Talk:Mars

What year was it terraformed?--207.28.99.145 18:11, 25 September 2006 (UTC)
 * We don't know. Sometime before the war. --Dragonclaws 02:21, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

POA built on Mars?

 * I heard the Pillar Of Autumn was buildt there and if it was that would be good to put in. For all real planets in this galaxy there should be a real picture of them just to add to the details. Or with Luna a Pic from the game if you can get one..... -- 71.234.43.57 02:17, 3 November 2006

Before which war?
Before which war was Mars terraformed, before the Interplanetary War, or the Human-Covenant War?

Mars may have been subtly terraformed
I'm not sure about this, but I seriously doubt it would make sense economically to keep Mars running without at least subtly terraforming it, so that O2 and CO2 processing wouldn't need to be handled industrially.

Of course, from the Pillar of Autumn and other Cruisers, we can see that thousands of troops can be supported on artificial life systems. But if you think about an entire planet, thickening the atmosphere with CO2, then bringing in plants to produce O2 would make a lot of sense.

Perhaps Mars is terraformed in a subtle fashion, such that it is not immediately clear. Water might be carried by underground aquifers and the planet life might be concentrated in such areas so that the plants aren't visible. This might seem counter-intuitive, but remember that Mars - in a Halo context - is trying to be made more thick and hot. Having plants exposed to the surface of the planet absorbs less light than say, a dark colored metal.

Although its original research (so I won't rush to edit the article), I think the evidence points pretty strongly to Mars being terraformed, but done so in such a way that the surface of the planet doesn't appear green or blue (which makes sense, since both these colors are pretty light and tend to be reflective, not absorbing the kind of heat the colonists may want). If there is canonical evidence though that Mars still has no atmosphere, or that it has not been terraformed, please feel free to strike me down as soon as possible.

---I think that mars probably was fully terraformed. I regard many of the illustrations in the comic books as bordering on non-canon, because for Misiriah to be there, it would have to be somewhat terraformed. It looked a lot like earth in the video of the ships being resupplied over Misiriah Armories. Light Gaunt 04:05, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

The comics are canon, so that means Mars wasn't completely terraformed, maybe it wasn't terraformed at all. As you can see from the Arms Race video, the landscape is kind of reddish, and you can indeed spot some water and a few strings of grass, but that's it! -- UNSC Trooper  TalkMy Work 09:52, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

The lack of flora isn't that surprising really. What many people forget about the concept of terraforming Mars is its weak magnetic field, leaving the planet vulnrable to UV rays. Although human technology could terraform a planet, I doubt that it could re-activate a planetary core. As such, only UV resistant plants could survive, humans having to keep themselves sheltered.--Hawki 12:00, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Heating up the core and creating a magnetic field wouldn't be as hard as it sounds, anyways I think if the comics are the only evidence that it wasn't terraformed they should be disregarded after all they might just have got lazy and drew mars as we see it today. in short I agree with "Light Gaunt" in this respect


 * You can't disregard a canonical source without a VERY good reason. And "they might have just got lazy" certainly isn't a good reason to dump the comics or any OTHER Bungie-supervised material. -- UNSC Trooper [[Image:unsctrooper_small.jpg|14px]] TalkMy Work 14:36, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Terraform?
Terraforming could change an un-inhabitable place to look like earth? Could they do this to other planets, like Pluto or something?

Pluto's WAY too cold. Most gases could only exist there in solid form; much like the difference between water vapor and ice. It has no pre- existing atmsophere, is extremely small (it's total surface area is around that of the area of Canada), and it's generally way, way, WAY out of the way. No point putting down a colony there; not that the UNSC even had the technology for it.

Mars, on the other hand, while cold, would be possible to heat up enough to sustain live; and it has a pre-existing atmosphere (which could be easily tweaked), and is large and close enough to be worth colonising. Darkjigglypuff 21:52, 29 October 2008 (UTC)