Terraforming the Martian Atmosphere

  • Released Monday, July 30, 2018
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One of the challenges of terraforming Mars is to increase its atmospheric pressure, which is currently less than 1% that of Earth. The Martian polar caps, minerals, and soil could all provide sources of carbon dioxide and water to thicken the atmosphere. Unfortunately, a new study by the MAVEN science team finds that processing all sources available on Mars would only increase the pressure to about 7% that of Earth, far short of what is needed.

Learn more about this finding.



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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

Release date

This page was originally published on Monday, July 30, 2018.
This page was last updated on Thursday, November 9, 2023 at 12:29 PM EST.


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