We Might Be Able to Turn Mars Green

And Yes, It’s as Difficult and Strange as It Sounds

The idea sounds almost reckless when you say it out loud: turning Mars into a place where humans could live without space suits. Not just survive in sealed metal habitats, but actually breathe the air. Walk under an open sky. Maybe even grow trees.

Terraforming Mars reshaping an entire planet to resemble Earth has long lived in the realm of science fiction. The sort of thing characters discuss in novels while staring out spaceship windows. But lately, the conversation has shifted. Slowly. Cautiously. Scientists are no longer asking if the idea is ridiculous. They’re asking how far it could realistically go.

And that distinction matters.

Why Mars, of All Places?

Mars is brutal. No sugarcoating that.

It’s cold enough that exposed skin would freeze in seconds. The atmosphere is so thin it barely counts as one. Liquid water can’t survive on the surface for long. Radiation rains down almost unfiltered from space. And the soil if you can even call it soil is chemically hostile to most life we know.

So why Mars?

Because, inconveniently for skeptics, it wasn’t always like this.

Mars shows scars of rivers. Dried lake beds. Mineral deposits that only form in water. At some point in the deep past, it was warmer and wetter. Not Earth like, exactly, but closer than it is now. Terraforming Mars, then, isn’t about inventing something entirely new. It’s about pushing a broken system back toward an earlier state.

That doesn’t make it easy. But it does make it thinkable.

Why This Conversation Is Happening Now

Part of the renewed interest comes from momentum. NASA’s Artemis missions, which aim to establish a long term human presence on the Moon, are widely seen as a rehearsal for Mars. Not just technologically, but psychologically. Living off Earth for extended periods forces uncomfortable questions.

How do humans cope with isolation?
How much can we recycle?
How dependent can we afford to be on supply lines that stretch millions of kilometers?

Once you start asking those questions seriously, Mars stops being an abstract red dot and starts looking like a logistical challenge one that might eventually demand permanent solutions rather than temporary ones.

And permanent solutions invite big thinking.

The “Green Mars” Idea, Stripped of Sci Fi Gloss

The most detailed recent roadmap for terraforming Mars comes from researchers Devon Stork and Erika DeBenedictis of Pioneer Labs, a nonprofit focused on engineering microbes for extraterrestrial environments. Their work formed the backbone of the 2025 Green Mars Workshop.

What’s refreshing about their approach is that it doesn’t pretend this would be quick. Or neat. Or guaranteed.

They describe terraforming as a multi century process, unfolding in stages. Each stage solves one problem while exposing another. Nothing about it resembles flipping a planetary switch.

If anything, it sounds more like ecological surgery performed very, very slowly.

Stage One: Living Like We Do in Antarctica (But Worse)

The first humans on Mars won’t terraform anything. They’ll endure it.

Early settlements would likely resemble Antarctic research stations: isolated, heavily engineered bubbles of life surrounded by lethal emptiness. The difference, of course, is that Antarctica at least has breathable air.

Martian habitats would probably be underground or partially buried, using the planet’s soil as radiation shielding. Inside, conditions would be tightly controlled pressure, oxygen, humidity, temperature all carefully regulated, much like the International Space Station.

Every breath would be recycled. Every drop of water reused. Food grown hydroponically or in closed loop agricultural systems.

Nothing romantic about it. Just survival with good engineering.

Learning to Live Off the Land (Even When the Land Is Hostile)

One thing is clear: shipping supplies from Earth won’t work long term. The cost is too high, the delays too long, and the risks too severe.

So early Martian settlers would need to use what’s already there. Ice trapped underground for water. Atmospheric carbon dioxide for oxygen production. Regolith processed into building materials.

It’s the kind of life where nothing is wasted because waste is failure.

If that sounds extreme, it is. But humans already do this in submarines and space stations. Mars would simply stretch the margins.

Domes, Craters, and Artificial Ecosystems

As technology improves, habitats could expand. Instead of cramped modules, future settlers might live beneath massive transparent domes. Some proposals suggest building these domes over impact craters, using their natural walls for structural support.

Inside, you could imagine small forests. Not decorative ones functional ecosystems designed to recycle air, stabilize humidity, and produce food.

It wouldn’t feel like Earth. But it wouldn’t feel like a tin can either.

And psychologically, that matters more than people like to admit.

The Bigger Goal: Changing the Planet Itself

All of this, however, is still living on Mars. Terraforming is about living with it.

The ultimate goal is to thicken Mars’s atmosphere so liquid water can exist on the surface again. To warm the planet enough that ice melts. To build oxygen levels high enough that, someday, a human might step outside without a pressure suit.

That’s the part that sounds impossible. And maybe it is. But scientists don’t dismiss it outright.

Instead, they ask: what would it take?

Microbes First, Always

Plants won’t be the pioneers of Mars. Microbes will.

Hardy, genetically engineered organisms bacteria, cyanobacteria, lichens could tolerate extreme cold, radiation, and low pressure. These organisms wouldn’t just survive; they’d work.

They’d process Martian soil into something closer to Earth dirt. They’d release oxygen. They’d begin the slow chemical reshaping of the environment.

No trees yet. No grass. Just life at its most stubborn.

The Long Climb Toward Oxygen

Even with microbes working for centuries, oxygen levels would rise painfully slowly. There’s no getting around the math. Earth’s oxygen rich atmosphere took billions of years to form.

Mars wouldn’t need that much humans can survive with lower oxygen levels but it would still take a very long time.

This is where optimism needs restraint.

Terraforming Mars isn’t a solution for anyone alive today. Or their children. Or probably their grandchildren. It’s a project measured in deep time.

Trees on Mars? Eventually. Maybe.

If microbial ecosystems succeed, more complex plants could follow. Small, cold tolerant species at first. Then, perhaps, something like alpine forests.

Even at the end of the process, Mars wouldn’t become a second Earth. It would remain cold. More like a perpetual high altitude mountain range.

Think thin air. Short growing seasons. Harsh weather.

Livable but demanding.

The Magnetic Field Problem Nobody Loves

Here’s the inconvenient truth: Mars lacks a global magnetic field.

Earth’s magnetic field deflects solar wind, protecting the atmosphere from being stripped away. Mars doesn’t have that protection. Which means any atmosphere humans build would slowly leak into space.

Stork and DeBenedictis argue that this loss happens slowly over hundreds of millions of years. In human terms, that’s practically forever. In planetary terms, it’s a leak you can live with.

Still, it’s not elegant. Mars would always be fighting entropy.

Where Will the Atmosphere Come From?

This might be the biggest unresolved issue.

Mars doesn’t seem to have enough frozen carbon dioxide locked in its polar caps to build a thick atmosphere. Recent measurements suggest earlier estimates were too optimistic.

One alternative is importing volatiles redirecting asteroids or comets rich in water and gases to impact Mars.

That idea sounds dramatic because it is. Redirecting celestial bodies is not a solved problem. One miscalculation and you’re not terraforming you’re sterilizing.

Still, it’s on the table. Not because it’s easy, but because the alternatives are limited.

Ethical Questions We Can’t Ignore

Terraforming Mars raises uncomfortable questions.

Do we have the right to alter another planet?
What if microbial life already exists there?
Are we preserving Mars or erasing it?

Some argue Mars should remain untouched, studied as it is. A natural archive of planetary history.

Others counter that planets don’t have rights people do. And a second habitable world could safeguard humanity against extinction.

There’s no clean answer. Just trade offs.

A Backup Planet or a Distraction?

Critics often point out that terraforming Mars could become an excuse to neglect Earth. Why fix climate change when we can “move”?

That argument doesn’t hold up well under scrutiny. Terraforming Mars would be vastly harder than repairing Earth’s ecosystems. If we can’t manage one planet we already understand, managing two seems… optimistic.

Still, the fear lingers. Big dreams sometimes become convenient distractions.

Why Planning Still Matters

Even if terraforming never happens, planning for it isn’t wasted effort.

The technologies required closed loop life support, efficient recycling, sustainable agriculture are exactly the tools we need on Earth. Mars forces us to confront limits we usually ignore.

On Mars, waste isn’t a nuisance. It’s a fatal flaw.

That perspective has value.

So, Can We Really Turn Mars Green?

The honest answer is: partially. Slowly. Maybe.

Mars will never be Earth. It will never have blue oceans or tropical rainforests. But it could, someday, support open air life in limited regions.

That alone would be extraordinary.

Terraforming Mars isn’t about conquest. It’s about patience. Engineering. And a willingness to think beyond individual lifetimes.

Whether we choose to do it says less about Mars and more about us.

Open Your Mind !!!

Source: BBC

Open Your Mind