SimEarth: Terraforming Mars by the Numbers

An anonymous reader writes "Today NASA has an online terraforming simulation based on the McKay/Zubrin/Fogg model of Mars' weather modification. The simulation shows that the greening of Mars can be done in at least three ways: 1) mirrors melting stored carbon dioxide in tropical soil and polar dry ice; 2) a fluorocarbon (CFC) factory; 3) blowing a vent thruster in the side of a methane-rich asteroid and engineering a collision (perhaps many impacts, but a mere 0.3 km/s impulse drive if using an outer solar system asteroid, such as Chiron, beyond Saturn). Irrespective of the merits or wisdom of these huge engineering projects, their simulation allows moving back the clock to a previous time when Mars was blanketed by greenhouse gases, and thus much warmer."

Comments

Total Recall

[DeLabarre]

What about activating the magic terraforming machine the aliens left us?

Vandalism

[NTDaley]

The idea of terraforming bugs me.
Even though there's nothing living there, I think its an environment worth protecting.
If we terraform it, we get another Earth (more or less), but we lose a place that's different, exciting, and interesting. We lose the opportunity of experiencing that Mars.