Anony-mouse wrote:
Mars is too small to terraform,
Okay, I have to ask: Are you just playing Devil's Advocate here?
Here comes the science!
Venus' Mass: 4.8685?1024 kg (0.815 Earths)
Mars' Mass: 6.4185?1023 kg (0.107 Earths)
Titan's Mass: 1.34520029 ? 0.00020155?1023 kg (0.0225 Earths)
Europa's Mass: 4.80?1022 kg (0.008 Earths)
So....you're telling me that Mars is too small to terraform based on it's mass? Surface area? I don't get it. Neither are an issue. Would you rather spend X1000000 on the cost of a space station to rival Mars' size? And why would Venus' rotation be an issue? If we're on the surface, it's going to be too cloudy to worry about the length of the day anyway. Amazingly enough...life on earth works just fine in the artic circle where "days" are months long. If we're going to be Terraforming anyway, I'm sure we can figure out something, or camp out on the poles.
Terraforming and Life Already There are also 2 HUGEly different things.
Europa's big claim to fame is its underground oceans and possible geothermal activity kicking up life-producing goodness. Titan's is the idea that shores and hydrocarbons may be able to make some life-producing goodness. Nothing confirmed yet. Either way, they're not in the same basket as Mars, and hardly in the same isle as Venus. Mars MAY have been more Earth like...and considering humans, bacteria, single-cells and animals seem to survive in zero-G just fine, less or more gravity isn't really a major limiting factor.
Also, both moons recieve tonnes of radiation. Why would Planet Gliese be instantly excempt because of this? If it has an atmosphere, it can protect the surface from radiation. Simple as that.