Giving Mars an atmosphere that you or I could breathe is science fiction. It would require designer microbes, or enormous energy input. Extending life beyond E

Giving Mars an atmosphere that you or I could breathe is science fiction. It would require designer microbes, or enormous energy input. Extending life beyond Earth - establishing a simple biosphere that's mostly plants - is much simpler. It's an engineering problem. Loss to space is geologically slow [1]. Photochemical degradation of greenhouse gases is a bigger problem, but not a likely showstopper. Optimal mixes of greenhouse gases are so powerful that the output from one mine and one factory could be enough to dramatically raise temperatures [2]. We know where the halogen deposits are [3,4], and already have most of the technology to mine and process them robotically [5,6], but it would be expensive. The problem is to make it cheaper. [1] http://www.cesr.fr/~genot/M2/article_science.pdf http://www.cesr.fr/~genot/M2/article_science.pdf [2] http://www.climatefutures.com/doc/marinova_et_al_journal_of_geophysical_research_2005.pdf http://www.climatefutures.com/doc/marinova_et_al_journal_of_... [3] http://aram.ess.sunysb.edu/tglotch/TDG18.pdf http://aram.ess.sunysb.edu/tglotch/TDG18.pdf [4] http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/files/Keller_Dissertation2006.pdf http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/files/Keller_Dissertation20... [5] http://www.iaarc.org/news/a_news_2012_09_11.pdf http://www.iaarc.org/news/a_news_2012_09_11.pdf [6] http://www.nautilusminerals.com/i/pdf/2012-Q2-FactSheet.pdf http://www.nautilusminerals.com/i/pdf/2012-Q2-FactSheet.pdf