As kids, many of us dreamed of becoming astronauts. But these days, it seems that just flying into space isn’t enough. Now, humanity dreams of something bigger — colonizing another planet. But is that possible today?
Unfortunately, the short answer is no. The most promising candidate for terraforming is Mars, but turning it into a livable world would require massive transformations — and right now, our technologies just aren’t there yet.
But that hasn’t stopped the world’s brightest minds. In fact, there's already a growing list of bold, fascinating ideas — some of which are already in progress. Space agencies and private companies are working hard on technologies that may not terraform Mars tomorrow, but they’re laying the foundation to one day make it possible.
Moonbase
One of the things humanity is already capable of building is a base on the Moon. In fact, NASA’s
Why is this so exciting?
Because it would teach us an essential set of skills for further space exploration and even terraforming:
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How to live in extreme environments;
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How to grow food in closed systems;
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How to recycle water and air;
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How to mine local materials for fuel or construction.
In other words, how to live and work on another world - something we’ve only simulated in labs or thought about theoretically. Now, it is time to test it with real-life experience.
The average temperature on the Moon is -25°C (-13 °F). However, according to the latest calculations, the constant temperature in caves on the Moon is +17°C(+63 °F), which is super comfortable for people and sensitive equipment.
ISRU (In-Situ Resource Utilization)
We’ve all travelled at least once in our lives, so we know — you can’t take everything with you. But in space, the stakes are much higher. You can’t just pay $50 for an extra kilo like you would with airline baggage. Every gram counts.
That’s why ISRU, or In-Situ Resource Utilization, is a game-changing concept. It’s all about using resources available at your destination — like extracting oxygen from carbon dioxide on Mars or mining lunar soil for water and fuel.
NASA is actively developing and testing
SpaceX’s Starship is designed to be ultra-efficient, with delivery costs of exactly $50 per kilogram — but only to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Beyond that, costs and complexity rise sharply, so ISRU becomes even more essential for distant space missions.
Nuclear fuel for rockets and power for colonies
The search for an alternative source of energy is not only a problem faced by earthlings when buying an electric car. Space corporations are looking for more efficient fuel for their rockets too. Rocket propellant presents a classic paradox: the more fuel you carry, the heavier your spacecraft becomes. And the heavier it is, the more fuel you need.
On top of that, space travel demands extremely precise calculations with a lot of input variables. This includes the weight of the rocket, which changes constantly due to the burning of the fuel.
These issues have pushed scientists to look for an alternative approach. Like nuclear energy. It is obvious that such fuel is harmless for our planet, so it looks impossible to use it for space ships launching. However, we can use it safely outside Earth’s atmosphere.
Currently, NASA is exploring two propulsion systems – nuclear thermal and nuclear electric. Both systems could drastically reduce travel times to distant planets and may one day serve as power sources for other planets' colonies.
With nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP), a spacecraft could reach Mars in around 3–4 months, compared to 6–9 months with current chemical rockets.
Skyhook
To increase the efficiency of launching ships and travelling through the Earth's atmosphere, there are some hypothetical concepts. And Skyhook is among them. The idea is simple and beautiful. Imagine a giant rotating cable orbiting Earth, dipping into the upper atmosphere and “catching” a spacecraft launched from the ground. It would then use its momentum to fling the spacecraft into a higher orbit — dramatically reducing the fuel needed. In other words, you can transfer the energy from the tether and get a massive boost when releasing the ship.
You may have heard about space elevators, another concept that solves the same problem. However, elevators remain sci-fi for today because no suitable material exists for their construction. At the same time, Skyhook seems to be able to be implemented with existing carbon nanotubes or graphene composites.
A space elevator would need a cable 35,786 km long — almost three Earth diameters. However, the Japanese construction company Obayashi Corp has proposed building a space elevator by 2050.
Synthetic Biology for Terraformation
Today, another technology relates directly to the colonisation of Mars - Synthetic Biology. Theoretically, it could even let us skip the massive 200-year process of warming the planet with giant orbital mirrors. In a nutshell, the idea is to engineer microbes to speed up the process of making Mars habitable.
Among tasks that engineered microbes and plants can do:
- Producing oxygen from COâ‚‚ (on Mars, for example)
- Fixing nitrogen in Martian or lunar soil to help grow plants
- Biomining, where microbes extract useful metals or materials from rocks
- Breaking down toxic substances (like perchlorates in Martian soil)
- Creating food, fuel, and medicine in space from simple inputs
Detailed ideas of how this can work out you can find in this
NASA is already trying to use microorganisms to produce nutrients—off Earth and on demand—that will be critical for human health in space. The experiment is called
Although terraforming Mars or any other planet in the near future is impossible, preparatory steps can be taken. We are not ready to reshape other planets and make them more Earth-like. The scale is vast, the challenges are immense, and the timelines stretch across centuries. But we have technologies, materials, and ideas for “smaller” technologies that will make space colonization possible.
We’re still learning to crawl before we can fly. But it turns out you can’t fly in Space if you don’t know how to crawl :)