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We’ve all at one time or another thought about how fantastic it would be to inhabit another planet and to live on it as we do here on Earth. Recently, the question of whether or not terraforming Mars for the expanding human population has come up. Is it possible to reverse Mars’s climate and atmosphere via artificial means? It turns out that we can indeed change some of these aspects of Mars.
In order to warm Mars and to increase the amount of greenhouse gasses, it has been proposed to send rockets that house fluorine compounds, like chlorofluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. These “CFC rockets” would be sent to crash onto Mars’s surface and to release a large amount of fluorides upon impact. For Mars to heat up enough in order to melt its polar ice caps, an estimated 39 million metric tons of CFC is needed. This barrage of rockets would probably go on for a little over a decade.
Another interesting idea for making Mars’s atmosphere more friendly is to introduce darker soil to Mars’s surface (most likely from its moons Phobos and Deimos) that will absorb more sunlight. The possibility of introducing extremophile bacteria to Mars’s surface has also been considered, especially since they would give some oxygen and heat to the atmosphere as well.
There are many different proposed methods of changing Mars’s atmosphere to be more like our own. We have technology now that can start the process, but at the moment, there is not a feasible way to introduce other necessary elements to Mars for habitability – namely a protective magnetosphere after Mars cooled. Creating a worldwide magnetosphere is not possible at this time. However, it seems that given enough time, we could one day make Mars our own and to live on it similarly to how we live here on Earth.
thomasridgway 
Terraforming as you hinted at above is no small scale project. The results of every huma construction project to this point in history would be dwarfed by comparrison. If we were to start without the magnetosphere capability, how quickly would atmospheric errosion take place? does it take decades? centuries? eons? It make you wonder whether or not humans would have the patience to see a project like this all of the way through.
Great topic Thomas! Terraforming Mars would be such a huge (and expensive) undertaking but it would be really interesting to see what it would be like to live there… Would there be a bifurcation of humankind – those who live on Mars (with it’s lesser gravity) and those who don’t? The Martians would be at an extreme disadvantage on Earth… I’ve seen scenarios for terraforming and the faster we want it, the more expensive it will be! Bacteria are slow but cheap 😉