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Terraform: Difference between revisions
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Terraforming itself is an actual area of study right now, as scientists try to design methods to create both self-contained environments (Bio-Domes being famous examples) and species that can survive in a hostile environment and improve it until it has a self-sustaining biosphere that can sustain humans. Easier said than done. ''Literally,'' because [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness|soft sci-fi settings]] tend to sneeze out terraforming efforts and planets like Martians with a cold.
Harder scifi settings can construct entire books about the sciences and engineering involved, not to mention the political and social effort these huge undertakings would entail.
We would also like to draw your attention to a little bit of verbal trickery in the first sentence: "human-unfriendly environment". This is not the same as uninhabitable, with acid rains, lead-melting temperatures, or hard vacuum. Sometimes, a planet is plenty alive... sometimes, ''too alive'', with [[Man-Eating Plant|man-eating plants]], semi- to [[Evolutionary Levels|hyper-evolved]] sentients, and scores of other dangers. A few old sci-fi serials and pulps would have their heroes' effort designed to create a "domestication" of savage planets, much like [[The Western|The American West]] was "tamed" with all the attendant heartache and extinctions.
More recently, some shows turn this around by showcasing how terraforming an already-living world can be ecologically disastrous, or ethically questionable, [[Hostile Terraforming|even weaponized]]. Or just plain pisses off the [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|near omnipotent residents]]. Some works even turn the concept inside-out, showing how aliens arrive on Earth and mess the ecology up so badly that the planet becomes barely habitable, if at all, for humans (any [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|similarities]] to [[Global Warming]] are [[Sarcasm Mode|entirely coincidental]]); this is sometimes termed xenoforming or un-terraforming.
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** Not force fields, ''air curtains''.
** Terraforming has become a necessity since inversely, Earth has become almost uninhabitable due to the moon getting destroyed and debris bombardment that continues.
* ''[[Aria]]'' takes place on Mars, which got mostly covered with water from the pole regions after terraforming and subsequently got renamed to Aqua.
* ''[[Zone of the Enders]]'' also features a partially-terraformed Mars. in ''Dolores, i'', it's shown that some of the planet's oxygen supply is being generated by seaweed that has grown ''huge'' in the new environment, with fronds hundreds of feet long. You still don't wanna go out there for long without a spacesuit.
* It's in progress on Mars as of the first ''[[Armitage III]]'' OVA. In the epilogue to the sequel, it get's oceans courtesy of a lot of dropped comets.
* In ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'', Mars is terraformed through the use of [[Nanomachines]]. How these machines affected native Martians becomes a major plot point later on.
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* Near the end of ''[[Getter Robo]] Go'', {{spoiler|[[Humongous Mecha|Shin Getter Robo]] instantly terraforms Mars with a blast of Getter Energy. It does this so it can hibernate on the planet long enough to ''combine with it and become an even larger robot.'' }}
* The world-settlers in ''[[Trigun]]'' set out to terraform a new planet, but unfortunately ended up crashing onto a desert world (losing much of their tools and resources in the process) and what resources they still have are almost solely devoted to surviving. Due to this, the work has barely even started at the time of the series, and it's implied they'd already been there for several decades or more.
* Almost all populated planets in ''[[Kiddy Grade]]'' became inhabitable through terraforming. One episode even has Éclair and [[Lumi Ã]]¨re scavenge terraforming-equipment for usable parts.
* ''[[Mars Daybreak]]'' features a Mars where terraforming has [[Gone Horribly Wrong]], somehow flooding the entire planet except for the peak of Olympus Mons.
* The bad guys in ''[[Space Carrier Blue Noah]]'' want to terriform the planet Godom for their own needs.
* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', {{spoiler|Negi's plan to save [[Magic Land|Mundus Magicus]] is revealed to be terraforming Mars so that it can support life.}}
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** In his defense though, he did have a really big bucket.
* Some of the ''[[Transformers]]'' comics written by Simon Furman have a variation of this: In the distant past, the war between [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|alien gods]] Primus and Unicron was ended when Primus tricked them into eternal imprisonment in large metal planetoids. Over time, Primus terraforms his planetoid into the planet Cybertron (and creates sentient robotic life forms in the process), while Unicron terraforms his into a giant [[Transforming Mecha]] body.
** Note that in [[Transformers Cybertron]], the titular planet is also a Transforming Mecha. Primus just prefers to remain as a home for his children.
*** The Liege Maximo's [[Transformers Generation Two|Cybertronian Empire]] has a trend to terraform conquered planets to make them similar to Cybertron.
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** The results of unfinished or untended Terraforming is a large feature in Niven's work. Earth was partly Terraformed by the Pak, with the issue there's not enough thallium for the Pak's final lifestage to complete. ''Ringworld'' has much of the same issue being explored with humanoids left alone on a mostly terraformed Ringworld until they differentiate into ecological niches.
** In Niven's ''A World Out Of Time'', delivering biological terraforming packages to suitable extrasolar planets is the job given to the [[Human Popsicle|corpsicle]] Corbell.
* In the [[CoDominium]] universe, New Caledonia is a formerly barren world still being terraformed; for already life-bearing planets, the process is more a matter of altering the local ecology to support Earth life (which is usually grossly simplified for story purposes).
* ''Riverworld'' is set on a planet terraformed into one big twisting river valley, to maximize the surface area ideal for human habitation.
* The [[Robert A. Heinlein]] story ''[[Farmer in the Sky]]'' is about a terraforming effort... [[Science Marches On|on Ganymede]].
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** In Manticore's case it's stated that the only terraforming that was needed was the introduction of a few Terran plants, and that the unusual compatibility of the native life allowed a hybrid plague to develop.
*** And it's probably no coincidence that the most populous planet in the Manticore system is the one that doesn't have high gravity or turbulent storms.
* The [[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy|Magratheans]] seem worthy of a mention, taking this idea to its logical extreme by creating a custom planet-building business.
* [[A. E. van Vogt]]'s Voyage Of The Space Beagle: Anabis, a galaxy-spanning consciousness that has terraformed all planets in its own galaxy by ripping a piece of its planets surface off and sending to to the target planet through hyperspace (called junglescaping).
* Like the Magratheans two entries above, [[Roger Zelazny]]'s character Frank Sandow in ''Isle of the Dead'' and ''To Die in Italbar'' made a business of building planets, to order, or to his own design. Near the end of the first book, he has a vision of every planet he's built. After seventeen names, it trails off with "and so on." (He's over twelve centuries old; he's had time.)
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** Terraforming was the backgound plot of '' Back to Reality'': Planet engineers in an ocean seeding ship had terraformed an ocean moon and created a marine ecosystem teeming with lifeforms by vastly speeding up evolution. Unfortunately it backfired when one lifeform arose that wiped out everything else: the Despair Squid.
* The ''[[Cosmos]]'' episode "Blues for a Red Planet" discussed the possibility of terraforming Mars with dark-colored, hardy plants.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]''
** In the episode "The Doctor's Daughter", the planet Messaline is turned from a desolate wasteland into a beautiful planet full of life by using a terraforming device.
** In ''Terror of the Zygons'', the Zygons planned to modify the Earth’s climate to make it more suitable for their species.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* The ''[[Mutant Chronicles]]'' universe has a terraformed Mars and Venus.
** Let's not forget about various asteroids, moons and the caves on Mercury.
* In the ''Centauri Knights'' setting for ''[[BESM]],'' the planet being colonized has had its ecosystem wiped clean to the bedrock by [[Nanomachines]] made by the natives. The native ecosystem survives on a couple of still-working, but unoccupied, space habitats near the planet. One of the conflicts in the game's politics is: do we terraform the planet into a new Earth, rebuild its own ecosystem by transplanting from the colonies, leave it a barren desert and mine it for technology, or abandon it and go home?
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== Video Games ==
* The Scrin are doing this to Earth in the latest ''[[Command
** It turns out this isn't terraforming, it's just a massive mining operation. Tiberium sucks up all resources, then the Scrin collect the Tiberium and go home. They wouldn't have shown up yet, but Kane tricked them into arriving early.
** Its also an effective [[Depopulation Bomb]]. Tiberium devastates the environment and disrupts ecosystems, causing widespread famine and sickness. At the same time, it offers the native population plentiful resources to manufacture equipment and weaponry. Intense social pressures + massive availability of material to construct weapons = total implosion of the local population and devastating wars that crush the remainder of civilization. Generally, by the time the Scrin arrive, the locals have wiped themselves out or been killed off by the transformation of their planet.
* ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri|Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri]]'' has terraforming as a big part of the gameplay, even allowing you to decide how much you want to incorporate the native environment (which is a good idea, because this environment [[Genius Loci|fights]] [[Death World|back]]!).
* ''[[Freelancer]]'' has no terraformed planets, but instead has ''terraforming'' planets like California Minor. It also shows a little bit of the process with Planetform, Inc., the company that handles terraforming operations, and by letting you trade stuff like terraforming gases, alien organisms that eat carbon dioxide and release oxygen, and H-Fuel to power these operations. The game also features the Gaians, a rebel faction of [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Well Intentioned Extremists]] who firmly believe that terraforming is the same as ecocide.
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* Present in ''[[Spore]],'' where using various upgrades to your starship, or purchasing other, various, one-shot machines, you can improve the "T-score" of a planet (which range from T-0 to T-3), which allows it to sustain life better, which, in turn, allows you to plunder it for more Spice to sell. {{spoiler|It can also be used to kill all Grox on a planet by raising the T-score to at least 1.}} Colonized planets can only sustain a number of settlements equal to the T-score. T-0 planets can be claimed by placing a colony, but they will not be able to produce any spice until the atmospheric conditions are improved and then a basic ecology is introduced, establishing a T-score of at least T-1.
** It's also possible to deterraform a planet, lowering the T-score, reducing its habitability and extincting its indigenous lifeforms. Doing this on a foreign planet is considered an act of war (while improving a foreign planet's T-score can earn you their gratitude). It is, however, one of the simplest strategies for wiping out or conquering the home-world of a hostile race before your ship has top-tier weaponry available. Home-worlds are almost always T-3s with extra settlements (as many as 10 fully defended sites with fleets of defending ships). Using terraformer tools to lower the T-Score even a single level will wipe out almost all the settlements, leaving the place far more vulnerable to conquest or extermination and recolonization.
* ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star
* The simulation game ''Outpost'' had terraform-buildings available in the late game. Of course, it took an inordinate number of turns for them to complete their job, and successful terraforming provided no real benefit over the life-support buildings you had since Turn 1.
** ''[[Outpost 2]]'', in its [[Genre Shift]] to real-time strategy, made terraforming into the ''cause'' for the game's plot -- a huge increase of natural disasters and the unleashing of an all-consuming biological nightmare likely to be [[The End of the World as We Know It]]. Second world, that is -- Earth was already gone by that time.
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* In ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'', the crappy clone of Master Shake made by the Plutonians is sent to Earth to "de-terraform" it. This plan is not well thought out. Not only does the clone not feel obligated to do so, it has no idea what "de-terraform" means, or how he'd do it, or if it is in fact a real word.
* Mars has been terraformed in ''[[Futurama]]'', as explained in the opening quote. Later episodes, however, show that much of the planet is still desert. Oddly enough, the native Martians that still live there don't seem to have any negative effects from the wholesale transformation of the atmosphere.
* In the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "Moon Farm", the main characters decide to terraform the moon so that they can take cows there, and make the best ice-cream ever, [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|as detailed in the lost sacred stanza of "The Cow Jumped Over The Moon".]]
== Real Life ==
* The Earth, in its long existence, has had [[wikipedia:
** Venus is basically stuck with a stage two atmosphere, because it lacks water. Possibly something to do with being too close to the sun, and thus outside the habitable zone. Earth had, literally, oceans of water even early in its existence. Where the water came from is still a subject of debate. But water is necessary for the carbon sequestration that removed most of the carbon dioxide from the stage two atmosphere.
* Terraforming planets, by current human technology standards, ''is'' possible, but scientists theorize that any such process to turn a completely uninhabitable planet into a habitable one would take hundreds of years, perhaps even a full millennium. Planets that are closer to Earth standard might be capable of terraformation in as little as 300 years. So, ''don't count on it''. (As a point of interest, many scientists theorize that ''Venus'' would be a better candidate for terraformation, instead of Mars, due to the fact that Venus is tectonically active, while Mars isn't.)
** NASA's even done studies on the idea of terraforming the ''Moon'' into an Earth-like world. While the lunar gravity's too weak to hold a permanent atmosphere, it'd take thousands of years for a newly created one to dissipate, and in the meantime the Moon could conceivably have blue skies, oceans and forests. It seems like a colossal waste of resources by today's standards, but the possibility does exist for any future civilization that really wants to go sunbathing on the Moon.
** One of the problems with terraforming is an ethical one. If, hypothetically, there exists microbes on Mars (which is possible), Terraforming would likely lead to its extinction. This may seem insignificant until you realize that humanity had also evolved out of microbial life, so we would potentially exterminating intelligent life before it is even able to evolve to that point. This is the subject of a lot of debate within the scientific community with some in favor (Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin, for one) and others opposed (such as the late Carl Sagan).
** An added difficulty of any theoretical terraforming that real life scientists have seriously discussed is also the issue of maintenance of the terraforming. It would be pointless to expend so much time and effort to terraform a planet only to have it undone. This is one of the reasons why some consider Mars a poor candidate. Mars's core has long since hardened, which means it has no magnetic field to protect life from solar radiation and from solar winds blasting away its atmosphere. The atmosphere Mars now retains is a mere wisp compared to what scientists theorize it may have once had.
*** Mars has some issues with potential terraforming, but atmosphere retention isn't really a huge problem. The planet could hold on to a breathable atmosphere for tens or possibly even hundreds of millions of years, unlike a possible terraformed Moon.
*** This is largely conjecture, but if the atmosphere is being blown away over millions of years is it really that absurd to import atmosphere to replace it as it is blown away? To even settle Mars at first would require at least some level of casual inter-planitary travel.
* To an extent, terraforming is already happening right now, here on Earth: Human beings have been "[[wikipedia:Land reclamation|reclaiming]]" land from the sea for centuries, particularly in the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Dubai.
** Also, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11137903 this]. Darwin did it first, guys.
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