With NASA hoping to send humans to Mars in the 2030s and Elon Musk touting SpaceX’s sci-fi-level plans for colonizing the Red Planet, the idea of terraforming Mars might seem a bit too far out of this world. But new research published in Science Advances argues that it might not be as far-fetched as some previously thought.
In fact, turning Mars into a greener, more livable planet might be as simple as injecting tiny particles into the Martian atmosphere. These particles would then allow the planet to grow warmer—possibly up to more than 10 degrees Celsius warmer—in just a matter of months.
The idea is based on a similar situation we’re currently experiencing here on Earth, and it’s called the “greenhouse effect.” Basically, the greenhouse effect that we’re seeing here on Earth is a big part of the ongoing climate change issues we’re experiencing. On Mars, it could actually benefit the planet and allow the terraforming of Mars by forcing the planet to grow warmer as a whole.
Of course, there are some big stipulations here—like the fact it would take more than 2 million tons of particles each year. However, the particles could easily be manufactured from Martian dust, making it easy to turn one of Mars’ biggest resources into something useful.
However, there are also concerns about the overall cost of such a massive project. While it isn’t nearly as expensive as other plans to terraform Mars—which required rare chlorofluorocarbons, which are sparse on the Martian surface—the new plan would still require iron and aluminum to be turned into rods that could be used in the process.
The idea is really inspiring—and a bit out of the box as far as terraforming ideas go. But if the scientists can really hone in on a game plan, we could have a proper plan in place to terraform Mars sometime down the line. That might make our neighboring planet actually liveable—at least to some degree.