Warming a Tiny Piece of Mars For Terraforming

dptalia writes "It's been a dream of science fiction writers everywhere that we would eventually terraform Mars. Now an engineering student has proposed a way to terraform only a kilometer of Mars. By building an array of space based mirrors to focus the sun's light, a small area of Mars could be warmed to about 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) which would make it easier for explorers to work and live there. Since Mars' atmosphere is thin, the mirrors would have to be carefully designed to prevent them from reflecting harmful radiation as well as light and warmth."

Whoa

[American AC in Paris]

Now an engineering student has proposed a way to teraform only a kilometer of Mars.

...while technologically astounding, I fail to see the utility in being able to do this.

Now, if we're talking about a square kilometer of Mars, that'd be a different matter...

Whoops!

[madhatr]

Didn't Wornstrom try this in a Futurama episode? Lessons learned I guess.

I know....

[krell]

"To filter out UV and higher frequency things, like our ozone layer does, just use a prizm, or better, a diffraction grating (like a cd), but then you'd end up with a rainbow down on the surface"

Always looking for a way to make real that Martian rave you've always been planning, eh?

Re:Whoops!

[Wornstrom]

Why yes, as a matter of fact =D

New England

[j00r0m4nc3r]

I wish they could warm New England to 68 degrees instead.

Start The Reactor

[Akvum]

Another reason why Arnold should become president.

Re:Water?

[Anonymous Coward]

What gives? The first thing we talk about when trying to inhabit a new planet is a way to create global warming?

Re:Water?

[StalinsNotDead]

Clearly to raise the temperature of Mars, we must destroy all Martian pirates.