TERRAFORMING MARS
This book provides a thorough scientific review of how Mars might eventually be colonized, industrialized, and transformed into a world better suited to human habitation.
The idea of terraforming Mars has, in recent times, become a topic of intense scientific interest and great public debate. Stimulated in part by the contemporary imperative to begin geoengineering Earth, as a means to combat global climate change, the terraforming of Mars will work to make its presently hostile environment more suitable to life—especially human life. Geoengineering and terraforming, at their core, have the same goal—that is to enhance (or revive) the ability of a specific environment to support human life, society, and industry. The chapters in this text, written by experts in their respective fields, are accordingly in resonance with the important, and ongoing discussions concerning the human stewardship of global climate systems. In this sense, the text is both timely and relevant and will cover issues relating to topics that will only grow in their relevance in future decades. The notion of terraforming Mars is not a new one, as such, and it has long played as the background narrative in many science fiction novels. This book, however, deals exclusively with what is physically possible, and what might conceivably be put into actual practice within the next several human generations.
Audience
Researchers in planetary science, astronomy, astrobiology, space engineering, architecture, ethics, as well as members of the space industry.
Martin Beech, PhD is Professor Emeritus at the University of Regina, and Campion College, Saskatchewan, Canada. He has conducted and published research in the many areas of astronomy, planetary science, and the history of science. His main astronomy research interests are in the area of small solar system bodies (asteroids, comets, meteoroids, and meteorites).
Professor J. Seckbach, PhD is a retired senior academician at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago and did a post-doctorate in the Division of Biology at Caltech, in Pasadena, CA. He served at Louisiana State University (LSU), Baton Rouge, LA, USA, as the first selected Chair for the Louisiana Sea Grant and Technology transfer. Professor Joseph Seckbach has edited over 40 scientific books and authored about 140 scientific articles.
Richard Gordon, PhD is a theoretical biologist and retired from the Department of Radiology, University of Manitoba in 2011. Presently at Gulf Specimen Marine Lab & Aquarium, Panacea, Florida and Adjunct Professor, C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth & Development, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Wayne State University, Detroit Michigan. Interest in exobiology (now astrobiology) dates from 1960s undergraduate work on organic matter in the Orgueil meteorite with Edward Anders. Has published critical reviews of panspermia and the history of discoveries of life in meteorites.
