The ethical dilemma of terraforming far exceeds planetary protection concerns about forward contamination by a lander or even a human settlement.

Exploration, habitation, and resource extraction all carry a risk of inflicting environmental damage in space, just as they do here on Earth. But some futurists and space settlement enthusiasts have ...

The terraforming strategy, as defined by DeBenedictis and others, is three-staged. The first is abiotic: sending out reflective solar sails, spewing out nanoparticles, or depositing tiles of ...

Wood stated confidently that terraforming Mars will happen in the 21 st century. “It is the manifest destiny of the human race!” he declared and went on to boast, “In this country we are the ...

Does Mars have rights? What about Europa, Ganymede, and Titan—the moons of Jupiter and Saturn that may be home to rudimentary extraterrestrial life? The 1967 Outer Space Treaty requires spacefaring ...

Though full terraforming may take centuries, if not millennia, the long-term goal would be a Mars with stable liquid water, breathable oxygen and a thriving ecosystem. In the short term, this might ...

Terraforming Mars raises ethical and environmental concerns. Altering a planet’s ecosystem could have unforeseen consequences, not just for Mars but for the solar system as a whole.

I apologize that I'll have to leave in about 15 minutes - as it turns out I'm giving a lecture at a class on ethics at Stanford on the same topic, of terraforming Mars.

Get Instant Summarized Text (Gist) A structured approach to terraforming Mars emphasizes first assessing technical feasibility before ethical considerations.

The concept of terraforming Mars — transforming the planet's climate to support life as we know it — has long belonged to the realm of science fiction. But a new study argues that it's time to ...