The Martian Terraforming Project

[M Fnord]

Allright gang, it's probably time we consider one of the elephants in the room. What shall we do about/with the MTP? Which means to an extent, what shall we do about/with terraforming Mars?

The following stuff is a bit of brainstorming on my part that's partially recycled from another project. Comment at will:

As I get older, and... not "wiser." I doubt that age brings that much wisdom. "More cynical" would probably work. Anyway. The more I look at Mars, and the more we learn about it (in OTL, and certainly in Fenspace) the more I question the validity of the great Heinleinian Martian Manifest Destiny plan that seems to drive most conceptions of terraforming the planet.

Should we go to Mars? Absolutely. Should we stay there on a permanent basis? Of course. Should we change the planet to suit us? That I don't know.

Leaving aside the philosophical and moral questions of terraforming, I can't quite shake the idea that turning Mars into a miniature copy of Earth is the right thing to do. Mars is Mars, and just cut-pasting Earth on top of it *feels* wrong.

So where does this vague maundering leave us? Well, in my personal vision of the "terraformed" Mars we can forget a good chunk of the greenery. It's obviously a bit warmer, of course, and has a breathable atmosphere, maybe with a largish sea around Hellas and randomly scattered lakes. This Mars would be a cross between the deserts of New Mexico, the steppe of Central Asia with a bit of the Serengeti thrown in for flavor - long stretches of wide open plains punctuated by clusters of trees near open water sources. It's a very Pulper sort of Mars when you think about it, with plenty of wastes for people to have Adventures in.

Everybody chip in with their thoughts on where they want Mars to end up, and maybe we can work backwards from that to a working MTP.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

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