Terraforming means "to make Earth-like." It is a technique that many scientists believe could be the key to settling the high frontier of space. But transforming a planet, such as Mars, to make its environment more like that of Earth, a new world for humankind can be created.
The dream of actually building settlements on other worlds is as old as the
space age. While hitherto, all voyages into space have been temporary, the idea
of space settlements implies people going to live and work in space for the
rest of their lives, much as people hundreds of years ago voyaged to the
Americas, leaving their old lives behind, and building new ones in a new
continent.
The problem with space settlements in the near term is that there aren’t any
places in the solar system where people can live without a technologically
advanced life support infrastructure. People proposing to live on, say, the
Moon or Mars would have to bring or extract their own oxygen and water, as well
as grow food and produce energy. There is no other place in our solar system,
besides Earth, where people can live out of doors.
What is Terraforming?
Terraforming is a concept that scientists have envisioned that could bring
dead worlds to life, so that people might more easily live on them.
Terraforming literally means to “make Earth-like”. The idea is to change the
environment of another planet to make it suitable for human habitation using
various technological techniques.
Candidates for Terraforming
Four worlds are at about the right size and mass to be candidates for
terraforming. These worlds are Venus, Mars, Europa (a moon of Jupiter), and
Titan (a moon of Saturn.) But Europa and Titan are too far from the sun and are
therefore too cold. Venus is too close to the sun and has an incredibly thick
atmosphere, and is therefore too hot, with an average temperature of about 900
degrees Fahrenheit. That leaves Mars.