What if we could turn Mars into a second Earth? A group of scientists is revisiting this audacious idea with new eyes, armed with decades of advancements in planetary science, biotechnology, and space engineering.
They explore whether it’s physically and biologically feasible to warm the Red Planet, enrich its atmosphere, and kick-start life-supporting systems — all with a practical eye on the cost, risk, and what needs to happen now.
Terraforming Mars: Hype or Hope?
The idea of transforming Mars into a place where humans could one day live has captured both headlines and imaginations. But is this just science fiction, or could it actually happen? A new perspective paper in Nature Astronomy offers a serious look at what it would take to make Mars more Earth-like. The study, led by researchers from Pioneer Research Labs and the University of Chicago, outlines the first steps we would need to take if we hope to someday support life on the Red Planet.
“Believe it or not, no one has really addressed whether it’s feasible to terraform Mars since 1991,” said Nina Lanza, a planetary scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and a co-author on the paper. “Yet since then, we’ve made great strides in Mars science, geoengineering, launch capabilities, and bioscience, which give us a chance to take a fresh look at terraforming research and ask ourselves what’s actually possible.”
Steps to Make Mars Earth-like
Making Mars habitable would mean raising its temperature and thickening its atmosphere. One possible first step involves using engineered microbes to begin producing oxygen through photosynthesis. Over time, this could help build up enough oxygen to support liquid water and, eventually, more complex life.
But before we leap too far ahead, the researchers caution that we must seriously consider the challenges. “Before we can assess whether warming Mars is worthwhile, relative to the alternative of leaving Mars as a pristine wilderness, we must confront the practical requirements, cost, and possible risks,” the authors write.
Right now, scientists are studying Mars’ water reserves, its carbon dioxide supply, and soil chemistry to figure out whether it has the raw materials needed for such a transformation. New techniques could potentially increase the planet’s average temperature by dozens of degrees in just a few decades. To get there, researchers say we need to better understand the physical, chemical, and biological limits that could shape our approach.
Benefiting Earth Through Martian Innovation
The authors also note that this research could ultimately help maintain “oasis Earth.” They argue that technologies developed for Mars habitation, such as desiccation-resistant crops, efficiently remediating soil, and improved ecosystem modeling, will likely benefit our home planet.
“Mars terraforming research offers a vital testbed for planetary science, potentially validating theories or exposing knowledge gaps,” they write. “Continued research promises significant scientific progress, regardless of whether full-scale terraforming occurs.”
Next Steps to the Final Frontier
Until that research is done, they write, “We don’t even know what’s physically or biologically possible. … If people can learn how to terraform a world such as Mars, this may be the first step to destinations beyond.”
Reference: “The case for Mars terraforming research” by Erika Alden DeBenedictis, Edwin S. Kite, Robin D. Wordsworth, Nina L. Lanza, Charles S. Cockell, Pamela A. Silver, Ramses M. Ramirez, John Cumbers, Hooman Mohseni, Christopher E. Mason, Woodward W. Fischer and Christopher P. McKay, 13 May 2025, Nature Astronomy.
DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02548-0
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97 Comments
The paper is not exploring any science fiction question re Mars terraforming one way or the other. It’s asking whether the t o p i c is worthy of investigation. I should think Los Alamos Laboratory could come up with a less clickbaity headline. Or was that SciTechDaily’s addition?
Cody Reeder has been working on terraforming Mars for YEARS now. Why no mention of him?
Read Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars books.
Read them a long time ago great books
There is nothing in this article. “How” to terraform Mars with a detailed theoretical plan would have been more interesting. There is no mention of the lack of magnetism on Mars and how to remediate it…
Transforming Mars into another oxygenated planet humanly, may become uncontrollable risk to our own planet.
Perhaps, before talking about Mars, it should first look at places on earth being restored to prior conditions such as Savanah Sahara? Yes all that sand would have to be dealt with but could be practice for thousands of years mars will take
You ignore the need for a global magnetic field.
Just received my copy of “Terraforming Mars For Dummies”. Hey, I want in on this!
Just another AI generated summary article, all of them will be like this soon
We’d be far better employed terraforming Venus. It already has the components for breathable air, water, an Earth-like gravity and solar heat . And it’s a lot closer to Earth.
If it was possible to terraform Mars then why not use those same techniques on Earth to resolve the reportedly disaster’s actions humans are having on this planet
Excellent point!
Yes, my thoughts exactly.
Goodness me!. Someone with common sense! H sap sometmes does come up with sensible ideas! I am surprised by the ingenuity of my fellow humans……………irony alert.
The only problem with terra-forming and populating Mars to make it habitable is that it would become a security threat to we Eartlings; who knows what the commo terrorists on Mars would want to do to we freedom-loving democratic humans on Earth? I can sense an immediate development of a nuclear missile-gap……….I’ll bet NASA ain’t thunk that one out………
They can figure it out…..when controlling machines on Planet Mars 20 millions miles away anything possible
I AGREE with Ro
💯
What’s the cost??? It’s killing the economy trying to terraform earth…
It’s also not commenting on the other huge hurdle of not strong enough gravity and magnetic field to keep the atmosphere formed on mars. At the very least the magnetic field will need be addressed before teraforming can start.
My thoughts exactly!
Dear Schoolboys, Mars has no magnetic field. That’s why it lost its atmosphere and it’s oceans. Just like them, any changes you try to make will be blasted away by the solar wind. Please grow up and concentrate on fixing our own planet which is currently being devastated by global capitalism.
Amen to this comment!
This process happens over time, not all at once. If we can keep constantly adding to the atmosphere it’ll offset the solar winds and any leakage. This will never happen in our lifetimes, but it’s possible.
Precisely right. Its a beautiful dream but with current technology thats all it is for the long foreseeable future. And agreed about the global economic system (capitalism) needing serious reform to benefit the species as a whole and bring prosperity to all, or atleast far more people. As insurmountable as that task seems with the wealthy actively maintaning the status quo, profit being the goal and the big bottom line in every company and country to measure the prosperity and success of nations is nuts and it is destroying everything. The measure of a nations prosperity should be measured in something like the amount of people leading comfortable lives with a high quality of life divided by the inhabitants, or something along those lines..
I guess im going a bit too far off topic but anyway, i agree with your comment sorry if i got a bit carried away. 😀
Drill a hole to the centre of Mars; use a few surplus nukes to fracture the core, suck out the debris and fill it with magnetite. Our Great Helmsman, King Donald, is well able to guide NASA to victory in such a project.
Bingo!
Dear Schoolboy, a magnetic field is not necessary for terraforming. It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. Please grow up and concentrate on the science at hand instead of trying to sideline it with conspiracy theory.
(Conspiracy re causes of ongoing observed devastation, that is.)
Perhaps, before talking about Mars, it should first look at places on earth being restored to prior conditions such as Savanah Sahara? Yes all that sand would have to be dealt with but could be practice for thousands of years mars will take.
We can do both.
It is a perspective article (that is paywalled), but according to its abstract it lays out “possible approaches” and not only the “is it worthy” question.
Headlines of popular science sites are always the site title editor responsibility (even when they adopt the original headline in rarer cases).
Before any terraforming can be seriously looked at, “scientists” need to ask why Mars lost its atmosphere and surface water in the first place. Mars’ core cooled and stopped generating a strong magnetosphere that protected the planets atmosphere and water from being ripped away by the solar wind. Any attempts to rebuild that atmosphere will meet the same end. All talks of terraforming Mars are ridiculous. Human presence on Mars will be possible only in radiation proof domed settlements or underground. These planners of Mars’ future need to read more classic sci-fi written with true science in mind.
EGGaxtly! – A plan to move displaced materials to ring the poles might have an influence to improve the magnetosphere. – Of course, I never hear anyone addressing the complexity and sustainability of life-forms. If self-sustaining biological (eat each other) life-forms became established in the permafrost, it may be possible to turn Mars into the Giant, Smelly Green Muck Planet where out of control soils would eat through any protective gear and all the reputations of all the ‘scientists’ who failed to foresee the obvious will be the focus of derision for hundreds of years coming.
It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
Gee, a recent article addresses this exact problem of Mars’ atmosphere and water disappearing. Seems that NASA’s scientists should talk to the likes of Elon before they are stripped away by Trump’s wind.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/maven/nasas-maven-makes-first-observation-of-atmospheric-sputtering-at-mars/
Initially, mankind will have to live underground on Mars because of radiation. To heat the planet we would need to increase the atmospheric pressure. The lack of Nitrogen is a hurdle for growing food. Perchlorates in a problem to be dealt with. Perhaps it can be filtered from the regolith and used as rocket fuel.
John Compton
You’re not going to increase atmospheric pressure if the atmosphere is continually being stripped away. That’s a losing proposition.
Why are we always more interested in the “Other” rather than the original? Is the grass really greener and what is it’s purpose?
The whole idea of terra forming Mars is pure fantasy right now. Without an effective magnetic shield, anything you would seek to accomplish would once again be stripped away by harsh solar bombardment. Any planet needs a spinning iron core to produce a proper shield. All reports say that the core of Mars has stopped spinning.
Simple! Just build a ship out of unobtainium and fly it to the core, detonate some nuclear bombs, and it’s all golden. /s
It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
You cannot terraform
Mars without first protecting any atmosphere you generate
This seems to be a favoured item to miss
https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/how-to-give-mars-an-atmosphere-maybe/
It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
No article about this topic should be considered anything close to serious if it does not addresses the topic of Mars lacking a global magnetic field.
This particular topic is interesting to me. There’s the question, is there other intellect life in the expanse of the universe? Right now I have to say no. There is zero proof. As in any life it starts from 1 single origin. On this topic I think that intelligent life starts on planet Earth 🌏. On Earth, humans eventually develop physics for space travel. Humans understand genetic manipulation. Humans develop quantum computing, robotics, AI, to the point of traveling to other planets and galaxies.
As of right now this is the path humans are on. It’s more believable to me than little green men. If there are little green men, humans made them.
No humans don’t understand anything. Humans repeat hearsay. Even though we have little info, our brain comb information together into a seamless and perfect assumption, which we alter immediately upon hearing some new piece of information – and we flop along our whole life through thinking we know it all.
We put DDT in all the streams and ponds to relieve the world of Malaria. We absolutely knew that would work – and we love simple ideas, they’re so exciting!
Now we’re changing genetics – billions of years of process – cock-sure WE know what we’re doing.
You are correct in a defeatist kind of way. God describes humans as being corrupt. Hopefully he has isolated us from any intelligent life “out there”!
Carl Jung said “It is difficult to think, that is why most humans judge.”
We judge ourselves to be correct, after all, we thunk it up ourself!
Science shows that we do understand things and that it does not originate as “hearsay”. Even if the next or this (?) comment dips into notions of magic.
It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
This “articles” Title states that terraforming Mars is no longer science fiction and in the very 1st sentence contradicts that premise. It’s already been estimated over and over again that converting every last bit of frozen and/or soil contained water would not raise the atmospheric pressure even 1%. And the atmosphere would be vulnerable to the solar wind because Mars doesn’t have a sufficient magnetic field to prevent it being striped away which is how it got to where it is in the 1st place. The kind of technology to either block the solar wind and/or re-establish an effective magnetic shield is definitely still science fiction. It would require bombardment of water containing comets over a very long period of time to begin to supply that world with the kind of oceans popular fantasy(science fiction) scenarios pictured in these types of articles.
And finally, just as something many don’t seem to want to talk about is colonizing would involve children bveing born in an environment that would prevent them from ever leaving that planet to visit the “Mother World” Their physiology from the low gravity of mars would make them unrecognizable as “human” beings. It would be death for them to set foot on this planet ever again. And I cannot imagine being a child looking at the wonders of a world so unlike the, shall we use a kind word,”austere” world their confined to in every sense of the word. The would be freaks. I’m sure people will think that a mean and even hateful description, but none the less that’s what they would be. They will have deformities related to that low gravity over and above what can be easily deduced at present. Health and psychological issues we can’t even fully imagine at this point. Not to mention the notion that we will take our social and psychological issues with us to that planet. Do we somehow imagine that this “clean” start will result in a just and inclusive government and society? That’s a laugh. That all of the societal ills we have here will not be carried with and exacerbated by a severely cloistered base not yet even partially imagined as a whole functioning entity.
Oh yes, it is still largely science fiction that we could go and live there as protection from some earthly disaster or hedge against human kinds extinction. We might as well believe in Barsoom and John Carter from Edgar Rice Burrough’s 1900 serialized fiction about Mars.
There is a lot of technology, science and social issues that must be realistically considered and overcome before we will ever be able to do more than briefly, with great difficulty and expense, visit Mars.
I was raised as a young child on Science Fiction, space and dreams of visiting other worlds. My heart and soul throughout my 73 year lifetime have yearned for the kind of new adventures visiting them would bring. Walking around on a new world! Visiting the canyons, climbing the slope of Olympus Mons….Oh yeah! Very compelling. My name is actually on Mars, included in the chip with thousands of others It ain’t gonna happen.
How dare you interject reality into this conversation?
The perspective paper do produce “possible approaches”, despite your claims. Some of them are outdated: It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
Everything about terraforming mars changes every 10 years, there will be life on mars or should I say underneath mars, just bacteria but still life! Mars doesn’t have tectonic plates so it will from time to time literally blow its top, the biggest volcano in the solar system is still active there and when it does erupt it will do for a long time due to the gravity difference on the planet. This will put a lot of different gases into the atmosphere causing the pressure to rise and subsequently lead to water on the surface. Mars will come to life if only for a certain period of time and then slowly go back to the way it is today. The trick for terraforming mars is to kick start the process and then help it to keep going!!
The simplest was to adjust the thickness of Mars would be to remove both moons. Moons act like a scoop, dragging the top of the atmosphere off of a planet. Pushing them at an angle into the planet would increase the rotation, and create seismic activity.
There is no evidence that the distant moons do anything to Mars atmosphere.
Even if we could create an Earthlike atmosphere, Mars has no appreciable magnetosphere. There’s no real practical way to manage solar radiation.
It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. And that would help shield against solar as well as cosmic radiation. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
Just read Kim Stanley Robinson’s scifi novels, Red/Green/Blue Mars, he at least tried to plausibly imagine how the terraforming might happen, including one of Arthur C. Clarke’s space elevators. Much more entertaining that this Nature article written by hacks.
Pure fantasy. Mars is a dead planet and always will be. The scientists need reeducating
The Los Alamos National Laboratory press agency is presumably populated with people with journalist training, not “hacks”.
Oh, you said the *Nature* perspective article. The two authors that did not simply put their strengthening signature have been a group leader at the Francis Crick Institute and the other is a geoscientist. And for example Charles S. Cockell is a renowned astrobiologist and Christopher McKay is one of NSAs leading astrogeophysicists.
You would have to stabilize the electromagnetic field before any attempt to increase the atmosphere. That’s what killed the planet to begin with. So until we learn how to infuse more heavy metals into the core of a planet terraforming will never work.
It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
A good reservoir of water on Mars could be used to thicken the atmosphere of Mars. By separating the water molecules. Then a thicker atmosphere would hold in more heat and pressure. Then introduce operation ‘Wizard hat and magic wand”. That would allow Mars to maintain more heat. To start growing various organics and plants. Without the dust storms.
Why do people talk about terraforming Mars? Why don’t we just do what we need to do to save Earth?
We can do both.
Why can’t we terraform earth???
The more important question is “should we.” Even if it were possible to live on Mars over the long haul, terraforming it has serious ethical considerations.
It will never work. Not enough gravity to hold onto an atmosphere, and if there was without a magnetic field the solar wind would strip it away. Why not just fix Earth!
We can fix both.
It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
Humans should rather put the money to better use by saving our planet earth and reversing climate change. We have polluted our soil, water and air, incluing the space above and we are not soending enough money to clean up our mess. But its the greed for minerals that’s really behind the agenda to inhabit mars. Humans will destroy every planet that they inhabit. We will be remembered as that “greedy ape”.
Investing in science broadly means faster progress in e.g. combating man made global warming. E.g. understanding Earth climate helps understanding Mars climate and vice versa.
Trying to terraform Mars would be a waste of time and resources. First, there is no magnetic field to shield any atmosphere created from solar winds. Second, there is insufficient gravity to help hold an atmosphere in place and keep it from “boiling away”. There are good reasons for Mars to have the climate it currently has. No amount of wishing is going to change that.
It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
Men fleed from Mars and now we want to go back for no reason. The biggest challenge is the meteorites.
“Men fleed”?
Don’t we have enough dumps on Earth? Because that is what we would leave behind on Mars when we find out that it’s just not cost efficient or realistic to live there. No Magnetic field, too much radiation and dust devils that will constantly mess up your solar panels. Domed cities or live underground that’s the reality. And plenty of trash left behind by us, once the great experiment is finished we will jet back to good old Earth and try and fix the mess we’ve made here.
It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
Yes, doomed cities would be good at the start. But if they can get the pressure up, who knows if that will be needed.
We can, and have to, fix Earth anyway, and doing both will be mutually helping (in e.g. understanding climate).
Just do not eat any Martian crops. Mars has poisonous regolith (soil).
Only in places, and mostly poisonous if you have a nervous system. Some prokaryotes use perchlorates (the most often mentioned poison) for food.
Mars lacks a strong enough magnetic field to protect the atmosphere from being stripped away by the solar wind. Any effort to thicken the atmosphere would be nullified by the sun.
Fox planet earth first! I don’t see it happening😭
It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. Presumably we can get to that state without “nullifying” problems. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
And fixing Earth has nothing to do with terraforming Mars, apart from doing both help each other (more science, more understanding of e.g. climate). Some problems are going away – we fixed the ozone scavenging. Others – man made global warming, man made mass extinction – are at least worked on instead of ignored.
It’s not enough to just warm the red planet we need to make it’s solid iron core liquid again so we can have a magnetosphere to protect us from the solar radiation and it would keep the atmosphere from being blown away in space
It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
It would not do any good because mars does not have a magnetosphere. Can’t survive without one.
We can survive without. It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
My preference would be to capture an icy comet or asteroid into stable orbit around Mars then steadily carve off chunks into designated low basins until over time ( generations) there would be oceans and an atmosphere.
Earth is Reflective. Mars is Glow In The Dark. The Gas that rises from Mars is from Electron Radiation. It’s not the same as “atmosphere” in the sense that the Earth is a Living System that grows, Mars has a Half-Life. It’s shrinking. How long will it take to grow an atmosphere that blocks solar radiation, and then allow the excess free radicals to deplete to levels that are stable enough to support life is Math, but it’s probably not gonna happen in our lifetime.
Also, Rockets don’t work in outer space. They require the Atmosphere and Gravity of Earth to Accelerate. Rockets don’t work if it’s not “perfect weather” even on Earth, and if the Mass of the object Rockets are pushing away from suddenly changed, it would explode. Rockets from Earth don’t work on any other planets and they definitely don’t work in Space. There would be nothing for them to push away from.
That’s not how rockets work, bro.
I was wondering when the flerfs were going to join in with the chorus of naysayers and climatards… 😆
It’s almost as though you read every 5th word from some AI-generated physics blurb and crudely coupled together disjointed theories while high on ketamine and caffeine.
No, it’s still fiction.
Terraforming Mars will be Elizabeth Holmes’ next business. The hype will raise HUGE sums from SiVa and other gullibles, and they’ll build a new spaceship to transport bio-samples to Mars.
Except, like with Theranos, she’ll be missing the one critical ingredient, validity. Without a magnetosphere Mars cannot maintain a viable atmosphere for human habitation, nor protect from solar radiation.
Maybe they’ll drill through the planet and embed a large N52 – it could happen!!
It will take a previously estimated billion years before an Earth pressure atmosphere would become inhabitable again. That has nothing to do with terraforming Mars.
The rest was conspiracy theory.
From Space article on this:
“”If we modify the environment on Mars, we’re going to change the chemistry of the surface and of the subsurface, eventually,” said Lanza, pointing out that such actions might erase any traces of life on Mars.”
Erasing deep biosignatures will take time, we should be able to explore the issue before then. Preferably before we start terraforming since if there is extant life it becomes an ethical question. The Great Oxygenation Event on Earth took time and prokaryotes evolved to handle the extremely poisonous stuff, terraforming may go much faster as this work suggests and there is no current guarantee deep crustal life would survive.
Even if Mars had a thick atmosphere and a magnetic field, it has 38% of Earth’s gravity. That is detrimental to any kind of long term human settlement.