Terraforming Mars: Inside the Insane (True) Plans to Make Mars Habitable

I'm glad Simon moved Astrographics from Geographics to Mega Projects.

Thanks for not ignoring the magnetic field issue. So many infotainment programs have spoken of terraforming Mars as just a matter of adding carbon dioxide, when the challenge is so much greater.

To record a message for the future citizens of Mars was quite mindblowing!

As a plant biologist myself, the issue I never see addressed is that of radiation exposure to our food crops. By and large they'll require the same protections as humans, radiation has the same effect on plants as us, and leads to wild unpredictable mutations that will mostly kill the plants or render them sterile. However, some plants do have mechanisms in place to repair their genome and this could be used as a protective mechanism.

It is important to remember that there are thousands of things that are a part of everyday life today that were thought impossible 200 years ago. Something is only impossible until it isn't.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mar Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) is the best and most accurate example of how terraforming (areoforming) Mars would actually be approached. Anyone who read it was already familiar with most of the techniques in the NASA proposals. It's also an excellent example of hard science fiction with a heavy dose of political everything.

That was a beautiful ending to the video Simon. The part about us wishing we were standing next to them on Mars. Hit me right in emotions/imagination, wondering if this species will make it far into the future or fizzle out in the next 1000 years.

Man, to know that I am probably 1-2 generation(s) born too early to see people work/live on the moon and like 10 generations too early to see people work/live on Mars is really depressing

Imagine aliens right now in a distant galaxy discovering an exoplanet that is promising for life. And it's Mars bbecause they can only see how things were in the past

I already think in David Attenborough's voice when I see animals, I think in Morgan Freeman's voice when I think about existential things. I now hear Simon's voice for any random information stuff. If you outlive me, narrate my life, or get zefrank to do it please.

I'm convinced it's actually Simon that's locked in the basement and not Danny. It would explain how Simon manages to make content daily for like 10 channels

Simon, I love the way you so eloquently put the ending of this video 👍

One bonus: the toxic perchlorates of Mars might possibly be used to generate oxygen, for breathing, for fuel, and for other purposes. A friend once told me a mixture of sugar and potassium perchlorate would be like gunpowder (gunpowder uses the heat of burning sulfur and charcoal to break down potassium nitrate, liberating elemental oxygen that further fuels the combustion).

If I am correct the mars regolith contains potassium perchlorate. This salt is valuable because potassium is a useful nutrient. Also, it thermally decomposes giving out oxygen gas also useful: KClO4 ---> KCl +O2

You can mitigate the radiation problem by placing your colony at the west end of Valles Marineris in Noctus Labyrinthus, where there is, coincidentally a glacier with water ice galore. More than your colony will ever need. Also, being 4 miles below the surface in the canyon, you'll have only a fraction of that radiation and the atmospheric pressure will be 150% more than you get on the surface.

Give this editor a raise. Timing 10/10

I think we need to redirect icy bodies to hit it. Adding energy, water, and atmosphere instantly.

The Magnetic Field protection shield is the foundation upon which everything else is built.

1:35 - Chapter 1 - The waters of mars 5:15 - Chapter 2 - Farmsteads of the future 9:00 - Chapter 3 - In the grat magnetic field 13:30 - Chapter 4 - God of (nuclear) war 15:55 - Chapter 5 - The gift of life

Terraforming Mars is as fanciful a dream as is travelling to another solar system. People talk of a ‘generational spaceship’, but it would have to be more than that - it would have to have room for 10’s of thousands of passengers, training facilities for future crew, educational room, greenhouse and farm systems for food, food processing plant, industrial manufacturing facility, research and development facility, medical research and manufacturing facility, recreational facility... and much more. I would guess that such an interstellar vehicle would have to be about 50miles long, 2 miles high and 10 miles wide to accommodate everything needed. That would require assembly on the moon or deep orbital base. That would require investments in the millions of trillions of dollars. Short story? It ain’t happening. This planet we call earth is the hill we are all going to die on.