What is terraforming?

**Bababam** (0:04)
What is terraforming?
Thanks for asking. If you're a fan of sci-fi, the idea of terraforming should be familiar. It refers to all the techniques and technologies which aim to transform the surface of a planet, making it suitable for human inhabitation. Basically, it means making a planet similar to Earth. To make a Hollywood comparison, that's exactly the purpose of the Weyland-Yutani company in Ridley Scott's Alien series. Terraforming may have originally been dreamt up in works of fiction, but today's real world science has taken inspiration and is trying damn hard to put it into practice. The first recorded use of the term terraforming appeared in Astounding Science Fiction magazine in 1942 Which planets would be the most likely terraforming candidates? Astrophysicist Carl Sagan first theorized about the terraforming of Venus in the early 1960s. At the time, astronomers believed the planet's atmosphere had a similar temperature to that of Earth. But we later realised Venus had a high pressure atmosphere and surface temperatures of over 450 degrees Celsius.
Mars then came into focus for a number of reasons. Firstly, because its atmospheric conditions aren't far from those of the Earth, and also because we realised water had flowed on the red planet for hundreds of millions of years. Indeed, its landscapes were modelled by seasons similar to those we experience here on Earth. Nevertheless, average temperatures are around minus 60 degrees Celsius, so we'd need to wrap up warm.
So how likely is it we could survive on Mars? For years now, NASA has been funding feasibility research, but with little success. Unfortunately, the idea of terraforming Mars in the future seems even more complicated than we thought, due to the time and costs involved. A NASA press release from 2018 explained that Mars itself does not have enough natural resources to increase its atmospheric pressure. It's currently less than 1% compared to that of planet Earth. Warming the planet's climate up artificially could take hundreds or even thousands of years. It would necessitate greater resources than any government or organisation is currently prepared to invest. As it's lacking in an atmosphere, Mars is constantly bombarded with cosmic and UV rays, which would be fatal for humans. Furthermore, Martian soil is toxic and gravity is so low that it could cause muscular deformities in humans. That's bad news for Elon Musk, an advocate of terraforming and instigator of trips into space. It looks like the best bet is to invest in saving our own planet before envisaging human life on another one. There you have it.
Now you know what terraforming is.
In under three minutes, we answer your questions. What would you like to know about? Use the comment section to ask your questions on the podcast platform.