Destination Mars

"The last time humanity got a huge, mostly empty frontier to play with, the Renaissance happened." - Craig Berry

A red beacon beckons from afar. Mars gave the ancient Greeks and Romans a god; astrologers, a guiding life force; astronomers, an object of study; sci-fi writers, Martian life. Even today, Mars offers something to humanity--a destination. A cold, barren destination at present, but we need not settle for that.

Scientists once believed that man's future was space, and that future in space was space stations. They soon enough realized that orbiting space stations wouldn't play as grand a role in the future as they first imagined. Space stations have too many problems to be feasible, most prohibitively, the cost--the tens of billion dollars to build just one orbiting space station would only provide habitat for a few dozen people.¹ Obviously, humanity will benefit most if scientists can maximize our dollars.

For the billions of dollars it would cost to build one earth-orbiting space station, scientists could terraform the planet Mars. Terraformation², the process of converting a barren, lifeless planet into a habitable one, once existed only in the realm of science fiction. Mars has always fascinated the people of Earth. Earlier this century, sci-fi authors gave us Martians, the familiar, if not sinister, little green men with their flying saucers and plans for conquest of the Earth. Scientists have turned this scenario around--now we are in the position to make a conquest of Mars. Over two decades ago, Earth sent its first scouts to the red planet: .two orbiters, two landers, all to head for Mars in 1973 to search for life. (Zubrin 31). The findings of the search were inconclusive. But if we can commit ourselves to terraforming the red planet, we will not just find life on Mars--we will put life there.

For the past twenty years, scientists have given "this idea some serious thought" (Creedon, 38). Numerous books and scientific research papers have been written on the topic. These scientists believe we have what it takes to terraform Mars. Terraforming Mars will prove to be the greatest investment humanity will ever make.

What is it that will make the terraformation of Mars a great investment? There are so many answers to this question. Perhaps one of the best reasons is to simply prove that we can do it. Terraforming a planet is totally unlike anything the human race has ever done. .It would be something like growing a garden, or creating a wilderness, or building a cathedral, or flying seeds over an ocean to drop them on a new island. (Robinson 60). But it will be even more than that.

Terraforming Mars would be putting our collective "mark" on the universe, humanity's masterpiece. The a ancient Egyptians gave us the Pyramids; the Greeks and Romans left a legacy of ruins and roads; medieval Europe left us with castles; Renaissance artist Michelangelo, with his hammer and chisel, produced some of the most widely recognized works of art, freeing them from the stone. Terraforming Mars ought not to be an act of one nation or people independent of others, we must unite to accomplish this. With our repertoire of technological tools we can liberate Mars from its cold, barren state, bringing the planet to new life, and proudly leaving our mark.

Transforming Mars through terraformation will be the grandest project ever undertaken by the human race, and we have the knowledge and tools and raw materials to make it possible. Scientists have had over 20 years of theorizing to determine the best methods to proceed. "Hundreds of people have made contributions both major and minor" (Oberg 13). Terraforming a planet is a complex endeavor, encompassing many existing fields of study (and possibly wanting of the creation of new fields). There are yet details to work out, but considering the length of the process, we have plenty of time. We have all of the tools for the job, mainly the capacity to manufacture interim habitats and machinery, and most of the raw materials needed exist on the surface of Mars itself. We have the materials and the knowledge necessary to terraform the planet Mars, and we ought to do so.

Sixty-five million years ago, half of the Earth's species were driven to extinction by some massive global calamity. Even today in our technological era, we cannot prevent this from happening. We simply do not have the ability to deflect or destroy a massive Earth-bound asteroid. The vague threat of extinction ever hangs over our heads. But we need not resign ourselves to such a nihilistic fate. A terraformed Mars would be a global insurance policy. "This would be the ultimate insurance policy for Homo sapiens, a hedge against a planet-wide disaster" (Howard 1). While it wouldn't stop the asteroid, it would preserve the knowledge and species of Earth on Mars, perhaps for a later reintroduction to the Earth, or perhaps instead to continue only on Mars and seek out new planets to terraform, and let life on Earth evolve as it will.

Terraforming Mars would help to ease the biological population on Earth. True, it would not be feasible to move large numbers of people from Earth to Mars. But any population present on Mars would be isolated from the events on Earth. Indeed, in a worst-case scenario, devastating epidemics might break out on Earth, as the human population climbs, plant and animal species could be forced into extinction, and as the human population becomes overcrowded, devastating epidemics could break out. "Keeping all the human eggs in one basket leaves the species open to a catastrophe such as a pandemic or asteroid impact" (Howard 1). Mars' distance would in this case be a savior: Martian colonists would not be subject to the diseases rampaging on Earth, and as the terraformation proceeds, habitat for the rest of the animal and plant kingdoms would be doubled (compared to the amount of space on Earth).

By conservative estimates, we can transform Mars into a human-habitable planet within several centuries. This is merely a prediction, however, based on the current and foreseeable technology available. It is possible, even likely, that our work on Mars will lead to new discoveries and new technologies. Martyn Fogg, one of terraformation's greatest proponents, believes that "A lot of good science may result, much of it of relevance to our own world" (qtd. in World Future Society, 45). Some of these technologies will directly benefit terraformation, others may even have applications here on Earth. There is no viable way to account for this unforeseen progress now, we can't factor it into our estimates. We can only be certain that terraforming Mars will have beneficial technological effects. But more than just beneficial technology will come from the terraformation project.

Terraforming Mars stands to teach us valuable new lessons. Transforming another planet to resemble Earth will give us new insights. Purposefully creating a runaway greenhouse effect will give us new information that we can apply to the control or reversal of the greenhouse effect inadvertently created here on Earth. "[Terraforming Mars] could be regarded as a valuable experiment, with Mars as a giant lab or university, in which we learn how to steward a planet's biosphere for long-term sustainability" (Robinson 59). New methods will likely be found to replace ideas currently thought to be critical in terraforming a planet. And the stories told and written by the pioneer colonists will serve to teach and inspire.

Many critics cite economic reasons against terraforming Mars. They tell us that the costs are prohibitively high. But are the costs really so high? The economist's standard answer applies here: it depends...on the time scale one chooses to view the project. In the short term, a large outlay of capital will be required, in the tens of billions of dollars, first to establish a colony, then to build the greenhouse gas factories.

Twenty to thirty billion dollars is not cheap, but it's roughly in the same range as a single major military procurement for a new weapons system; it's in the same range as the money the United States government gave to Mexico in one afternoon in the summer of 1995 (Zubrin xix).

True, there will be no immediate benefit in return for the dollars spent. But neither in the case of a new weapons system or financial aid to Mexico do US citizens see a direct, immediate benefit. However, as one survey respondent points out, "The project could be done for a fraction of the cost of the armaments race" (Howard 1). In the (very!) long term, however, it will be the most valuable investment ever made. Spread out over the useful life of a terraformed Mars (which could measure into the thousands or millions of years), the billions of dollars invested initially become trivial, amounting to mere dollars per year for an entire habitable planet (very much real estate indeed). Much like the United State's purchase of Alaska Territory, we can only guess at the resources that we will receive if we invest in Mars. Indeed, even in the first few decades and centuries, the lessons learned and the spin-off technology produced would yield a positive return on the investment.

We ought to proceed with research and experiments in terraforming Mars. The potential for an enormous payoff itself should be motivation enough. "Mankind already has the power to change planets" (Economist Newspaper Group, 100). We've proven this much on the Earth. We've already altered the planet, perhaps for the worse. But this very same transformation that may damage this planet can rejuvenate Mars. We can learn from our mistakes and turn them into good. Along the way to a terraformed Mars, we will likely make more mistakes, but at the same time these mistakes stand to teach us greater lessons. Remaking Mars may teach us how to save Earth, to save ourselves. We can only learn so much about terraforming a planet through speculation and computer modeling, and the day is fast approaching when we will need to reach out to the red planet and make it our own.

Works Cited

Creedon, Jeremiah. "Mars on a Billion Dollars a Day". Utne Reader. Jul/Aug. 1994: 36-37.

Economist Newspaper Group. "The Terraformers' Dream". The Economist. 23 Dec. 1995: 97-105.

Howard, Adam. Terraformation Survey. 25 Mar. 1999

Oberg, James Edward. New Earths: Transforming Other Planets for Humanity. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1981.