The Idea of Colonizing Mars

The article was written by Robert Kunzig, a scientific journalist and a regular contributor in National Geographic magazine. The article was also published in National Geographic magazine in the year 2010. Obviously, this article is focusing on how to make Mars livable for humans. Kunzig also wants his readers to know how will NASA transform Mars into a planet like Earth, by using a timeline. He actually agree on his topic, he believes that Mars can also be like Earth, a habitable and safe planet. Adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere will actually make the planet warm, and here on our planet, we know how to do it.

Kunzig also asked for others’ opinion namely, Chris McKay, a planetary scientist in NASA, James Graham, a botanist in University of Wisconsin, and Robert Zubrin, an enthusiast and president of the Mars Society. McKay said, “You don’t build Mars, you just warm it up and throw some seeds.”, and it’s true. We just need to do a little transformation, especially on the atmosphere and after that we can plant trees that can continue the production of oxygen. But this would take millions of years and lots of money, for now, all we have to do is to think of ways on how to take care of our Mother Earth and continue the research for terraforming Mars.

The possibility of us, humans, living in Mars is truly beyond imagination but now, it turns into reality. This article really helped us know what are the actions that the government is doing related to this topic. Actually, this isn’t the topic I chose, but as I turned the page of the book where I got this, I was really amazed. One thing that really attracted me, was the title, it’s catchy and really straight forward. It made me search further and realize that we’re really capable of living in a dead planet. I think the only thing that was vague is about the aliens or “Martians” living in Mars. Do Martians or aliens really exist in dead planets like Mars? Aren’t they going to be affected by the terraforming? Are we going to live with those Martians in the future? Those were the questions that run through my mind while I was reading the article. I think further research is really necessary to be updated of this topic. All in all, the piece was convincing and interesting, the title, the topic and even the supporting details, like the timeline and the pictures. The author delivered his piece clearly, he also gathered other’s opinions and it really helped to improved his article. Also, the piece isn’t too long so it didn’t gave me a feeling of boredom or something like that.