How Humanity Can Actually Terraform Mars

Humans have long dreamt of terraforming mars, but is it even possible? Building a mars colony would require technological leaps that we can only dream of at the moment. But if we could terraform the red planet, what might that process look like?
Sources:
pastebin.com/raw/bGhxNfJg
Founder & Director: Peter Schumaker
Chief Editor: Tristan Reed
Original soundtrack by Joseph McDade

[@BelialTnTn]

Terraforming Mars would be irrelevant anyway when we discover the protomolecule.

[@andrius505]

Bruh :D :D It;s on Phoebe, few hundred years from now :D :D

[@jehiahmaduro6827]

lol one piece of fiction meets another lol

[@antipoti]

Exactly my thought

[@antipoti]

Exactly my thought. Its just martian propaganda. The rings change everything!

[@teguhf.2084]

Why would we terraforming mars when we have bunch of habitable planet inside the ring

[@Aureora]

As always - interesting content 👌 Thank you Koranos! 💜

[@Rafaga777]

Great video. Love the beautiful graphics and the soothing background music. Much appreciated.

[@NatsukiTakaama]

Please save Japan 🇯🇵 from music haters 👳

[@lemon-bonbon]

Turns out we we're the aliens we were searching for all along.

[@Nuvitonmedia]

If we're the aliens, does that mean we get to write ourselves a 'Welcome to Earth' brochure?

[@lemon-bonbon]

@@Nuvitonmedia Nah, we outsource that to the even more extra extraterrestrials that are living in the core of the earth of course.

[@Ulrich_dArth]

The real aliens are the friends we made along the way

[@Ulrich_dArth]

The real aliens are the friends we made along the way

[@memyself8043]

Nice video! love your work!

[@Thomas-VA]

some say that an atomsphere created would last long enough in human years vs planet, but wouldn't nuke radiation last long enough too

[@ayybe7894]

It depends. If you detonated the nukes in the "air" they do not make long lasting nuclear fallout. If you detonate them right next to the ground, they kick a bunch of irradiated mass into the atmosphere that then falls out. The major concern on Earth is from cesium-137, which would pretty much be entirely gone within 100 years. A lot of other stuff decays much faster than that. Detonating nukes underground would ensure that all of their energy went into heating the planet and trapping most of the radioisotopes underground instead of spreading them around the surface.

[@alesterwaltergate3780]

Good stuff keep up the great work

[@Adam.0777]

I wonder how many flat earthers will be in the comments trying to say the moon and Mars are just lights in the firmament.

[@lemdixon01]

The galaxy is flat

[@ZI66640]

Don’t concern yourself with idiots

[@SunKing909]

It's actually indeed flat including the universe ​@@lemdixon01

[@lemdixon01]

@@SunKing909 😮

[@TheRealityWarper08]

​@@SunKing909 Only based on current models. It could be that the whole universe is just so vast, that even our current calculations are too tiny to identify curvature.

[@Skynet0019]

This is a great channel that deserves a lot more popularity!!

[@JMPT]

Amazingly Nice 🚀

[@Thomas-VA]

Welcome to the Martian Fyre Festival, you'll love the habitats and the cheese sandwiches

[@heristyono4755]

0.6℅ atmospheric pressure. It's a dead end.

[@ericgolightly8450]

Did you even try to come up with a solution

[@Jan12700]

We should do Venus before Mars. We could more easily Terraform Venus than Mars. Venus has a thick atmosphere with CO2 and Water Vapor, 90% of Earth gravity and is already habitable at an altitude of 50 Kilometers. We just need to reduce the CO2 so that the pressure and temperatures decrease and do something about the sulfuric acid. 1:28 Venus 3:09 Venus

[@jperf87]

It's the distance, bro

[@jehiahmaduro6827]

Terraforming Venus. The pressures on the surface of Venus are monumental the only real habitual zone is in the thick cloud layers and there are still great hurdles in setting up a floating habitat. the atmosphere is full of sulfuric acid.

[@ayybe7894]

@@jperf87Venus is not further than Mars from us. The problem with Venus is that we cannot live there until terraforming is complete. We can live on Mars in shelters or underground. Venus will melt and corrode everything. Cloud cities are neat until you consider there's no accessible building material, and you are a systems failure away from plummeting into a literal hellstorm.

[@thegoldenhexagon3999]

@@jperf87venus is actually closer to earth than mars is.

[@JimmyMorrison-hi5gy]

Tell that to Elon

[@TheEducat0r]

Terraforming Mars? That’s sound interesting. Mind-blowing video. Join the journey to a new world!

[@oops_player7328]

What if you add a giant Magnifying glass on Mars? aimed at Mars equator.

[@yufeng1707]

The lack of a magnetic field means all of the hard work you put into developing an atmosphere is for nothing. Like another user said, better to just hollow out the planet and live underground.

[@ayybe7894]

On the scale of geologic time, yeah. It'll EVENTUALLY lose its atmosphere again if we don't figure something else out. Still worth doing if we ever want to live there

[@ericgolightly8450]

They mention that in the video

[@anonymoushackers4853]

My dad thinks there is a firmament, yet also thinks the earth is round… I’ve learned to accept that he’s old and to let him think what he wants 😂😂 he’s earned it

[@86samsky]

Never understand why we don't ever see the idea of directing comet's towards planets for things like gas and ice.you have a whole planet to let them crash into and we are getting to a point we can almost land on asteroids. Seems just as feasible to do that with not so distant tech as it would to build a 100km mirror to divert the sun's rays to the poles. Again as many have pointed out a lack of magnetic field is an issue. But theoretically you can top up lost GHG with more comets.

[@ayybe7894]

Comet bombardment is super common is discussions of terraforming mars. They'd be slow and expensive to redirect, but so would any other approach.

[@JimmyMorrison-hi5gy]

Yeah and when the late heaven bombardment happened it took millions of years for oceans to from

[@Soysaucy328]

If we could terraform another planet we could also fix our planet

[@TheRealityWarper08]

Yeah... I don't think that'll ever happen. Instead, I'd suggest hollowing out Mars' mountains and building gigantic, layered cave societies within them. This would completely circumvent the need for protection, as the outside of the mountain would shield from radiation, and you could just fill the cave system with oxygen so you don't need to wear suits.

[@ericgolightly8450]

Maybe with big radiation blocking windows. Ice is transparent so that could work.

[@lemdixon01]

Ganamede is the only moon in the solar system with a global magnetic field. The magnetic field on Saturns moon Titan comes from Saturn itself.

[@benmetler872]

New Kurzge- oh... cool!

[@roman648]

We should Terraform both Mars and Venus, Sol system with 3 habitable worlds would be cosy.

[@JimmyMorrison-hi5gy]

Do you know how hard that would be?

[@Jan12700]

​@@JimmyMorrison-hi5gyNot so much as Mars

[@JimmyMorrison-hi5gy]

@@Jan12700 yeah but I’m just saying it would take long especially venus

[@thecreaturecalledpete1511]

Why not instead people on mars works on a mega project that is basically a tunnel that wraps around the planet and connects to both sides? You would technically make the planet habitable before terraforming it and you can build from this Straight tunnel.

[@zollen123]

Until there is earthquake.

[@ayybe7894]

@@zollen123Marsquake. Mars is not tectonically active though, so it is safer than tunnels we make on Earth, and we make a lot of them.

[@pacotaco1246]

​@ayybe7894 it kind of is though, like mars has mild tremors that have been detected. Mars' crust may not be fractured into as many plates as Earths crust which would contribute to Marsquakes being understood to be more rare than Earthquakes

[@TheKarlyzz]

you can't. here's why, You'd need a wormhole to outspeed the speed of light. And it is not possible. Or someone would figure out a way to work with negative energy, which is also currently impossible.

[@thecreaturecalledpete1511]

@@TheKarlyzz I think you are replying to the wrong Comment buddy, you are talking about something not even related to what I commented.

[@ferraswansen4909]

Because no one said it so far. The video looks great and i lobe this voice. Good job ❤

[@filipprochazka4961]

There is one other issue that isn't mentioned as often - Mars lacks any suitable buffer gas (or compounds thereof). In Earth's atmosphere, that role is filled by nitrogen. While CO2 is sufficiently nonreactive to be useful in that role from purely chemical standpoint, "air" consisting of 21% oxygen (same as on Earth) and 78% CO2 at 1 atm pressure would very quickly lead to CO2 poisoning - in other words, it wouldn't be breathable. This also is resolvable, however, it would be quite daunting to perform. The atmosphere of Venus contains, if my math is right, roughly three times as much nitrogen as Earth's does (by mass - Venus has WAY much more atmosphere than Earth does, so fraction of nitrogen in Venus' atmosphere is actually quite small). I suspect there are other options for a buffer gas (I suspect argon could hypotheticaly be used? It is sufficiently inert, we are used to breathing it, as it is the third most common gas in Earth's atmosphere, but I am not certain if it wouldn't also function as an asphyxant if it comprised 78% of air at 1 atm pressure). There would be another restriction on what the buffer gas could be - if it would be helium (plenty of that in the solar system, although all of it in deep gravity wells), it would likely escape Mars eventually even with the magnetic field issue fixed. Either way, terraforming Mars won't likely be possible to result in a surface breathable air without massive import of external material. (just to note, while a 99% O2 and 1% CO2 atmosphere would probably aleviate the CO2 poisoning issue, it would be unpleasant to breathe, not to mention, I am not certain if such atmosphere at 1 atm pressure would be able to retain enough heat, and then there's the elephant in the room - near pure oxygen atmosphere at 1 atm pressure causes a LOT of every day materials to self-combust).

[@ericgolightly8450]

Maybe 5 psi of almost pure oxygen with tiny traces of CO2 and greenhouse gases like SF6 could work.

[@hussainkhan-fg1lv]

We might be able to do this quicker than most expect since we are at the cusp of achieving agi or even asi ,it will accelerate our technology rapidly and with the increasing number of humanoid robots building such megastructures will be much quicker , we maybe able to achieve fusion in the near future enabling us to create huge amounts of heat energy to melt those ice caps , with advancements in quantum computing, managing such mega projects will be a breeze , material science will lead to new kinds of alloys and materials with some chance of discovering properties which might shift whole paradigm of whats possible like room temperature super conductors , carbon nano tubes etc

[@seanhewitt603]

Unless your able to say drag a mass like titan or Mimas into Mars' orbit, you won't get the sort of ecology that's earth-like.

[@MysteriousSpace88]

The most important thing is whether we can live on Mars, and if that happens, when will it be possible?

[@Dwuudz]

What if we terraformed Uranus?

[@ohcharlie428]

Nothing but a steamy weekend.

[@THAIWANESEMAN]

@@ohcharlie428 *STINKY weekend

[@ohcharlie428]

@@THAIWANESEMAN musky!

[@Nuvitonmedia]

Well, if we terraform Uranus, we better invest in some heavy-duty air fresheners

[@JimmyMorrison-hi5gy]

Uranus is a gas/ice giant and it’s core would be under pressure to kill a human instantly

[@alamin91880]

Which software do you use making this video please learn me

[@freeamericanthinker558]

I seen this before

[@Cecil_Augus]

The title makes absolutely no sense. It should've been something like "Why we can't terraform Mars" or "Is it possible to terraform Mars?"

[@vatroslavmorbidovic4105]

Nice video. Reminds me of In a Nutshell channel. :)

[@braydenrazavi838]

Wow I had no idea that Mars had similar Seasons to Earth and was a tilt as well

[@OverlordZephyros]

Venus is more habitable than mars (at 50km up)

[@Privacityuser]

Make one about the history of the magnetic field on earth and the influence of star link on erath magnetic fields!!!

[@RishavKumar-wh2yb]

Ooh your voice I'm addicted ❤

[@fsh1567]

It's easier to genetically engineer humans for living on Mars.

[@schmolu3198]

Why don't we first Terraform our earth back to what it was before we started pumping Carbon into the atmosphere?

[@schuyler9897]

Give me the soundtrack pls

[@vinniepeterss]

great❤

[@pratanudas8800]

It's and irony that we humans are destroying our own plate, making it inhabitable day by day and here we are thanking about terraforming another planet which is already deserted.

[@W9HJBill]

Ultimately, even with Terraforming, Mars will return to a barren wasteland because it doesn't have a spinning metallic core to generate a magnetic shield that keeps the atmosphere from ONCE AGAIN being stripped off from the sun. That magnetic shield is what REALLY prevents Terraforming and what really separates Earth from Mars.

[@JimmyMorrison-hi5gy]

Yeah we know

[@airiannawilliams3181]

If we can terraform a planet, Venus would be a better choice, due to the size and ability to hold onto the atmosphere. If you manage to make a breathable atmosphere on Mars, it will be gone in as little as 1,000 years. In order to retain the atmosphere you would have to block solar winds, and in doing so would reduce it's day time temperatures, making it even colder in the long run. In order to gain mass on Mars, so it can retain an atmosphere, we needs to take all the asteroids in the asteroid belt, including Ceres, and all the asteroids in front of and behind Saturn, and maybe even Jupiter, and make them crash into Mars, which will increase the internal pressures, and increase it's temperatures as the existing core reheats and then begins to slip as it spins at a variable speed much like Earth's (it could effectively restart the dynamo as a result). Crashing meteors into Mars really is the best course of action in order to make Mars livable, with each impact, it delivers minerals that get super heated and thusly increase the pressures of the atmosphere, at the same time as increasing Mars' mass to better hold onto that atmosphere. Impact of Ceres on Mars would in theory add a large amount of water vapor, as Ceres is reported to be an Icey Dwarf planet. Getting it to move would require setting up dual rockets at the poles, that stick out the sides, like the Naucells of the Starship Enterprise, but instead of a ship, it's the planet. And yes, it will require larger rockets than anything we have built currently (making it not feasible at this time). The Dart mission shows that we can effect asteroid trajectories, but can we do it without the loss of so much material?

[@ruisilva5758]

Humans wrecked at least one planet. Why wreck another?

[@jehiahmaduro6827]

So True.... But the thing is this one planet is all we have. Every other planet is a deathtrap and a hoop dream

[@ayybe7894]

What exactly do you think we would wreck on Mars? Rocks? Sand? We haven't "wrecked" Earth, we've just put a dent into the current biodiversity and are making the planet less habitable to ourselves. The technology to keep people alive and thriving on Mars would be directly applicable to our situation here on Earth.

[@MrManmademan]

wouldnt we need to inject molten metals into the core of the planet to get its magnetic shield up and going like earth has

[@CosmicCells]

Its a very intriguing concept but lets face it maybe our grand-grand-grand... children will see this happen...

[@jazzunit8234]

Better of knocking Mercury off it’s orbit in a calculated manner to send it at a collision course with Mars much the same as our moon was created but the habitable planet will be what’s left of Mercury as now a moon of Mars.

[@OneHappyCrazyPerson]

Space lasers!

[@IllegallyAcquiredKIA]

It would be relativly easy just take a lot of money we will be on mars in 10 years

[@simonjjk]

5:33 Why would it be ethically challenging, when mars has 0 population and no organic life.

[@MrQwertyman111]

Did you just assume its population and organic life content? How dare you? 😜

[@Sjellokat]

Because nukes create fallout and radiation. It would be functionally impossible to clean up, creating a massive risk of exposure to any future potential habitants

[@simonjjk]

@@MrQwertyman111hahaha

[@rozenzoon]

There is an enormous gap in earth’s history in which nothing really happens. Talk at least several billion years. I think this is the time it took for all the microbes to assemble and by chance make plant life, which in turn became the soil (decomposition) after millions and millions of years. Terra forming Mars to look like earth would be a huge feat

[@Zurround]

Even if (a big "if") we did everything else necessary to make Mars habitable one elephant in the room that we cannot get past is that the gravity is too low. Its about 38 percent Earth meaning a person who weighs 100 pounds on Earth would weigh 38 pounds on Mars. Prolonged gravity deprivation is terrible for the human body that has evolved for Earth gravity and lower gravity does not hold an atmosphere as well.

[@bharath2508]

Seems like a possibility by 2100

[@ursibar7837]

How about restoring the earth first?

[@jordanlozinski2372]

There’s nothing wrong with the earth

[@ursibar7837]

@@jordanlozinski2372 Are you serious?

[@DynamicHaze]

Gotta start spinning mars faster to melt the core to generate a new magnetosphere which would protect an atmosphere from ilthe ionic particles being flung by the sun.

[@zollen123]

The solar wind constantly stripes away the Mars atmosphere. Whatever terraforming efforts on Mars will eventually get undone by the solar wind.

[@Qubeman]

You can try finishing the video before leaving a comment

[@TheRuben_music]

If we use trillions to terraform mars we are dumber then i thought. All that money could go to saving the planet we live on today

[@Itsmarkyoung]

Copying Kurzgesagt thumbnails down to the font 💀

[@yaomingas5425]

Don't blame him, one have to make a living

[@pacotaco1246]

If it aint broke

[@Ted_Youtuber]

I mean..dont we all?

[@Matthew-ix1sd]

Many channels make a living being original. Not a fan of copying creativity of others.

[@pacotaco1246]

@@Matthew-ix1sd kurzgesat sold out to colonial oligarchs years ago, so what if someone uses a similar artstyle while not selling a message of optimistic complacency

[@fannybawsgotmarethanme6469]

Kurzgesagt takes payoff money from billgates. This channel is the new kurzgesagt

[@LygarZeroX]

Barsoom

[@JeffB1961]

with no magnetic core to protect it from the sun's solar radiation ....... terraforming is futile to put it nicely .

[@Coalition2298qy.]

Video idea what if we created ftl technology

[@Sjellokat]

My understanding is that it legitimately may be easier to terraform Venus. Would you be able to do a video on that?

[@lemdixon01]

Geoengineering then Solar Engineering

[@wefuntw]

why not make earth more habitable? why not turn deserts into forests? clean up oceans ?

[@gwynm8506]

It would still be cheaper than housingvin new york

[@LetsGoFishingBrandon]

Mars atmosphere is 0.6% the size of Earths😮

[@Jonnygurudesigns]

Part of what was so amazing about their little helicopter being able to hover and fly around..

[@Mojo545]

Koranos always have this depressing 'all-is-lost' music.

[@iorifori91]

who cares, I don't live that long enough

[@user-zd5dp4vp8e]

This channel is very similar to another science channel😂

[@lemdixon01]

Its too small to hold down a thick atmosphere for very long, so the mass of the planet would have to be increased to the size of earth. Just put domes all over the surface

[@olafmesschendorp147]

it isn't the mass, it's the magnetic field that is the problem for not being able to hold a (dense enough) atmosphere

[@lemdixon01]

@@olafmesschendorp147 maybe and distance from the Sun. Titan has a thick atmosphere but low mass but its very cold being so far from the Sun so gases haven't boiled away. Titan has a magnetic field from Saturn. The only moon with its own magnetic field is Ganamede but I don't think it has an atmosphere.

[@Jan12700]

That's why we should go to Venus with 90% of Earths Gravity.

[@alien8070]

Has nothing to do with mass. Earths atmosphere would be gone if not for magnetic field. In fact, even an apple could have an atmosphere in space, if surrounded by strong magnetic field.

[@lemdixon01]

@@alien8070 so why doesn't Ganamede, a moon with a magnetic field have an atmosphere ?

[@iamBlackGambit]

Why not just wait it out🤷🏾‍♂️..imean time and chance made our planet habitable..so why cant it happen on mars?

[@Nuvitonmedia]

So, when we terraform Mars, can we rename it 'Muskmelon' in honor of our favorite space pioneer? Elon's face on the new currency, anyone?

[@zulfadli9196]

If we rename Mars 'Muskmelon', does that mean we'll have to rename the Milky Way the 'Musk Way'?

[@exneviatravel6544]

Imagine the Muskmelon banknotes with Elon's face smiling down on us

[@junodeer]

I’d rather have the sun expand and kill us all then rename mars fucking musk melon

[@cgrw1]

The cockroaches and the secrets of the Rahab can stay on Mars (watch Terra Formars, it's better than the reviews)

[@HaverBrickzITD]

Kurzeverse

[@alexk94555]

Lol there are more comments than views. Chase that early comment upvote

[@lemdixon01]

I know something about this already

[@KEZAMINE]

Nah 🎉

[@Cecil_Augus]

The title: What if we terraform mars? The video: it's not viable So why make the video? 🤔

[@LordSignur]

one simple reason all of that won't happens : 3.71 m/s enjoy osteoporosis.

[@pyeitme508]

We

[@nemvus_]

Terraforming a whole planet, to suit current human biological limits, is thinking backwards. It's easier to adjust ourselves to the planet. We will very soon have conscious beings (AI and cyborgs) that don't need Mars to be earth-like to live in it, and they are the ones that will inhabit it first. Granted this isn't incompatible with a long-term terraforming goal, for the sake of having a new unique biosphere in our solar system, with its own diversity. But the idea that we need to terraform planets to accommodate to current homo sapiens, is unrealistic and short-sighted reasoning. As we spread across the stars, it will mainly be as uploaded brains that can enter any kind of of android body, suited to explore the conditions of those planets. Brain uploads and AI's are less than a century away, while terraforming is 2-3 centuries away. So the order of events will be as such.

[@sunnymeee]

U r better than the channel kurzgestan i would say 😅

[@necrophadian]

What if we copied Kurzgesagt?

[@sunnymeee]

This channel is realistic and better than cartoon kurzgestan nutshell, there are no cartoons in the video only practical stuff and millions of people create interesting content in infotainment and this is one channel and is great channel

[@Ch3kh0v]

🎉

[@thomasbrunkle7223]

There's optimism, and there's this. This is so far beyond our capabilities and understandings even ten thousand years from now. It requires a perfect civilization and we will never become one. Throwing this concept around like it's child play and getting average people to obsess over it is just wrong.

[@kira6353]

human advancement in technology had been exponential, you have no idea how different our capabilities will be just 100 years into the future. billions of self replicating robots sent to mine, produce and terraform might not be such a distant dream for us. we might build a Dyson sphere way before all this that would certainly help us in the process, you are being far too pessimistic about the human species, and videos like this are always nice to give a glimpse in our future

[@Tyler-2839]

We'd strip the planet of all it's resources so that an equivalent to Elon Musk could be a quadrillionare.

[@Akshayattr1]

venus is better candidate for terraformin. its very similar to earth

[@ayybe7894]

Except for, ya know, being hotter than the melting point of lead, the crushing atmospheric pressure that's like being 3000 feet underwater, the clouds of concentrated sulfuric acid. But yeah, it has a similar gravity, which I guess would be nice.

[@Spaaace493]

sup

[@entity_2452]

SECOND

[@Spaaace493]

First

[@help-someone-in-requirements]

Hi, thanks for the awesome video upload. I personally believe/think we should invent chemicals to change the mars thin atmosphere from CO2 to mostly O2 ( oxygen ) by emitting gases into it's atmosphere from space. Also; in the near future we should consider/evaluate to implement artificial magnetic field to planet Mars to prevent radiation from sun or space from reaching Mars. 🚀🌺

[@ayybe7894]

They sent a demonstration unit on Perseverance that uses electricity to split CO2 into O2, it was called Moxie and it was a huge success. Making an artificial magnetic field would require an energy usage that far exceeds what humans produce on Earth today... so probably not. Magnetic fields only stop charged particles from the sun from hitting you dead on, which "blows" the atmosphere away over time. There's also cosmic rays that hit Earth all the time, going right through our magnetic field and delivering radiation to us. It is the miles of thick atmosphere that slows them down and renders them mostly harmless

[@grantparke5452]

We should redirect icey astroids to Mars and replenish the resources