was the movie, Red Planet, where they dispersed algae all over the planet to create it's own atmosphere. Makes sense to me, but I'm no rocket scientist.

Mars does have an atmosphere thinner than Earth's. It has no magnetosphere either. That means it gets bombarded by much more of the sun's radiation, but I think that a bio dome could be engineered to counter that. Since mars' atmosphere is over 95% carbon dioxide, plants and many single celled organisms would do well. That could be the way to start. Once the organisms have converted enough of the carbon dioxide to oxygen within the dome, introduce more complex species. Just my opinion, I think it could work. It would be expensive and suffer many setbacks as we discover more about the process, but that is the only way to keep moving forward. I am sure there are smarter people than me out there that have better answers or good reasons why this would not work. Looking forward to the discussion.

First (if this would even work ) you'd have to burrow a hole to the core of the planet and detonate something big enough to get the core going again. Mars is as dead as dead can be, no active core, no magnetosphere = no life.

Otherwise you'd be bombarded with cosmic radiation 24/7. Wouldn't only slowly kill us humans, but pretty much anything else that lives on earth too.

reply to post by UnaChispa


That's what scientist said they were going to do before the movie Red Planet. send rovers that with gasses that would thicken the Mars atmoshphere

I cannot understand how Earth is over-populated. Our planet is 29% land, and we only use less than 1% of the total area. If you deduct the areas for wildlife, there is still a very comfortable percentage to thrive on.

If we consider mars for colonization, why wouldn't we possibly use the "lifeless" deserts throughout the world, I mean there is a critical component to colonization that Mars does not have, a breathable atmosphere.

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy


Well, I for one hope not.
Look at what we are doing here !
All we had to do was "Tend the Garden".
Instead we are destroying it
Do people seriously believe we are capable of developing and maintaining another planet
when we can't take care of one that had it all to keep us alive and well in the first place??

Originally posted by DestroyDestroyDestroy
Considering Mars has a climate similar to that of Earth which could possibly sustain life, would it be possible for us to turn it into a fertile planet?

Could we perhaps create a biodome on Mars which could sustain vegetation from Earth and slowly introduce life to the barren planet? Perhaps we could genetically modify some plants and organisms to survive harsher climates such as those on Mars.

If possible, this may be one solution to overpopulation of people on Earth; we could turn mars into another Earth for people to populate.

Maybe they up there now seeding it with the mars rover trying to find water where to plant the trees and some undergrouth. That is a curious question tho, i wonder if that is possible. What if we started planting seeds on mars? How hot is it there? How cold is it there? Can it sustain plant life? Lets start planting and find out.

Another serious problem for potential Mars colonists is the lower gravity, 38% of Earth. I'm no expert but I'd think that would cause considerable muscle and bone loss. Hopefull colonists might be able to mitigate the problem by wearing weights 24 hours a day but even still do we even know what the long term effects of living in low gravity.

Might make a usefull stop off and refuling base if humanity ever gets into mining the rest of the solar system though.

Originally posted by InsideYourMind
First (if this would even work

) you'd have to burrow a hole to the core of the planet and detonate something big enough to get the core going again. Mars is as dead as dead can be, no active core, no magnetosphere = no life.

Otherwise you'd be bombarded with cosmic radiation 24/7. Wouldn't only slowly kill us humans, but pretty much anything else that lives on earth too.

I'm no scientist, but to get the core to restart would it be helpful to spin the planet in a circle faster and detonate some device at the center? Maybe mars slowly lost it's spin and when it lost it's spin it started to slowly loose the protective o-zone magnetic fields that protect from sun's ray's and when it lost it's spin the core just died out. Attach a Massive rocket in the ground and let her ripp, Then detonate a fusion explosion in the center when it gets up to speed. I don't know.

reply to post by InsideYourMind


Yeah it would be a long process, maybe hundreds of years, but would it be possible?

It seems like it we may have the ability to restore Mars given we had the technology to slowly replenish its atmosphere and restart its core.

I'm very ignorant on this matter so I appreciate the input everyone has given

reply to post by cloaked4u


I don't think we can just make a planet like mars spin faster, I think we would need to exert massive energy as per the law of inertia to make it spin faster.

Personally, I feel the more important question is did mars birth life to earth?

I think this has been discussed before on ATS. But I'll bite and give my two cents because this fascinates me....

Mars lacks a dynamo at its core. The core is mostly molten Iron Sulfide and is less dense than Earth's core, hence the absence of a uniform magnetosphere. But according to some stuff I read on NASA's website, there are regions that have higher magnetic fields. Perhaps, these may be prime spots to construct "biodomes" as you suggest.
Secondly, the wispy atmosphere. Don't be confused when you read that it has 95% this or 90% that. It's relative to the density of the atmosphere of the respective planet. The thin atmosphere of Mars has been dwindling away as its core has been solidifying and the atmosphere constantly being bombarded by the solar winds/radiation. Without a strong enough magnetic field/shield, and enough gravity to hold on to its atmosphere, the Martian air is slowly escaping/eroding into space. If only it was a little bit larger in size or denser with heavier elements, it could have had a significant atmosphere.
Thus, if humans wanted to "terraform" Mars, it would have to be an exhaustive continual process....unless (read further down).
If life did form there while the presence of surface water was present many eons ago, I would guess those creatures are dwelling in underground aquifers that utilize the high iron content of the Mars geology. Very deep down.
Watching the successful landing of the Curiosity rover payload, I'm hopeful that we can land more massive equipment that can drill/excavate into the Martian soil in order to make tunnels or depressions where we can construct "biodomes". But we can utilize the deepness of the Valles Marineris canyon to drop down our "Biodomes" and slowly connect them together. The deepness and magnitude of such a canyon will be more suitable to protect transplanted life to thrive. Firstly, by utilizing the canyon walls as protection from those planet-wide duststorms that Mars creates. Secondly, using the depth and the shading against the solar radiation racing through a wispy, under-protective atmosphere. In such great depths that dwarfs the Grand Canyon of Earth, there has to be some kind of separate atmosphere there.
The growing of agriculture within a "biodome" would be feasible, but would the difference in gravity and soil composition affect crop yields? Inferring that Mars has a high iron content, I would have to guess that cruciferrous vegetables such as broccoli, broccoli sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage would thrive on Mars' soil.
Mars, with its strange familiar tilt, seasons, rotation such as Earth, NASA claims that Europa has more "livable" space than the red planet:



But I guess, this all depends on the availability of water as well. Europa has lots of water. I was wondering that if a civilization such our current one, can land on the Moon 6 times before my lifetime, land multiple robots on Mars, send satellites beyond the Solar System, then why are we not aggrisively using/exploiting the asteroid field, and planetary moons that contain vast amounts of water and heavy elements?

But we are not alone, look into the Mars Society website. S&F

Terraforming.Change the surface to change the atmosphere.Would take a long time and be expensive I guess.

Its intriguing to know that plants should LIKELY be able to grow on Mars. I read that the soil has all necessary nutrients, even the right ph value.

What would be the result if some form of plants would be brought out on Mars, big style? (Or Algae etc..etc..) Would any atmosphere which might be created just "blow away" out into space...or would there be some potential way to somehow create a denser atmosphere on Mars? Time shouldn't play a role..100, 200 etc. years....i just wonder whether it would be theoretically possible.

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy


We could ........ all we need is water. And we`ve got plenty of it ... too much of it infact and we`re gonna get alot more so we better do something with it.

Once we get water up there we can use HAARP to create rain clouds and kickstart a VITAL weather system - giving mars endless water............. then send massive teams to plant gardens and fields whilst recording the changes untill we finally have oxygen.

On mars we could float to the shops for skittles `n` sh** , it would be COSMIC !
But , the yanks would ruin it by wanting all the glory as usual , and they`d still find SOMETHING to bomb up there.

Good luck with getting that baby going again. Seems pretty off balance from the damage it possibly received from the first time.
But it would be rather cool to try non the less. Just hope it has no oil or anything we rape this planet for though or I think it would not be worth the effort for we would just kill it as well. Actually being only half the size of Earth we would have killed ourselves already doing like we do here on Earth.

This video on Space.com is rather fascinating although I can`t say much for the narrating. It will be the 2nd video first one covers the changing face of mars the 2nd is what went wrong.

What went wrong with Mars
www.space.com...

Originally posted by Connman
Just hope it has no oil or anything we rape this planet for though or I think it would not be worth the effort for we would just kill it as well. Actually being only half the size of Earth we would have killed ourselves already doing like we do here on Earth.

Don't get me wrong, i am NOT for raping our planet, digging in Alaska for oil, polluting the atmosphere etc.etc...to the contrary.

But Mars doesn't look that "habitable" to begin with, its already getting raped by meteorite impacts, UV and comsic rays and whatnot, as it looks its really a BARREN place, maybe some organisms here or there (we will see)...but i don't think there is a lot potential to do damage. It could very well be a truly dead planet. Who knows, it could even in some way beneficial for us here on Earth.