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."

Comments

Arizona State University is NOT in "Tuscon, US"

[Anonymous Coward]

The article erroneously claims ASU is in Tucson. The University of Arizona is in Tucson.

Re:To prevent harmful radiations

[Red Flayer]

I guess they should just use TiO2 coatings on mirrors that are transparent in visible but very dark in UV (don't know xray region)

What, like glass?

Not making fun, it's just that there's a reason we use quartz or NaCl sample jars for UV spectroscopy... but I don't think regular glass blocks xrays, though.