Twenty-three systems stand between us and living here
Warming the planet, building an atmosphere, replacing the magnetic field it lost, finding water, making soil, growing food, powering all of it. Every one is a real published proposal with real numbers — and every one has a reason it might not work. Each opens in its own 3D model.
How to terraform MarsA mirror the size of a small country, aimed at the pole.
Glitter, nine microns long, that turns the sky into a blanket.
Deliberately building the pollution Earth spent decades banning.
Two centimetres of frozen smoke, and the ground beneath is habitable.
The planet keeps its spare atmosphere frozen at the south pole.
Six millibars of the wrong gas, and blood that boils at body heat.
A toaster-sized box on Perseverance already did it, 122 grams at a time.
The gas nobody thinks about is the one Mars cannot supply.
If the planet lacks air, throw air at it.
Mars lost its magnetic field four billion years ago. This is the replacement.
Measured, not modelled: a rover has been counting since 2012.
The planet is covered in a toxic powder that gets into everything.
Let something alive do the work the machines cannot afford.
Mars has dirt. Dirt is not soil, and Martian dirt is poisonous.
Resupply takes two years. The greenhouse is not optional.
The best house on Mars is a cave that already exists.
Everything on this list is a power problem wearing a costume.
Do not bring the return trip with you. Manufacture it there.
The one variable nobody can test without going.
The planets line up every 26 months, and not a day sooner.
Cover the parts you need instead of converting a world.