Editing 2095: Marsiforming

{{comic
| number    = 2095
| date      = January 7, 2019
| title     = Marsiforming
| image     = marsiforming.png
| titletext = It has so many advantages--it preserves Martian life, requires fewer interplanetary launches, and makes it much easier to field-test Mars rovers.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Terraforming}} is the (so far only suggested) process of changing a planet, usually to make it more habitable for humans or other Earth life. A very common example is {{w|Mars}}, which is known to harbour water ice and believed to have previously been warm enough to have liquid water. Normally, plans for terraforming try to adjust temperatures to be compatible with liquid water, and an atmosphere containing significant amounts of oxygen but little carbon dioxide. The word {{w|Terra}} is the Latin name for {{w|Earth}}, so terraforming would be "Earth Forming".

In this comic [[Cueball]] is suggesting doing the opposite: change Earth to be more like Mars, i.e. extremely dry, cold, and with a very thin atmosphere, approximately 1/160 of Earth's surface pressure. In addition, Mars has no magnetic core, so it is possible that Cueball wants to remove the magnetic field from Earth. The comic title combines Mars with Forming (with a linking "i") to create the new word Marsiforming.  He is having trouble getting the enthusiastic response to his proposal that he expects.

The title text provides examples of how this could improve things: preserving Martian life (a proposed reason to terraform Mars would be to provide a second planet to preserve Earth life at the cost of destroying any potential [undiscovered] Martian organisms, so by marsiforming Earth, we would provide a second planet to preserve Martian life, if there is any life on Mars), needing fewer interplanetary launches (no need to leave this planet's atmosphere in order to visit itself, and Martians who might otherwise need to return to their home planet could instead settle on Earth), and making it easier to field-test Mars rovers (field-test means to test in the environment of actual use, which would readily be available on Earth). While the second and third items would indeed be advantages, and the first would be as well if Mars has developed life, they are severely outweighed by the fact that most life on Earth, including humans, would die.

Unstated in the comic are the extreme costs such a proposal would incur, which would surely be grounds for rejection.  Between the thin atmosphere, harsh solar radiation, and other changes, Earth would become uninhabitable for most life currently on Earth, most notably humans.  Almost all humans value the continued existence of the human race far more than Martian exploration{{Citation needed}} (if nothing else, it is for the benefit of humans that Mars is being explored, so exterminating the human race would render the benefits moot).

There are known extremophile species that would survive underground on Mars.  If similar life is hiding on Mars, marsiforming the Earth would benefit their possible eventual interplanetary efforts.  There is an existing project to begin experimental terraforming on Mars by nurturing some of our extremophile species on it.{{w|Terraforming_of_Mars#Funded_research:_ecopoiesis}}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is on a stage giving a presentation, with a diagram behind him. The diagram shows Earth and Mars side-by-side, along with some writing below the two.]
:Cueball: Earth and Mars may look different now, but with some orbiting mirrors and atmospheric adjustments, we could change that.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I'm having trouble selling people on my proposal to terraform Earth to resemble Mars.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Space]]