Misc
Terraforming 101: How to Make Mars a Habitable Planet
Terraforming 101: How to Make Mars a Habitable Planet
Before we can journey to the stars, we must first go to Mars.
That’s Elon Musk’s philosophy, anyways – and just days ago he revealed new details on his ambitions to colonize the Red Planet, including sending two cargo rockets by 2022 and four rockets (two manned, two cargo) by 2024.
In 40 to 100 years, Musk suggested that up to a million people could live there.
Change of Seasons
As Elton John wisely noted, “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids”.
Indeed, the average temperature on Mars is −55 °C (−67 °F), dust storms are frequent and potentially deadly, and the planet has extremely low atmospheric pressure (about 1% of Earth). Because of the atmosphere and temperature swings, meaningful occurrences of liquid water on the planet’s surface are almost impossible. And while Mars is thought to have plenty of frozen water at its poles and in underground deposits, the logistics of tapping into these resources could be quite difficult.
In other words, for any meaningful and long-lasting human presence on Mars, we would likely want to alter the planet and its atmosphere to make it more habitable for human life. And while the exact mechanisms we would use to accomplish this are still up for debate, the basics behind what’s needed to achieve Earth-like conditions are actually pretty straightforward.
Terraforming 101
Today’s infographic comes to us from Futurism, and it details what might need to happen on Mars to make it more accommodating to human life.
Here are two steps we could take to get Mars into the “Goldilocks Zone”, where water is liquid – and harmful ionizing radiation like x-rays, UV rays, and gamma rays are not problematic.
Greenhouse Gases
One way to ward off harmful ionizing radiation is to add a thicker layer of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere of Mars. Such an atmosphere would also allows less heat to escape, meaning warmer temperatures on the planet.
Magnetic Field
A strong magnetic field on Earth is something else that makes life easier. Earth’s solid inner core, composed primarily of iron, creates this field when the planet spins – and it deflects cosmic rays and other harmful types of radiation.
One interesting solution to solve this problem on Mars would to have a magnetic field generator in front of the planet at all times, deflecting any such rays coming from the sun.
The Realm of Possibility
While terraforming is still a mixture of theory and science fiction at this point, we do know some of the major problems that have to be solved for attaining a habitable environment – and it will be interesting to see how plans around Mars develop as the prospect of colonization becomes more real.
You need to live in a dome initially but over time you could terraform Mars to look like Earth and eventually walk around outside without anything on. … So it’s a fixer-upper of a planet.
– Elon Musk
United States
How Much Do Americans Trust the Media?
Media trust among Americans has reached its lowest point since Trump won the 2016 presidential election.

How Much Do Americans Trust the Media?
Media trust among Americans has reached its lowest point in six years.
Gallup began its survey on media trust in 1972, repeating it in 1974 and 1976. After a long period, the public opinion firm restarted the polls in 1997 and has asked Americans about their confidence level in the mass media—newspapers, TV, and radio—almost every year since then.
The above graphic illustrates Gallup’s latest poll results, conducted in September 2023.
Americans’ Trust in Mass Media, 1972-2023
Americans’ confidence in the mass media has sharply declined over the last few decades.
Trust in the mass media | % Great deal/Fair amount | % Not very much | % None at all |
---|---|---|---|
1972 | 68 | 24 | 6 |
1974 | 69 | 21 | 8 |
1976 | 72 | 22 | 4 |
1997 | 53 | 31 | 15 |
1998 | 55 | 35 | 9 |
1999 | 55 | 34 | 11 |
2000 | 51 | 37 | 12 |
2001 | 53 | 33 | 14 |
2002 | 54 | 35 | 11 |
2003 | 54 | 35 | 11 |
2004 | 44 | 39 | 16 |
2005 | 50 | 37 | 12 |
2007 | 47 | 35 | 17 |
2008 | 43 | 35 | 21 |
2009 | 45 | 37 | 18 |
2010 | 43 | 36 | 21 |
2011 | 44 | 36 | 19 |
2012 | 40 | 39 | 21 |
2013 | 44 | 33 | 22 |
2014 | 40 | 36 | 24 |
2015 | 40 | 36 | 24 |
2016 | 32 | 41 | 27 |
2017 | 41 | 29 | 29 |
2018 | 45 | 30 | 24 |
2019 | 41 | 30 | 28 |
2020 | 40 | 27 | 33 |
2021 | 36 | 29 | 34 |
2022 | 34 | 28 | 38 |
2023 | 32 | 29 | 39 |
In 2016, the number of respondents trusting media outlets fell below the tally of those who didn’t trust the media at all. This is the first time that has happened in the poll’s history.
That year was marked by sharp criticism of the media from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
In 2017, the use of the term ‘fake news’ rose by 365% on social media, and the term was named the word of the year by dictionary publisher Collins.
The Lack of Faith in Institutions and Social Media
Although there’s no single reason to explain the decline of trust in the traditional media, some studies point to potential drivers.
According to Michael Schudson, a sociologist and historian of the news media and a professor at the Columbia Journalism School, in the 1970s, faith in institutions like the White House or Congress began to decline, consequently impacting confidence in the media.
“That may have been a necessary corrective to a sense of complacency that had been creeping in—among the public and the news media—that allowed perhaps too much trust: we accepted President Eisenhower’s lies about the U-2 spy plane, President Kennedy’s lies about the ‘missile gap,’ President Johnson’s lies about the war in Vietnam, President Nixon’s lies about Watergate,”
Michael Schudson – Columbia Journalism School
More recently, the internet and social media have significantly changed how people consume media. The rise of platforms such as X/Twitter and Facebook have also disrupted the traditional media status quo.
Partisans’ Trust in Mass Media
Historically, Democrats have expressed more confidence in the media than Republicans.
Democrats’ trust, however, has fallen 12 points over the past year to 58%, compared with 11% among Republicans and 29% among independents.
According to Gallup, Republicans’ low confidence in the media has little room to worsen, but Democrat confidence could still deteriorate and bring the overall national reading down further.
The poll also shows that young Democrats have less confidence in the media than older Democrats, while Republicans are less varied in their views by age group.
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