# Terraforming Mars...how would you do it and how long would it last? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 14, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terraforming-mars-how-would-you-do-it-and-how-long-would-it-last/717654 "2015-04-14T16:21:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terraforming-mars-how-would-you-do-it-and-how-long-would-it-last/717654/41 "2015-09-13T15:54:02Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Do you have the capacity to fly at least one billion people from Earth to Mars in an emergency? Not three, not seven, a billion? Why would you need a billion people? [evidence surrounding the Toba catastrophe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory) suggests that all 7 billion current humans are descended from just 20,000 people or so. If Mars is terraformed, you move a few people there, and make sure they can reproduce until they make the population of Mars number in at least the tens of thousands. > [@](#): > > If not, Mars is pretty useless as a lifeboat. Resources spent on such an endeavour would be better spent on Earth. I think you’re misreading the timescale here - if we terraform Mars, we’re talking about people in the 2200s or 2300s doing it, not really ‘us.’ It’s unclear what the resource-to-problem ratios will be in the year 2200, so I’m not going to fight **XT** ’s hypothetical. > [@RTFirefly](#): > > True, but we’re already pretty good at spotting asteroids that might be coming our way, and by mid-century we’d probably be able to spot any asteroid bigger than a Mini Cooper headed our way in time to blow it up before it got here. And at a price tag several orders of magnitude cheaper than that of terraforming Mars. Good point - even so, there are other major disasters to insure against, everything from a super solar flare (like in Larry Niven’s _Inconstant Moon_\*) to aggressively used spaceships (like in John Varley’s _Red Lightning_\*\*) or a global pandemic (like in _World War Z_[sup]†[/sup]) But I suspect **Stranger** is right, and the utility aspects of terraforming would be superseded by hollowing out asteroids or building orbital rings. It’s still entirely possible terraforming of Mars would be just an aesthetic project undertaken by a civilization of almost unimaginable wealth at some point centuries in the future, though. [sub]\* As far as I understand it, these have not been shown to exist, at least in our Solar System \*\* Also not shown to exist - these are some really bad examples, aren’t they?[/sub] 😃 [sup]†[/sup][sub]Yeah, I’m not really trying anymore, am I?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terraforming-mars-how-would-you-do-it-and-how-long-would-it-last/717654/42 "2015-09-13T16:07:55Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > . If we actually had the technology, command of energy, and material resources to terraform the surface of Mars (which is many orders of magnitude more difficult than casually estimated by posters in this discussion or Mr. Musk). Psst. Check post 34. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terraforming-mars-how-would-you-do-it-and-how-long-would-it-last/717654/43 "2015-09-13T17:21:53Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > No, no, we are planning for the future. When the sun has grown to a red giant and absorbed the earth. Actually, Mars may not be far enough away. Move Venus into the asteroid belt for a couple billion years to clear the belt. I’ll get right on it, Chief! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terraforming-mars-how-would-you-do-it-and-how-long-would-it-last/717654.md?page=2)