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Robert Walker

No. If you think about it, if it was as easy as that, then Mars would have been terraformed long ago.

The background to this is that it used to be thought that Mars has enough CO2 in the form of dry ice to cause a runaway greenhouse effect. To do that, you would first have to release enough to increase the atmospheric pressure to 10% of Earth's - i.e. ten times what it is now. After that it would then go into a runaway feedback situation until all the CO2 is in the atmosphere.

Obviously this has never happened or Mars would be in that state right now.

But also, it's not at all clear that it has that much CO2. It does have enough to double the atmospheric pressure, but that would not be a stable situation and it could only be maintained like that by continual manufacture of greenhouse gases on a global scale, or large planet sized thin film mirrors.

In addition, Mars is so far from the sun compared to Earth that if you could give it an Earth-like atmosphere of nitrogen and oxygen with just trace amounts of CO2, it would be too cold for trees to grow. Even with a pure CO2 atmosphere, poisonous to humans, it would be too cold for trees, even in the tropical regions, without additional greenhouse gases.

And by greenhouse gases - that means mining cubic kilometers of fluorite ore every century and using hundreds of full scale nuclear power stations to process it. It's a mega project though perhaps not quite as mega as the planet scale thin film mirrors idea.

And it has very little by way of water as well. And the equatorial regions are dry to considerable depth. It did have oceans in the past but nobody yet is sure what happened to the water. Many now think that it lost most of its early water into space through solar storms.

See also What is the common scientific opinion about Elon Musk's plan to nuke Mars' poles to accelerate the creation of an atmosphere?

which I wrote up in much more detail as: Why Nukes Can't Terraform Mars - Pack Less Punch Than A Comet Collision

There are many other issues with terraforming Mars. As I summarized it recently:

"Terraforming Mars is a far off dream. We are not yet at the right state of maturity as a civilization to see this thousands of years long megatechnology project through to completion. And failed attempts would introduce new lifeforms to Mars which may get in the way of future approaches."

It's interesting intellectually with many ideas to explore. Understanding possibilities for terraforming could help us understand how Earth itself works and understanding exoplanets etc. But I think we are nowhere near the stage where it would be a wise move to attempt it ourselves.

About the Author

Robert Walker

Robert Walker

Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.
Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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