The goal of the outlined mission is to validate the concept of bio-terraforming. The experiment itself is an exploration into the steps and methodologies of conducting such a process on a planet and to simulate the proposed steps as additional confirmation of concept. This mission outline is a start to finish methodology for getting from where we are now to a more habitable planetary environment. This includes the aerospace and transportation science and engineering as well as the ecological and biochemical implementations that must be engineered in the process of using living organisms to modify the environmental features of a planet’s climate. Mars is used as a case study for this particular mission as it is the most accessible planet in dire need of some terraforming (biologically or otherwise) effort in order to become habitable.

First and foremost: the living processes that demonstrate how bio-terraforming can be accomplished must be acknowledged. Lifeforms generate and give off energy in the form of latent heat. This heat accomplishes many ecosystemic tasks necessary for lifeforms to survive. This latent heat can be used to heat and even melt or evaporate ice or water into water vapor. Water retains heat due to it’s high specific heat which can allow organisms a source of heat even overnight when temperatures plummet or when environmental conditions change. Water vapor is also instrumental in heat regulation due to its tendency to coagulate into clouds, it’s specific heat, and its action in reflecting and refracting solar radiation. Clouds create a greenhouse effect on planetary scales wherein heat and light are trapped below the cloud line and this heat creates a positive feedback loop. As the heat creates more water vapor, the water vapor creates more surface heat which creates more water vapor and so on. Latent heat in this fashion can be instrumental in providing the first step towards a functioning ecosystem. Death and decay of natural organisms also provide vital resources in the form of lost heat and natural resources such as oxygen and carbon. Carbon based lifeforms provide carbon to the soil in which they die, eventually becoming incorporated into the biomass of other lifeforms. Oxygen is also regularly stored in lifeforms which is released in the decay process. Ecologically speaking- organisms are food for other organisms, whether that is by contributing their biomass to the soil from which other organisms grow, or by means of decomposing naturally occurring compounds into more usable forms of nutrients. Chemolithotrophs break down the rawest of materials and decaying organic compounds and turn them into biomass and accessible nutrients. Photoautotrophs take sunlight (usually in addition to accessible soil nutrients) and turn the energy into biomass which upon death becomes raw materials for other organisms to break down. It is also pivotal to mention that even the slightest ecosystemic interaction is a positive feedback loop. As organisms add heat to the surface of a planet, or as water vapor traps solar energy under the clouds, energy will radiate towards the center of the planet. Obviously some of this heat radiates outward, but some of it goes through the crust and is “captured” to a certain degree within the solid materials making up the body of the planet. This heat is a minor impact, but comes into play in consideration of plate tectonics and mineral activity. This can become effective and important is upwelling of vital minerals that affect available soil nutrients as well as leading to the release of trapped subsurface gasses which can similarly be highly impactful of atmospheric conditions.

The premise of bio-terraforming is that organisms alter their environment to make it more suitable to their own life processes. Even chemoautotrophs that expressly consume raw minerals and naturally occurring compounds provide other organisms the building blocks to survive on so that they may die and cycle nutrients back to themselves for re-decomposition. Latent heat, atmospheric change, and biomass life cycling are 3 methods by which lifeforms influence their environment to their liking. In layman's terms, the basic actions of a lifeform are eating, excreting waste, respiring, reproducing, and dying. When organisms eat and grow their biomass, they generate materials that will become vital to the ecosystem upon their death. By excreting waste, they alter soil composition and redistribute nutrients. By respiring, they alter atmospheric composition and pave the way for ecosystemic respiration cycles such as how some organisms breathe in CO2 and out oxygen whereas other organisms do the opposite. By reproducing, organisms proliferate their environmental effects and spread through their biome, sometimes expanding into foreign biomes as well. Ecology is possibly the most powerful bio-terraforming tool- organisms are codependent by nature- be it through multicellular and bacterial digestion in exchange for carbohydrates from a host organism, or through respiration cycles.

Mars’s specific environment must also be taken into account and considered with great scrutiny for a pursuit such as this project. The most important step in this project is analyzing what conditions on Mars’ surface need to change in order to gear organisms so that they may adjust their surroundings to be more habitable. The Martian environment is obviously categorized by many environmental stressors completely foreign to most Earthen organisms- extreme temperature, radiation, low gravity, high concentration of soil perchlorates, lack of oxygen, and other extreme environmental conditions. There are however, environments on Earth’s surface that contain one or more of these conditions and highly adapted extremophiles living under said conditions. These extremophiles have the greatest chance of surviving Mars’ thin atmosphere, Mar’s relative lack of oxygen, Mars’ gravity, and Mars’ radiation. One of the challenges of the Martian environment is the atmospheric density. Due to Mars’s dormant core, it has no magnetosphere and thus cannot contain all the highly energetic gaseous particles floating around the body of the planet. This lack of strong gravity and magnetosphere allows for gaseous molecules in the atmosphere to easily fly out of Mars’ reach and or push other atoms out of the atmosphere. Because of this loss of gaseous material, Mars’ atmosphere has become (and is still becoming increasingly) thin. Mars’ atmosphere is currently about 100 times thinner than Earth’s. Solar wind and radiation is another major cause of Mars’ atmospheric loss, particularly through a process called sputtering wherein solar radiation ionizes particles that bombard and physically knock atmospheric molecules out of the planets grasp.