Terraforming Mars: Inside the Insane (True) Plans to Make Mars Habitable

[@davidmeehan4486]

Thanks for not ignoring the magnetic field issue. So many infotainment programs have spoken of terraforming Mars as just a matter of adding carbon dioxide, when the challenge is so much greater.

[@PanzerBuyer]

forget Mars, Venus is a far better choice.

[@davidmeehan4486]

@@PanzerBuyer You mean on Zeppelins? Maybe. The main take-away is: preserve Earth at all costs.

[@PanzerBuyer]

That's one possibility. But overall, Venus has near Earth gravity and is closer to the Sun for solar and light. I think living on Mars would be a real downer just for how dim it is even at high noon. @@davidmeehan4486

[@richlkenneth]

ok let's say mars had magnetic field. and we did terriform the planet. we are designed for a certain amount of gravity. too less will make us fall apart. too much could squash us. we would have to over come gravity as well.

[@joshh535]

Yeah but they could just send a bunch a magnets from Earth?! I’m no fool, I know a magnet is just as strong on Mars as it is on Earth.

[@oldblinddarby2498]

As a plant biologist myself, the issue I never see addressed is that of radiation exposure to our food crops. By and large they'll require the same protections as humans, radiation has the same effect on plants as us, and leads to wild unpredictable mutations that will mostly kill the plants or render them sterile. However, some plants do have mechanisms in place to repair their genome and this could be used as a protective mechanism.

[@IdeologieUK]

Well I think you had better be on the first mission and ‘science the £h1t out of it!’ 😮

[@lukemorris261]

Radiation is your main concern and not the complete and utter lack of any Nitrogen?

[@winterroadspokenword4681]

Which is why resolving the magnetic field issue is very important. The nukes we could dream up within a decade and get slung at Mars. A giant electromagnetic field generator is another story. Really. Nuclear fusion is key to powering all these dreams! Once we’ve got fusion we will be sorted.

[@jebes909090]

thats because this is all make believe

[@kingace6186]

Plants will only be grown in Biolabs until terraforming is successful enough.

[@mikeygallos5000]

I'm glad Simon moved Astrographics from Geographics to Mega Projects.

[@Adam-b8i]

😂

[@marcbeebee6969]

I get my news on business blaze

[@C-Farsene_5]

Or warigraphics

[@mildlydazed9608]

at first I thought this meant he had another channel called Astrographics. He's like a whack a mole for the subscribe button

[@llllogix]

​@@mildlydazed9608😂

[@jacobtovar6043]

That was a beautiful ending to the video Simon. The part about us wishing we were standing next to them on Mars. Hit me right in emotions/imagination, wondering if this species will make it far into the future or fizzle out in the next 1000 years.

[@ThomasKelly.]

My thoughts exactly about that beautiful ending of the video.

[@thejohanvalli]

Humanity will prevail. There is no question about that. The real dark mystery is just, what kind of humanity it is. As an philosopher student, I would say that not very Star Trek kind of, sadly. Even nowadays in the western parts of the world, cultures of societies have become over-individualistic, very populistic and very human over all (just not in the positive way). And I am saying this as an EU-citizen. These are real problems in EU, which is probably the most advanced in this area of progression.

[@celestialporcupine5922]

You ooze elitism.

[@AammaK]

@@celestialporcupine5922 You ooze judgementalism, evaluating someone based on their vocabulary only. What on Earth did you have to gain with that? Grow the f up.

[@trevanwoodbury4076]

I did feel this as well. ☺ Very well said indeed.

[@TheLittlestViking]

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mar Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) is the best and most accurate example of how terraforming (areoforming) Mars would actually be approached. Anyone who read it was already familiar with most of the techniques in the NASA proposals. It's also an excellent example of hard science fiction with a heavy dose of political everything.

[@philsmith2444]

Other than the gerontological treatments and space elevator, neither of which would be necessary to colonize Mars, everything KSR wrote about back in the mid 90s was achievable with contemporary technology. Need to liberate a lot of CO2? Melt the southern ice cap. Need O2 in the atmosphere? Vaporize the iron oxides in the rock and regolith with the soletta to release the oxygen locked away in it. The atmosphere will have to be thickened by vaporizing water ice and CO2 ice before making it breathable is possible, but plants will grow like crazy.

[@CortexNewsService]

Excellent series

[@vic5015]

​@@CortexNewsServiceinterestingly, the first book in the trilogy takes place around 2050 or so. Right in line with the time frame proposed here.

[@mikeguilmette776]

I remember attending writing seminars at which the presenters picked apart the abysmal "science" in that series.

[@C-Farsene_5]

I gotta read this

[@mangogo44]

Imagine aliens right now in a distant galaxy discovering an exoplanet that is promising for life. And it's Mars bbecause they can only see how things were in the past

[@MichaelWinter-ss6lx]

It will never be possible to see a planet in an other galaxy. Our exoplanets are all within the neighborhood, not farther than 1300 lightyears away from us. Also they get bigger with increasing distance, simply because we cant see smaller ones that far out. This was becoming so annoiing, that eggheads thought supersized jupiters were most common. 🚀🏴‍☠️

[@user-hp6ls8qy6d]

Maybe the UAPs are here checking out Earth?

[@willc1294]

​@@MichaelWinter-ss6lxanyway, even if the aliens in that galaxy somehow had the ability to view planets billions of light years away, they'd obviously be smart enough to release they're looking far far back into the past.

[@billblaski9523]

​@MichaelWinter-ss6lx really? Maybe I'm asking a real dumb question, but then how is it possible that we discover other galaxys if we can't see them?

[@SebastianSchleussner]

​@@billblaski9523 Galaxies can be seen by virtue of being huge. Our own, middling, Milky Way has a diameter of about 90 000 light YEARS. Earth's diameter is about 0.05 light SECONDS.

[@Oshidashi]

To record a message for the future citizens of Mars was quite mindblowing!

[@Miata822]

Future generations may look back at this quaint video on their rare cay off from working to terraform Earth back into something more bearable.

[@wdd3141]

One bonus: the toxic perchlorates of Mars might possibly be used to generate oxygen, for breathing, for fuel, and for other purposes. A friend once told me a mixture of sugar and potassium perchlorate would be like gunpowder (gunpowder uses the heat of burning sulfur and charcoal to break down potassium nitrate, liberating elemental oxygen that further fuels the combustion).

[@guytech7310]

Just the opposite the perchlorates make it impossible for life on Mars. Toxic to both plants & humans. We'll never colonize mars, or even any manned missions: 1. Anyone travel to mars would get a massive dose of radiation on the trip. 2. World running out of Oil & global debt levels at 320% (nearly unserviceable).

[@FLPhotoCatcher]

Another probably good idea: use Venus to terraform Mars. It's known that solar shades cooling Venus would freeze it's mainly CO2 atmosphere in just 200 years. After the CO2 is frozen solid on the ground, mass drivers (rail gunns) could shoot huge canisters of the solid CO2 into space, to be sent to Mars. Offgassing CO2 in the canisters could help rocket the canisters to Mars. When a canister arrives at Mars, the internal pressure would blast the CO2 out one end of the canister, and into Mars, with the canister going the other direction to avoid crashing into Mars. The canister would be returned to Venus. The fast-moving CO2 raining down would warm up Mars, and help melt any solid CO2 remaining on Mars. Then plants could use the CO2 to make oxygen. Here's a video about terraforming Venus. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fV66gGCwYraojas

[@michaelmees6522]

Simon, I love the way you so eloquently put the ending of this video 👍

[@MinionofNobody]

For the first time ever, I want KZbin merch. A “Make Mars Great Again” t-shirt would be great.

[@antonnym214]

You can mitigate the radiation problem by placing your colony at the west end of Valles Marineris in Noctus Labyrinthus, where there is, coincidentally a glacier with water ice galore. More than your colony will ever need. Also, being 4 miles below the surface in the canyon, you'll have only a fraction of that radiation and the atmospheric pressure will be 150% more than you get on the surface.

[@Nalydyenlo]

You can mitigate all the problems by forgetting about terraforming Mars altogether, and concentrating on making Earth more habitable.

[@roberthesser6402]

@@Nalydyenlo part of the process of ensuring earth remains habitable indefinitely is to take heavy industry off of it. Preserve earth as is, let it heal, and begin the process of exploiting space. We can do multiple things at once

[@Nalydyenlo]

@@roberthesser6402 I guess that makes sense, though it seems like it's going to be a long way off in the future. In the meantime, we should do what we can to preserve and maintain a healthy planet here, and reverse what damage we've already done.

[@cjware316]

All smart sentiments expressed here!

[@paulfay357]

​@@roberthesser6402 Most of the history of earth has been inhospitable to human life. Your theory is based upon the premise that today is the "normal" state of the world, and does not constantly change... neither of which is true.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:35 - Chapter 1 - The waters of mars 5:15 - Chapter 2 - Farmsteads of the future 9:00 - Chapter 3 - In the grat magnetic field 13:30 - Chapter 4 - God of (nuclear) war 15:55 - Chapter 5 - The gift of life

[@intellectualcat4000]

Thanks!

[@theofficialken1755]

I already think in David Attenborough's voice when I see animals, I think in Morgan Freeman's voice when I think about existential things. I now hear Simon's voice for any random information stuff. If you outlive me, narrate my life, or get zefrank to do it please.

[@jeremyw6246]

ZeFrank needs to do it in the creepy Dave voice though .

[@YourDadsBoyfriend]

Joe biden is working on it now...

[@theofficialken1755]

@@YourDadsBoyfriend so you're the guy who can't help himself but to inject politics into everything. My whole town burned down 3 weeks ago, and I still feel sorry for you.

[@keryeeastin4022]

At this point Simon is the narrator for most of my inner monologue😅

[@yggdrasil9039]

The Magnetic Field protection shield is the foundation upon which everything else is built.

[@jordipolo84]

Definitely. I think it would be great idea to launch one small version of it and see what kind of effect it has. Of course the effect will be negligible but the idea would need to be tested. For instance a launch for 2029 , get some conclusions by 2031, at least we would know if it is worth pursuing further

[@Cryptid71]

I know you have 1 million channels but man I wish you would create a space channel. Your space Contant in my personal opinion is some of your best work.

[@marcbeebee6969]

Simon, the man might have a point

[@TitularHeroine]

Simon, these fellows have a strong point

[@TheUpsidesKen]

Space and animal themed channels feel like a must!

[@zaco-km3su]

It's not enough.

[@marcbeebee6969]

Free Danny!

[@awake2late]

This is the first time I've heard about the first one. That is a simple and brilliant concept. It would be a lot safer than some of our my extreme idea. We have only been concentrating on just projects on Mars itself. If we combine this idea with those we might be able to actually do this.

[@JoeGoesXtreme]

If I am correct the mars regolith contains potassium perchlorate. This salt is valuable because potassium is a useful nutrient. Also, it thermally decomposes giving out oxygen gas also useful: KClO4 ---> KCl +O2

[@Alexadria205]

Is there any way to get rid of or use the leftover chlorine? Maybe combine it with sodium to make salt? I'm not sure of the balance of elements present on mars.

[@JoeGoesXtreme]

@@Alexadria205KCl is valuable. Molten salt electrolysis produces Chlorine which could be stored and used for chemical sinthesis. Bul KCl could be directly used as a plant nutrient. It remains to be seen what else is available in the mars composition that can be taken advantage of.

[@JoeGoesXtreme]

. @Alexadria205 Chlorine is an important chemical it can be stored and used to make chemically resistant plastics like PVC. Unfortunately, erdo not know much about the chemical composition of Mars minerals and sediments. There may be lots of water soluble salts that could be extracted and used. So, the chemistry in Mars is yet to be designed deppending on what is there, and hopefully it will be done in a way that does not screw-up the planet from the begining. It is a nice challenge

[@happilyham6769]

It is important to remember that there are thousands of things that are a part of everyday life today that were thought impossible 200 years ago. Something is only impossible until it isn't.

[@1FatLittleMonkey]

There's also thousands of things that people thought were inevitable that turned out to be impossible.

[@ajstevens1652]

And none of those things were on such a gigantic scale as altering a planet. We're yet to build a single megastructure in space, we're not likely to terraform a planet anytime soon.

[@robinstevenson6690]

True, but a lot of them have turned out to be very undesirable!

[@arthurdefreitaseprecht2648]

Well, but normally they don't involve planetary scale changes, the reason to be impractical is simple, physics. It requires wayyy to much material and energy to do such things, it is way easier to start by stop breaking earth, then go to the poles, under the oceans and underground, and then moon. All of this is still orders of magnitude easier than terraforming.

[@robinstevenson6690]

@@arthurdefreitaseprecht2648 I agree with you, and wonder how people can fail to realize something so obvious. It's as if they're "thinking" with their hearts, rather than their brains.

[@jordanscherr6699]

There's really two elephants in the room that scream Star Trek - Search for Spock issues. First, if you don't strengthen the magnetic field, you're operating on a permanent knife's edge with whatever is shielding the planet. And second, anything that terraformes the planet "fast enough" for human acceptability will have radical consequences alongside the intended ones. "It was the only way to solve certain problems. If I hadn't (cheated), it might have been years or never." Those same fictitious methods gave Genesis a tiny lifespan as an unintended consequence. You can't predict everything in this real-life case either!

[@MatthieuBrucher]

Yeah, something the Musk cannot comprehend.

[@brandonspencer7093]

Wtf are you bringing up star trek for. Also that rambling response had nothing of value to say

[@jordanscherr6699]

@@brandonspencer7093 They created/terraformed a planet in star trek genesis, and then it destructed itself in search for Spock. And why, because you can't predict everything when you do something that extreme! I would call that observation valuable.

[@julianaylor4351]

It's a plot point in Star Trek 3 that the Genesis device, was using unstable matter and it was accidentally formed from a spaceship and a nebula, rather than a dead world ...a #@£&w up!!! Your comment is irrelevant.

[@razzle1964]

⁠@@julianaylor4351irrelevant, née futile, I’d say. Resist.

[@Sparkle-Father]

Simon is going to be this generation's David Attenborough. He is such a great presenter and storyteller.❤

[@Wustenfuchs109]

Not really. He lacks the charm and calm of David. David can talk about anything and you would feel tranquil and enchanted. Simon is not bad, he is good, don't get me wrong - but he is a completely different sort of presenter. It's like a football player - you can have two on the same team, playing the same sport, but playing a very different position on the field.

[@thehellyousay]

Whatever cranks your shaft ...

[@Nicksonian]

I had to laugh. Simon couldn’t hold David Attenborough’s cue cards. At 66, I have been watching documentaries with their sonorously-toned narrators for a half century. There was Nat Geo specials Joseph Campanella and Richard Kiley; Nature’s George Page; Morgan Freeman everywhere; Secrets of the Dead’s Liev Schreiber; Nova’s Jay O. Sanders; Frontline’s Will Lyman…the list goes on. Simon isn’t even a middling presenter. He talks too fast, with poor enunciation and his British accent (I usually like British accents) is heavy, annoying, and pretentious.

[@carnifexor3010]

@@Nicksonian plus the volume, mic type, editing plays a part in why Simon sounds this way. He is reading from a script to, which can factor the writer's prose & more. Find Simon talking off script and it may give an idea if he could D. Attenborough himself. =)

[@Nicksonian]

@@carnifexor3010 Are you serious? No. Those excuses don't hold water. Simon will never get beyond KZbin because he just isn’t that good

[@Crytica.]

Man, to know that I am probably 1-2 generation(s) born too early to see people work/live on the moon and like 10 generations too early to see people work/live on Mars is really depressing

[@gabriellang7998]

Why not start a company and invest into space race yourself then? :) Make your dreams come true!

[@grimmlinn]

Fear not, you are the right generation to ruin the earth and see world war 3

[@toucheturtle3840]

Terraforming Mars is delusional. Why would we need to?…

[@grimmlinn]

@@toucheturtle3840 In case earth gets messed up. That can be climate change, nuclear war, or a dinosaur asteroid. Venus used to be like earth but look at it now. Dinosaurs ruled earth for millions of years and died to an asteroid. It could all happen here on earth even if we don’t nuke ourselves.

[@toucheturtle3840]

@@grimmlinn Venus was never habitable.

[@azchris1979]

I think we need to redirect icy bodies to hit it. Adding energy, water, and atmosphere instantly.

[@anderander5662]

I have thought the same thing...not sure it's possible

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

In Cowboy Bebop, Mars colonies were mostly built inside large craters on the surface, covered by artificial atmosphere that was constantly replenished via large devices at the edge. In this way, a colony could be established with atmospheric and climatic features similar to those of Earth.

[@mariuspuiu9555]

the radiation from the sun would still pose a huge issue.

[@thomashiggins9320]

@@mariuspuiu9555 Make the domes out of clear ice one meter thick, enclosed in transparent polymer casings. The ice blocks the radiation from overhead; the walls of the crater block anything from coming in at the sides, and the bulk of the planet blocks it from coming from below. Go one step further, and build the colonies in canyons, and it gets even easier. But caves are the first, best choice -- at least at the start.

[@mariuspuiu9555]

@@thomashiggins9320 the logistics of that already makes my head hurt :)

[@coolsenjoyer]

I love that Cowboy Bebop has all that crazy sci-fi technology but their small arms are all from 20th century

[@solaries3]

Mars gets 44% of the sunlight that Earth does. Stick some ice in the way and you might as well live in caves.@@thomashiggins9320

[@damonmorris5590]

I'm convinced it's actually Simon that's locked in the basement and not Danny. It would explain how Simon manages to make content daily for like 10 channels

[@anthonycade9034]

Danny is the overlord...

[@annoyed707]

Simon is one of several Raelian clones.

[@geodkyt]

Other options for terraforming Mars (which are compatible with almost everything else mentioned). 1. If we have the technical capabikity to buikd and maintain a Martian L1 position dipole that could shield Mars, we can build Aerostationary high latitude solar mirrors that focus solar energy (that wouldnt hit Mars anyway) directly on to the poles. 2. Instead of nukes, the same effect as Musk's "Nuke Mars!" plan could be achueved by smashing ice chunks (often comet cores) into the planet. Large thermal release (check!), limitied ionizong radiation unlike nuclear weapons (awesome!), and additional water and atmospheric volatiles like frozen CO2 (bonus!).

[@thatlonewolfguy2878]

Basically pull an Expanse season 5, throw comets/asteroids at it aimed precisely enough to hit the polar ice caps which would release enough pressure and heat to start melting them and getting liquid water over a huge area, even if its just a huge lake that's a massive start, plus we could feasibly do that since we've landed a probe on a comet, would just need basically a drone swarm of em all with huge amounts of rocket engines essentially to change the trajectory to where it'll collide with Mars' polar ice caps

[@geodkyt]

@@thatlonewolfguy2878 It's a great idea - but for the near and mid term (until we have dramatically improved propulsion capability), we'll have to carefully select the targets with an eye towards minimal Δ-v change required to hit Mars. The Expanse has the advantage of magic Handwavium(tm) propulsion tech that allows them to brute force stuff compared to anything we think is feasible within the next several decades. If you don't have the Script Gods invoking the Rule of Cool, you want to select bodies that you can move into the appropriate orbits with thrusts of miniscule fractions of a G. (It can take a *surprising* amount of energy to move an orbit to hit a specific spot - for example, it takes 40% of the Δ-v to exit the Solar System from Earth orbit than it would to send that same spacecraft to hit the Sun - because you have to *cancel* 100% of the Earth orbital potential energy to "fall into the Sun", whereas simply by being in Earth orbit you already have more than half the energy needed for Solar escape velocity.)

[@becharasaab9500]

#Suggestion: Could we see an in-depth look at the Jim Green dipole magnetic shield as its own Megaproject video?

[@Dene181]

13:19 Ah, nice throwback to Stargate Atlantis S3 E20! Such an iconic clip! 👌

[@evandipasquale9255]

If I had to go with the best possible way to turn Mars into Earth MKII then it would have to be the asteroid belt. Taking all the asteroids from the belt and slamming them into Mars, bulk up the mass and gravity and hopefully the heat would be enough to bring the core back to life. Best case scenario the crust would cool within 100,000 yrs, which seem like a long time but on a cosmic scale it's nothing. We would basically be building a new planet by just pushing rocks into Mars.

[@bunny1010]

You have addressed the elephant in the room that everyone else does not understand. Without increasing the gravity of Mars all of the other ideas are only temporary measures. Your concept of of using asteroids is the only approach that is workable.However, keep in mind that by increasing Mars mass you will disrupt the entire solar system. The balance that took millions of years will be corrupted. Planets and moons will be flung about trying to recreate balance. Earth could be flung into the sun or shot out of the system. Best to leave well enough alone. Concentrate on breaking the light barrier and find a new earth; also stabilize the social system on earth.

[@MichaelWinter-ss6lx]

Thats our human nature: waste all the space resources at once, make the nearest planet untouchable essentially forever and continue to replicate. 🚀🏴‍☠️

[@evandipasquale9255]

@@MichaelWinter-ss6lx just like agent Smith from the matrix = Virus

[@FlurAhFlur]

I've watched a few terraforming videos and I'd love to know more about the feasibility of the magnet needed to protect Mars. How big would it be, how expensive, is solar enough to power it

[@sdm6054]

The magnetic satellite would act as a solar sail and be pushed out of alignment immediately. The forces acting on it would be enormous. The concept is braindead at best but keeps being parroted endlessly for content and clicks.

[@NightridingDoom]

Give this editor a raise. Timing 10/10

[@DisneyWorldAdventures]

Simon never disappoints! Not many people bring up the magnetic field issue. And if people plan on walking around on Mars its the first issue that needs to be figured out!

[@thomashiggins9320]

Well, no. Walking around on Mars in caves and under domes doesn't require any such thing. It's a great idea, down the line, but we can get started without a huge magnetic field, up front.

[@Talpiot_Program]

COMMON SENSE SKEPTIC three years ago. Constantly to make Musk look the fool he is. But CSS is for some reason not beloved by yt. Candy science is all this crap is by an out of work English actor and a ChatGPT script.

[@kwennemar]

Thanks Simon and team!

[@therakshasan8547]

To make Mars long term habitable the Core of Mars needs to double in size and be molten . The gasses can form a reasonable amount of atmosphere , and a magnetosphere to keep it there . You don't live On Mars , but you can live Under Mars .

[@SeattlePioneer]

[@george.vasilev.reyner1916]

The message and the graphic at the end was absolutely beautiful, man! Hats off!

[@michaelmurray2595]

Simon, humanity isn't prepared to fix Earth's atmosphere, so terraforming Mars is just a pipe-dream!

[@akigreus9424]

Best idea is magnetized iron particles mined from Phobos or Deimos put on a ring around the planet to reflect sunlight on the surface as well as crate a magnetic torus around the planet. As a bonus they would even get Aurora.

[@TheGalacticIndian]

There are more feasible ways of creating magnetic field around Mars, like placing coils or solenoids on a surface or LMO. Yet the most promisinig one is to use martian moons to generate plasma torus to create magnetic field around the whole planet.

[@warhammer8867]

A colony-size magnetic field shield generator seems more practical and possible than a planetary-size magnetic shield.

[@anthonycade9034]

Absolutely loved the closing statement Simon, glad to have you representing mine and everyone's thoughts...

[@melgreier1630]

Terraforming Mars is as fanciful a dream as is travelling to another solar system. People talk of a ‘generational spaceship’, but it would have to be more than that - it would have to have room for 10’s of thousands of passengers, training facilities for future crew, educational room, greenhouse and farm systems for food, food processing plant, industrial manufacturing facility, research and development facility, medical research and manufacturing facility, recreational facility... and much more. I would guess that such an interstellar vehicle would have to be about 50miles long, 2 miles high and 10 miles wide to accommodate everything needed. That would require assembly on the moon or deep orbital base. That would require investments in the millions of trillions of dollars. Short story? It ain’t happening. This planet we call earth is the hill we are all going to die on.

[@SeattlePioneer]

Yes, but intellectuals can imagine any number of ways to piss away the modest wealth that the workers of the world are able to produce. The comments here provide many examples of that.

[@yobgodababua1862]

@6:50 Hydroponics are when plants are grown with their roots suspended in water. Aeroponics are when the roots are suspended in air.

[@duncanbeggs4088]

You should do one on terraforming Venus! Kurzgesagt did a good on a while ago but it was not very in depth. Venus has some advantages over Mars in that it is the same size as earth, has active geology and it would just look heckin cool with an ocean given it's topography.

[@grandmasterurby3659]

He already did. I have seen that video. A cloud city on Venus is the title its under mega projects.

[@Ottee2]

While terraforming Mars may not be in our grasp for many decades, there may be remedial actions, available in our time, that would get the atmospheric ball rolling in a favorable direction, until such time that our terraforming technology improves.

[@phillipputt3838]

Love all the content you guys put out, keep up the amazing work.

[@c.harris7823]

Wow! What a comprehensive and well thought out analysis of the Mars teraforming concept. 👍🏼

[@dislikecounter5191]

I think niel degrasse Tyson made a great point. For all the effort it would take to colonize Mars you could easily fix all the problems on earth first. Why terraform a much worse planet than one that's done half the work for us

[@florida-man_850]

because 2 Camrys are better than 1 BMW 5 series

[@09041995101]

On the other hand, if you figure out exactly how to teraform Mars - you will have efficient tools to fix Earth. You'll have a whole planet to experiment on. And it won't matter if you screw up - it is dead already. We have only one Earth to mess things up in a global scale, so we won't be able to try something else again.

[@Austin3859]

For more resources and if anything destorys one planet we can still have another

[@nereanim]

Loved the Arby's analogy.

[@jamielong8976]

Given that we’re still working to get the first human footsteps on Mars, and that returning humans to the moon is still waiting to happen, the idea that this could happen soon (according to the thumbnail and your comments at the end) is supremely optimistic. Not to mention the surely astronomical cost it would be. I love space and I love sci fi but terraforming another world when we can barely look after the only one we know to harbour life is a pipe dream and currently a waste of time and resources.

[@TaeSunWoo]

Not the last 20 seconds making me emotional though

[@phillip6083]

Releasing gas on mars is not the primary problem, Improving soil on mars is not the primary problem, Finding sufficient warer is not the primary problem. All problems with terraforming mars stem from an abscence of a sufficient enough magnetosphere and gravity to hold any but the heaviest gasses to the surface. Best to just count of living subsurface.

[@julianaylor4351]

They do that in asteroids and small moons on Star Trek.

[@richardrose7382]

On another note: in the short video on “Greening the Desert” about permaculture in Israel, it was found that certain fungi will encapsulate salt crystals, in effect de-salinating the soil which had been salted by irrigation over many years

[@OutletVibes]

9:55 We restarted Earths core in the 1996 movie "The Core" The technology is there, just not the funding lol

[@Lilmiket1000]

We don't know that mars is sterile... It's likely, but we won't know until we go with a microscope.

[@streetdoggsi7259]

Honestly that send off just about made me cry

[@JubulusPrime]

Mars being ready before the earth is completely destroyed by companies seems very unlikely. :/

[@ebonaparte3853]

It won’t be ready for centuries.

[@JubulusPrime]

@@ebonaparte3853 Yeah. . . maybe something that we don't know that we don't know becomes known so that there is some extreme change in technology that makes the answer on how to terraform mars before human extinction possible. But we don't know what is unknown right now so that is just mindless faith in luck hoping that the solution exists. Maybe we could survive on pre-terraformed mars in boubles long enough for it to become terraformed? I'm no scientist but I doubt we have the resources and the people in the boubles would become inbred idiots because there is no way companies would spend money on putting enough people up there. Unless some safe DnA randomizer exists eventually so there would be enough genetic diversity and we don't end up like the modern cheetah. But I know nothing about this space stuff, I hope that people who research this know where to look for the answers that will prevent humanity from going extinct. We are lucky enough to not be there yet but it personally effects everyone right now as our decendants would live in much harsher conditions then us so human extinction would kinda suck and must be prevented. My fear with capitalism is that they company that saves us will only do so to inslave us, It may be the "lesser evil" to a lot of people now but when the world is ending and we have no choice but to follow some compamy then it'd suddenly become completely horrible and basically become a form of facism. . . and it is already speeding up the end of the world. It is so hard for me to not be a doomer about this when I can not think of a realistic non-dystopian solution, thankfully there are many many people much much better at thinking then me.

[@SeattlePioneer]

I trust you have moved to live on the Atacama desert with no technology to support you so that you wont be contaminating the earth? Better just to open a vein so that you aren't a predator on "mother earth." Yet you seem to desire to take stupefying technology to Mars and do FAR more gross manipulations there than have ever been done on earth.

[@anonymizedhandle]

the last minute of that hit hard ay

[@mikeoleksa]

It's just a bit strange to me that all this research is being done about making Mars habitable, meanwhile the planet that we are already on, that provides everything we need, is slowly dying. It kind of seems like we should be taking care of our own planet instead of trying to turn another into what we already have.

[@thomashiggins9320]

Compared to the amount of money being spent on figuring out how to solve Earth's problems, the resources devoted to Mars barely even count as a rounding error, at four or five decimal places.

[@davidgeisler9885]

I think you’ll find far more research is going into solving problems here

[@Bilangumus]

You can't stop a cataclysm lol. You can't stop pole shigtings.

[@Jencediggity]

Loved that ending.

[@superhawk20002]

I can only think of all the times humanity has thought it was smarter than mother nature, or could control mother nature... I still don't know of a time where it didn't have devastating consequences in the long run. I'm guessing we will do drastic things to terraform Mars, the moon, etc and ultimately doom Earth.

[@thomashiggins9320]

They're just another set of problems to solve. That's it. That's all. It'll take awhile, but solving problems is what human beings *do* . We're almost as good at that as we are at *creating* them. 😁

[@benjaminjackson8663]

If we're so confident we can terraform planets, why don't we start with saving Earth from its current trajectory?

[@NextLevelCode]

Exactly the topic I was wondering about and released the same day. Wow 🎉

[@mallninja9805]

Musk is as a clever man in the same way that the kid kicking the back of your seat is an aerospace engineer 🤣

[@andymouse]

LOL !

[@ajstevens1652]

I'm grateful that Elon is alive way too early for him to have any significant impact on Mars. There is the unfortunate possibility a descendent of his could end up nuking the planet though.

[@ianjanusz4109]

Ok, the Arby's dig was very well done

[@mertc8050]

Can you please do venus version of this video? terraforming venus is far easier then mars as it turns out you just need to bring hydrogen and not a huge amount compared to mars where you litteraly need to VACUM THE ATMOSPHERE OF ANOTHER PLANET AND TAKE IT TO MARS

[@mad0scientist]

You might want to bring the temperature down to a livable level.

[@king40606]

​@@mad0scientistif you don't care about time, just need a few solar shades, which is within our tech right now. It'll cool on it's own

[@mallninja9805]

There's the tiny issue of the 2,916 hour night...

[@mertc8050]

Gents what i meant is if you bring hydrogen to venus which escaped when water broke down over time you can turn sulfuric acid clouds to more water ish clouds and with acid resistant photosynthetic bacteria will just turn ALL THE CO2 into carbonate rock and release O2 aaaand within just a few hundred years bacteria will have done 99% of the hard work for you after you bring all that hydrogen they need to replicate so much. As for rotation... welp enjoy eyeball planet not a huge issue btw Also to get all the hydrogen you either take it from jupiter somehow or just scoop the solar wind for a looooong time.

[@captainspaulding5963]

The idea for Venus is actually to live in the clouds, because we can't get to the surface.

[@BibhutiSaha-h4b]

Yes ur excellency..if we will wait to the future ❤our earth may be faced a great challenge for us❤

[@nelsfreeman7465]

We would build mega cities on the ant arctic and thrive long before mars happens for humans.

[@ro4eva]

That ending was unexpected and VERY moving.

[@sliceofheaven3026]

I am just still puzzled why the first goal is Mars at the moment. Our space faring technology hasnt really advanced to a stage where the trip to Mars and back is relatively quick one. This means that any potential Mars colony will have to face potentially quite a struggle on its own if things go wrong. Couldnt we just think of ways to mine moon first for its resources. The moon is at least relatively close by and any mistakes we make can be potentially still corrected over time. But for some reason its straight to Mars.

[@benjaminjackson8663]

Or better yet... focus all of this intelligence and resources on saving the one working planet we currently have.

[@ebonaparte3853]

@@benjaminjackson8663Or do both

[@ebonaparte3853]

We ARE going to the Moon first.

[@sliceofheaven3026]

Sure at least now that the time table for Spacex based Mars venture has proven to be somewhat unreliable. Before that it was pretty much about exploring Mars and even trying to settle it. @@ebonaparte3853

[@grantwalker5682]

Simon, you’ve got a great taste in Sci-fi to reference Stargate 😂👍🏼

[@Turd_Fergus0n]

I've got it, Mars is where Simon keeps his writers prisoner. It's the sub basement 🤣

[@jeanmacdobea2614]

the protection against the solarwind have to be done first if the rest is to be good ..

[@Old.Vet.]

If we can terraform mars, then we can fix earth.

[@tomwalter8536]

Precisely, so why bother with Mars

[@adambradford-west2071]

​@@tomwalter8536redundancy from meteor strike

[@wakewakey]

If we can terraform Earth, we can terraform Venus.😂

[@ПавелМельников-ш8г]

we can't save Earth how can we terraform something else?😂

[@andyandyandandy9]

Overpopulation.

[@naturemonkeyworkout8363]

Great video mate. Love the outro!

[@johnmajor5183]

If we could terraform Mars then we would have done that already on Earth. Humanity with all its technology have never terraformed any piece of land from scratch without diverting rivers or using underground water.

[@mallninja9805]

One could argue we're well on our way to terraforming earth. Just not into anything suitable for humans 🤣

[@QueenetBowie]

Solid ending. I’d like imagine some future Mars colonists see this video and your message, or at least academics researching history and sociology

[@glenjennett]

I find it hilarious how they want to terraform Mars when they can't even figure out how to make places on our own planet sustainable for life. It's not going to happen, in my opinion.

[@idek394]

Our planet is sustainable for life. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be alive. No living thing would be alive.

[@gaberielpendragon]

We can't forget the likely need to mine the asteroid belt for resources for such endeavors. Chief among them being water and various gasses.

[@CoordinatedCarry]

I love the arrogance of terraforming an alien planet when we can’t even work together to maintain the atmosphere on our own formerly perfect planet.

[@canaanite23]

Haha true. Tho on earth politics F up most things, not lack of capability

[@claireway-6545]

Circular farming? Why do it on Mars - we need to do it here!!

[@MiccaPhone]

I hate, not love, this arrogance.

[@ebonaparte3853]

By the time we start, we’ll have fixed it.

[@StaalBurgher0]

Stop voting for socialists and the problems on Earth will stop.

[@dokosaaries3302]

All these different terraform ideas seem very compatible to me, do all at the same time. Most likely in a sequence starting with the nukes and the mining process being last.

[@lisamartinbradley1039]

Maybe Elon could focus all those billions on fixing this planet!

[@thomashiggins9320]

You mean, such as transitioning transportation away from fossil-fuel burning engines? Something like that?

[@lisamartinbradley1039]

@@thomashiggins9320 well, I was thinking maybe he could replant the Amazon to combat climate change. LOL

[@ajstevens1652]

​@@thomashiggins9320By producing CO2-intensive lithium batteries that are also destructive to ecosystems. Indeed saving the planet lol

[@sharonbraselton4302]

wribg

[@punditgi]

Excellent video! 🎉😊

[@mwolkove]

I dunno about anyone else but, personally i believe it would be a good idea to re-terraform Earth before we mess around with Mars. It should be a lot easier to fix a planet that is slightly out of balance than it is to start from an essentially inert ball millions of miles from us.

[@brandonspencer7093]

Earth is terraformed just fine.

[@saturn7_dev]

Trumps new comeback phrase - Make Mars great again!

[@lukerickert5203]

The irony of terraforing mars when humanity can't even avoid destroying our own world is nearly as big as Musk's ego.

[@reanukeeves2k77]

Even if climate change wasn’t a thing, we’d still be at risk from natural extinction events. It’s never good to have all your eggs in one basket, which Musk understands. It’s also not in his power to fix climate change, he’s not a politician or head of state.

[@skygge1006]

We aren’t destroying earth though, earth is just fine we’re just making it harder and worse to live in.

[@classicalrelaxation8871]

amazing more space stuff

[@hitchcock_]

Great video. Good that you covered the magnetic field. Only problem with any other plan is that solarwinds would blow everything away again without a magnetosphere. We would need to constantly emit more co2 than is blown away.

[@sdm6054]

The same magnetic winds will blow the satellite away at a rate 1 trillion times faster than any atmosphere, but facts don't get clicks on videos like complete bs does.

[@notadeity]

Great outro

[@timothybrown6331]

his affected accent is hard to ignore, especially when it slips into his genuine one every now and then.

[@pi.actual]

Finally the terraforming process is nearly complete however, the beings who started it have not been seen for 250 million years.

[@Roguescienceguy]

I would completely ignored this channel if I didn't know it was one of Simon's megaprojects

[@coeal2680]

You didnt cover the idea of directed astroid impacts. The water, co2 and heat released by the impacts would also be helpful in terraforming mars

[@poorsillyboy]

It’s a go! Terraforming mars with extreme algae & plant life is a very clever idea! It will start the stabilisation process and the beauty of it is its simplicity… we just fire exploding payloads at it from earth and have our rovers monitor the areas!

[@thomvinson]

Nicely done!

[@bishopmabry2054]

Amazing that since this video was published, we have discovered that there is geologic activity on Mars to this day

[@nereanim]

The L1 magnetic shield could also be used a cosmic ray / radiation deflector. It would reduce radiation exposure as well as protect the slowly rebuilding atmosphere from stripping. This is by far the best solution.

[@SafetyBriefer]

Great stuff.

[@scythebergon418]

Ending kicks the feelers

[@nirorbach8046]

Another idea I have is to move Carbon Dioxide from the planet that has too much of it: Venus. There is the huge problem of how to transport it in interplanetary distances. But anyway this video thinks about technologies that will be possible in the far future, so why not imagining?

[@Infinite_Horizonsss]

While the idea might sound cool (or should I say hot?), it's also super complicated. Transporting stuff between planets is like sending a package across a cosmic highway full of space traffic. Plus, Venus is no picnic - its surface is a scorching inferno with crushing pressures, making any harvesting operations trickier than juggling neutron stars. So, while the concept is intriguing, it's like planning a road trip to Mars via Venus - a bit ambitious and currently in the realm of sci-fi dreams rather than practical solutions. But who knows what the future of space exploration holds? Maybe someday we'll be carpooling carbon dioxide around the solar system!

[@rupert7598]

Fascinating!

[@joshuabessire9169]

Simon: If we're going to colonize Mars, we'll need to farm." Also Simon: "I'm gonna science the sh!t outta this."

[@ercieyyy]

We now understand from the recent findings on Mars that Life has formed not only in Earth also in Mars and maybe in further planets out of our universe.

[@nightwishlover8913]

At least they'll have plenty of coffee - all those "percolates" ("perchlorates", Simon!)