Terraforming Mars with Robot !?

Robot Colonies on Mars - YouTube animation

What do you think of colonizing and terraforming Mars with robots?

...raising surface temperature - atmospheric pressure - melting ice - producing Earth chemical composition of atmosphere - putting Earth extermophiles (( lichen, cyanobacteria...which are already down the rocks )) whose metabolism can survive lack of oxygen....on Martian soil - building habitat ...

I mean robots are on Mars alerady... and and we have this nice “forest“ also...

The sooner we start the better, i often wonder why we are so slow to make a big move on space considering how much advancements and wealth there is to be made, take that first big step and get it all going, commercialize space and things will progress and work itself out from there.

Maybe we could create thousands of huminoid robots for setting up human friendly habitations on hostile worlds so all the dangerous and hard work is done by the time we get there. We could call them Cylons.......

I think that it can't be done otherwise - robots are ones to go first.

Space lift would be essential - to keep permanent and busy missions.

S. Dubowsky of MIT (funded by NASA) prototype MICRO-ROBOTS:

The micro-robots could land on the surface of another planet arranged in a capsule like eggs in a carton. Or they could be dropped onto the planet by a balloon floating above the surface. They would move by rolling and bouncing, powered by artificial muscles that alter their overall shape.

They are testing robots in caves i Mexico!

In cave exploration, the micro-robots could position themselves to enable communications from deep within a cave. Each one would act as a relay, passing messages back to a central unit. Fifty micro-robots lined up in this manner could theoretically explore a cavern a kilometre deep.

The final bots would each be a few centimetres in diameter, about 100 grams in weight, and would be able to jump about 1.5 metres in a single bound, travelling 50 kilometres over their lifetimes.

Each robot would come equipped with a suite of scientific instruments, such as cameras and spectrometers, and would be able to communicate with one another, their designers claim.

source: new scientist

To what extent do you think that teraforming would take place?

I was always led to believe that it was virtually impossible on mars due to its reduced gravity. Apparantly only a very weak atmosphere could be supported with most gases simply floating off into space.

So surely this means that true teraforming as I understand it is imposible. However I dont see why some sort of enclosed base could not be created.

I think that there is a real possibility of terraforming Mars in a full sense .

There is a solution of pumping greenhouses gases to create a greenhouse effect - since Mars have a plenty of CO2 ( in ice) - then there should be a way to heat up Mars a little bit - just enough to release CO2 into atmosphere - and the temperature would worm soon.

I read somewhere that MIT is proposing to put some artificial perfluorcarbons (( coz it has a long duration ))- for quick start of warming Mars.

Beside robots - sure, for a starter (paraterraforming) there should be a small, space habitat -enclosed and pressurized, for semi isolated atmospheric environment.

Or heating Mars with giant orbiting mirrors !?

Specifically - South Pole region which has this huge reservoir of CO2!? Or just to heat targeted limited area for starter!?

Once you heated it - scientist admit ((finally )) there is a plenty of water to melt and to flow to those numerous river and lake bads - and water vapors also good and infect very effective greenhouse gas.


Activating hydrosphere - would indicate breathable atmosphere for primitive life organisms.

Regarding gravity and escape velocity of elements with low molecular weight - I think the key issue (as far as I am familiar with subject) is not gravity - but atmospheric structure.

For example, Earth water (vapor) doesn't fly away - not due to gravity - but very cold stratosphere, when reached it drops down to troposphere.

So, solid ozone layer will preserve water supply.

For humans - there would certainly be problems of bone weight lost, muscle atrophy ( maybe with muscle: work out can do ) cardiovascular problems...but -much less damage than astronauts on MIR are enduring.

Inside habitat - I think , with tehnology, you can establish Earth rate of gravity.

excellent thread

I have always been fascinated with the idea of colonizing Mars. Not just for the scientific step, but the possible societal maturing step it could provide for humanity... note i say possible

Keep those ideas coming!

Sorry to come in late here but here it goes anyway. In my opinion, I think the most important process is to kick start Mars core. Without the core mars atmosphere will not change much. I feel we could do everything possible on the surface to try to create an atmosphere but without a magnetic core, sorry no go. Of course I could be wrong.
But then again I could be right

Mars must have had a liquid core at one stage because scientists have found volcanic rock. What would you use to kick it back into life? Maybe we could blast it with microwave oven technology and watch the sparks fly from the metals inside? Or nukes? What was your idea?

We have Venus - no magnetosphere but thick atmosphere. Than forming thicker atmosphere on Mars can provide radiation protection ( and stripping off formed atmosphere) from solar wind.

There are suggestions to build artificial magnetosphere: a grid of huge electromagnets on surface.

However, recent scientific evidence suggest that just a thick enough atmosphere like Earth's is enough to create a shielding effect in the absence of a magnetosphere. In the past, Earth regularly had periods where the magnetosphere changed direction and collapsed for some time. Some scientists believe that in the ionosphere, a magnetic shielding was created almost instantly after the magnetosphere collapsed.[3], a principle that applies to Venus as well and would also be the case in every other planet or moon with a large enough atmosphere.

*It is also interesting that on Southern hemisphere ( 'dark spots' or 'vegetation' ) stronger magnetic field is found.

I don't know how to restart the core or if that's possible. If there's another way to thicken the atmosphere then I'm all for it. I just wonder what would happen to the earth if our core stopped.
I've heard theories that the Mars atmosphere was blown away by solar winds. Also heard that the earth's atmophere is slowly thinning out and will some day fade away. Still I'd ove to see mars terrformed either by robots or us.