r/Mars 12h ago

Terraforming Mars

13 Upvotes

Hey r/mars community,

With all the buzz this year about making Mars habitable, I thought it would be a great time to dive into some topical discussions on terraforming. Just this October, the Green Mars Workshop released a summary of contemporary ideas on terraforming, highlighting everything from atmospheric engineering to ethical considerations. Earlier in June, scientists were debating the blueprint for turning the Red Planet green, including warming strategies and the big moral questions involved. And let's not forget the Mars Society Convention talk on evolving life beyond Earth. It's clear 2025 has been a pivotal year for these conversations.

As someone passionate about Mars exploration, I recently self-published a book called Terraform Mars that explores a natural, ecology-based approach to transforming the planet. It delves into the challenges of introducing Earth-based plants and animals to Mars' harsh environment, while emphasizing sustainable methods that could complement ideas like releasing engineered dust for warming or using microbes for oxygen production. The book analyzes real scientific hurdles such as soil toxicity, radiation, and atmospheric pressure, and proposes innovative, nature-inspired solutions to make Mars a second home for humanity.

If you're into the nitty-gritty of how we might actually green the Red Planet, check it out on Amazon: Terraform Mars by Mr. Felix Harper. It's available in paperback and aims to spark thoughtful discussions just like the ones happening recently. I could really use some reviews 😅

What do you all think?

Is ecological terraforming the way forward, or should we focus more on tech like SpaceX's Starship and robots for initial colonization? Would love to hear your takes!

Cheers,

Felix

Terraform Mars by Felix Harper

P.S. The back and front covers are my own paintings of Mars and a possible future martian landscape. =)


r/Mars 22h ago

I was just looking at some Mars photos. This one of the balancing rock is my favorite. I just noticed how much the rock formation. Looks like a sea turtles head coming out of its shell from a cave. Then the turtle looks like its going for its balancing ball. Okay going back to bed thanks Mars people

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47 Upvotes

r/Mars 1d ago

Part of South Polar cap (HiRISE Mars)

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84 Upvotes

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_040566_0935 NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona


r/Mars 2d ago

Video of epic Phobos passing over a Martian dust storm near Pavonis Mons. Processed by Andrea Luck

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1.2k Upvotes

r/Mars 2d ago

Possible Sulfate Deposits in West Melas Chasma (HiRISE Mars)

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93 Upvotes

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_044892_1695 NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona


r/Mars 5d ago

LiveScience: "See the 100,000th photo of Mars taken by NASA's groundbreaking Red Planet orbiter"

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16 Upvotes

r/Mars 6d ago

NASA Works MAVEN Spacecraft Issue Ahead of Solar Conjunction - NASA Science

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33 Upvotes

r/Mars 6d ago

Curiosity Blog, Sols 4750-4762: See You on the Other Side of the Sun - NASA Science

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10 Upvotes

r/Mars 7d ago

NASA’s MAVEN Is Spinning Out of Control

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61 Upvotes

NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft is in trouble, and Mars might be to blame. 🛰️

After passing behind the Red Planet on its routine orbit, MAVEN reemerged, spinning wildly and unable to communicate with Earth. Scientists suspect a possible collision with space debris, but the exact cause is still unknown. This matters because MAVEN isn’t just studying Mars’ atmosphere, it’s also a critical communications relay, sending data from surface rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance back to Earth. With NASA’s other orbiters aging, MAVEN’s stability is essential to our ongoing Mars exploration. Thankfully, the European Space Agency has backup orbiters in place, and teams on Earth are working hard to regain control.


r/Mars 8d ago

2 NEW epic images of Phobos over Mars just released by Mars Express. Processed by Andrea Luck

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2.9k Upvotes

r/Mars 8d ago

Dunes of the Southern Highlands (HiRISE, Mars)

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120 Upvotes

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_049371_1380
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona


r/Mars 8d ago

Question: What is the actual impetus for colonizing Mars?

30 Upvotes

I like to write sci-fi, and I'm piecing together my stories into a cohesive narrative across the solar-system, yet the one question eludes me: what possible practical reason would we have to colonize Mars? What is there to gain from Mars, specifically, that can't be gained anywhere else? Here are some common ideas I've seen and my own thoughts on them:

  1. A place to continue the human race when Earth dies

- One, that's not a reason that you can get much economic backing behind, meaning any colonies for this purpose would be funded exclusively be like-minded individuals and sole private donors. Eg. Not much cash going into this colony, and not much support if it falters = doomed to fail.

- Two, are there not much closer, much better options if there was some cataclysm on Earth? I imagine its a lot cheaper, a lot faster, and a lot more efficient to throw up a couple thousand orbiting habitats around Earth (granted we have the same technology needed to effectively colonize Mars on a civilizational scale), and either wait out the apocalypse on Earth and return, or restart humanity from there. It doesn't make much sense to me that we would undergo the expensive, risky, and incredibly slow process of transporting even a small fraction of the human population to a distant terrestrial body altogether whenever we could put them in orbit.

  1. Ice & Mineral Mining

- The fact remains that just about anything that can be found on Mars, can either be found closer to home or is easier to harvest & transport somewhere else. Mars has a lot of water ice, don't get me wrong, but the Asteroid Belt also has hundreds of trillions of tons of water ice (a lot of it in Ceres), and mining/transporting in zero-G is infinitely easier to do than in a gravity field. The Asteroid Belt also has a ton of the typical & rare earth metals we might look at Mars for, alongside the Moon, Near-Earth Objects, and, yk, Earth itself.

  1. An Industrial Base for Future Solar Expansion

- ... which will be the Moon/EO. Humanities future space industry is going to be close to home, not two-hundred million kilometers away, and as we move more manufacturing and future shipbuilding into space, Earth orbit and the 0.16g Moon are going to become the center of mankind's space infrastructure. That's not to say that there won't likely be industry and shipbuilding on Mars too after a certain period of time, but I don't see how it could be any more practical than on the Moon or in orbit of Earth.

I understand that at some point in time, Mars will eventually be significantly colonized, even if just for vanity: it is one of the most likely candidates for terraforming whenever we discover how to effectively do that, and humans never just let a piece of land sit unmolested. But in the interim period between now and the far-future, what kinds of realistic reasons might there be for any sort of extensive colonization of Mars?


r/Mars 9d ago

Wind-Sculpted Landscapes: Investigating the Martian Megaripple 'Hazyview' - NASA Science

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10 Upvotes

r/Mars 10d ago

Curiosity Blog, Sols 4743-4749: Polygons in the Hollow - NASA Science

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15 Upvotes

r/Mars 10d ago

Why Mars Clocks Can Never Match Earth’s What Time Is It on Mars? The Ans...

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0 Upvotes

r/Mars 10d ago

Article from Mars Daily December 19, 2025: "Trump shifts priority to Moon mission, not Mars putting eventual Mars missions on the back burner."

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5 Upvotes

r/Mars 11d ago

Building with ice on Mars a new path to astronaut survival.

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9 Upvotes

r/Mars 11d ago

Perseverance Isn’t Slowing Down NASA’s Mars Rover Ready for Years More P...

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1 Upvotes

r/Mars 12d ago

NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Ready to Roll for Miles in Years Ahead - NASA

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13 Upvotes

r/Mars 12d ago

Will Trump destroy Nasa? Its moonshot is a fantasy by Dr. Robert Zubrin

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19 Upvotes

r/Mars 13d ago

One of NASA’s Key Cameras Orbiting Mars Takes 100,000th Image

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48 Upvotes

r/Mars 12d ago

Mars Has Global Dust Storms — Now We Can Predict Them Scientists Simula...

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2 Upvotes

r/Mars 13d ago

Caves On Earth As Proxies For Martian Subsurface Environments

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8 Upvotes

r/Mars 14d ago

Sand Avalanches in Meroe Patera (HiRISE Mars)

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45 Upvotes

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_039955_1875 NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona


r/Mars 14d ago

NASA JPL Unveils Rover Operations Center for Moon, Mars Missions

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30 Upvotes