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Warming a Tiny Piece of Mars For Terraforming

dptalia writes "It's been a dream of science fiction writers everywhere that we would eventually terraform Mars. Now an engineering student has proposed a way to terraform only a kilometer of Mars. By building an array of space based mirrors to focus the sun's light, a small area of Mars could be warmed to about 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) which would make it easier for explorers to work and live there. Since Mars' atmosphere is thin, the mirrors would have to be carefully designed to prevent them from reflecting harmful radiation as well as light and warmth."

8 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Whoa by American+AC+in+Paris · · Score: 5, Funny
    Now an engineering student has proposed a way to teraform only a kilometer of Mars.

    ...while technologically astounding, I fail to see the utility in being able to do this.

    Now, if we're talking about a square kilometer of Mars, that'd be a different matter...

    --

    Obliteracy: Words with explosions

  2. Whoops! by madhatr · · Score: 3, Funny

    Didn't Wornstrom try this in a Futurama episode? Lessons learned I guess.

    1. Re:Whoops! by Wornstrom · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why yes, as a matter of fact =D

  3. I know.... by krell · · Score: 2, Funny

    "To filter out UV and higher frequency things, like our ozone layer does, just use a prizm, or better, a diffraction grating (like a cd), but then you'd end up with a rainbow down on the surface"

    Always looking for a way to make real that Martian rave you've always been planning, eh?

    --
    Where were you when the voynix came?
  4. New England by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 3, Funny

    I wish they could warm New England to 68 degrees instead.

  5. Start The Reactor by Akvum · · Score: 3, Funny

    Another reason why Arnold should become president.

  6. Re:Water? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    What gives? The first thing we talk about when trying to inhabit a new planet is a way to create global warming?

  7. Re:Water? by StalinsNotDead · · Score: 2, Funny

    Clearly to raise the temperature of Mars, we must destroy all Martian pirates.

    --
    Thanks to the internet, we can now all die alone together! -SomeWoman