GOLDEN, Colorado – Scientists are engaged in research with an eye toward transforming the cold climes of Mars into a far more humane place for Earthlings in the future.

One notion proposed is dispersion of an aerosol meant to motivate the warming of Mars’s atmosphere. The idea is projected to be a first step toward terraforming the Red Planet.

Emerging recently as a new field of study is “applied astrobiology” – to appraise what would be needed to create sustainable habitats and biospheres beyond Earth.