New ‘revolutionary’ way to make Mars habitable invented

The scientist Mars Engineers want to spread dust particles into the atmosphere to warm it and make it habitable.

The idea is one of several revolutionary ways scientists are trying to make Mars more Earth-like so that humans can live there.

The surface of Mars is currently uninhabitable: it is extremely cold, exposed to deadly ultraviolet rays, the soil is salty, the air pressure is low, and there is no evidence of life.

The scientists behind this idea say that this new method is 5,000 times more effective than previous methods.

It uses resources readily available on Mars – rather than transporting materials from our own Earth or digging from Martian soil.

The researchers warn that this proposal could take decades to implement. But many other suggestions may be impossible because they require too much work to implement.

The first proposals to make Mars more Earth-like began in the early 1970s. Over the next 50 years, researchers suggested various ways to make it Earth-like, none of which took off in practice.

The researchers say their new proposal is worth further investigation because it suggests that the work required to heat Mars enough to liquefy water is less than we think.

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This is similar to the greenhouse effect on Earth. Other proposals suggest doing so with gases brought to Mars or with complex mining on the planet itself.

The new proposal would take iron and aluminum, commonly found on Mars, to engineer the dust particles into tiny rods, about the size of the glow particles.

Those rods will capture the heat emitted and scatter sunlight across the surface, creating a greenhouse effect.

“You’d still need millions of tons to heat this planet,” said Edwin Kite, associate professor of geophysical sciences at Chigo University and author of the study. Five thousand times less than the required amount. This significantly increases the feasibility of the project.’

Researchers say that without changing the atmosphere, humans will not be able to live on Mars. This could be enough to grow microbes and then food crops – and these in turn could add oxygen to the atmosphere and make it more suitable for human habitation.

The study, ‘Possibility of Warming Mars with Nanoparticles’, is published in the journal Science Advances.