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NASA's latest Mars rover, Curiosity, is currently its way to Mars, on a mission to explore whether life could exist there. If we're going to colonize Mars — and some scientists say we must — it's likely that we'll start by terraforming. Terraforming, or planetary engineering, is the process of altering the climate of a planet to be more hospitable to life and human exploration. Of all the bodies in the solar system, Mars is by far the best candidate. Here's how that would work. More »
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This past weekend marked the opening of the American Museum of Natural History's brilliant new exhibition, Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration. As part of our ongoing Hardcore Science Interview series, io9 spoke with the show's curator, AMNH astrophysicist Michael Shara, about the exhibit. More »
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Could we be colonizing Mars in your lifetime? Three different non-fiction books offered different scenarios — including bombarding Mars with "greenhouse gases" and using it as a kind of quasi-penal colony. John Hickman, author of Reopening the Space Frontier, explains. More »
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Our efforts to intentionally alter our home planet have been unpredictable at best. Can we terraform other planets without making the same mistakes? Should we? More »
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We've seen how things can go awry when we tinker with our planet, but geology is fairly resistant to short-term change. When we screw with ecosystems, however, the chain of effects can be long and extremely unpredictable. More »
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Humans can rearrange the shape of our planet almost as easily as the furniture in your living room (or the deck chairs on the Titanic). Of course, it doesn't always work out as planned. More »
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We usually think of terraforming as something we'll do in the future to other planets, but we have thousands of years of experience changing the shape of our own planet in profound ways. More »
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The bowels are a difficult place to live. It's damp and crowded and the landlord keeps trying to kick you out. Find out how salmonella uses the body's immune response to transform the inside of your body into someplace liveable. More »
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Nearly two centuries ago, famed scientists Charles Darwin and Joseph Hooker transformed the barren volcanic island of Ascension into a lush artificial ecosystem, unwittingly inventing terraforming. Now, Darwin's incredible achievement could help us transform Mars into a livable environment. More »
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Geologists working in Ethiopia have found that a 60-meter-long canyon is steadily expanding and will allow a new ocean to form — one which will bisect the African continent. More »
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Is it possible to send starter kits of Earth life to other worlds in the hopes of triggering terraforming processes all over the galaxy? Not only is it possible, argues Michael Mautner, but we have an obligation to do it. More »
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A group of scientists have a radical idea for combating climate change: terraforming the Sahara Desert and replacing it with a lush forest. But will its carbon capturing potential outweigh the negative ecological consequences? More »
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Humans have been terraforming since the earliest days of agriculture. We've got a gallery showing some of the Earth's most incredible terraforming projects - as well as what terraforming might look like on other worlds. More »
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England suffered through a very cold winter this year, but thanks to its vast biodomes flowers are already blooming just at the cusp of spring. Check out what these artificial environments look like inside. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5172646&view=rss&microfeed=true Kim Stanley Robinson's classic Martian colonization novel Red Mars is available for download as a free PDF, and also available for the Amazon Kindle. The bad news is, you'll have to buy the other two books in the Mars trilogy yourself. More »
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On the chilly Isle of Thanet in Kent, England, farmers are placing 220 acres of land under glass so they can grow vegetables all year round. The greenhouse, when completed, will house 1.3 million plants and increase the UK's crop of green vegetables by 15%. Called Thanet Earth, the project will be a series of 7 connected grenhouses with a relatively small carbon footprint. And nothing grown inside Thanet Earth will ever touch soil. More »
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If only today's announcement from Google and Virgin were true. Supposedly Google and Virgin Inc. are teaming up to create Virgle, a scheme to settle Mars by about 2015, possibly because Mars is the last place Google can keep its server farms the right temperature. In this video, Google founders Sergey and Larry ask you to send in your Youtube videos explaining why you should be one of the first Mars settlers. More »
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Artist James Clyne, who already wowed us with what turned out to be a racer lost in Antarctica, also has a gorgeous vision of what it would be like if we started modifying and hacking the moon into a place to live and do business. But what's up with that giant ball in the middle of downtown? City-to-city low-gravity volleyball? Find out the answer, along with details of http://www.jamesclyne.com/artist's vision, after the jump. More »
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The massive juggernaut of gaming that is the Halo trilogy has a strategy game prequel coming out this year, and while there hasn't been much news about it since last summer's E3, the developers have quietly been putting up new concept art over the past few months. This newest piece shows what seems to be a mass exodus from one of the human colonies before all hell breaks loose. We've got even more concept art that fills in the Halo backstory. More »
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