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"Can't you hear my motored heart? Your the one that started it!"

-Foo Fighters "Generator"

Cogito ergo sum

Yes, it would be awesome to terra-form Mars, but that's going to take a LOOOOOONG time to do so. I mean, it would take forever to terra-form it to human standards once we began the process. Might not be feasible; since the planet doesn't have a strong enough gravitational field to naturally hold a decent atmosphere, it's going to take many, many years using some kind of plant growth (low light, low pressure, cold temp, little water plants) to increase the oxygen percentage in it. (Most of earth's oxygen came from plankton in the seas, and still does. Terrestrial plants provide some but the majority comes from the oceans.) The air pressure would never be earth normal, but it might get high enough to support a man without an environmental suit on. Then there's the matter of warming the planet up due to greenhouse effects, which would take longer than it does on earth since the planet is so far from the sun.

However, I have hopes that eventually we'll at least send a mission there. There are plenty of resources on the planet to use once we set up an initial base: tons of iron ores, and probably other metals, not to mention water. (OK, so the water is ice at the moment, that can be melted!) I'd envision us setting up protected colonies rather than try to actually terra-form the planet entirely.

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