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Teraforming Mars: 2-Decades post-MNT
By Bill Spence

Post-MNT = Post Molecular Nano-Technology
When people speak of teraforming a planet, they usually speak in terms of hundreds of years. This is because these people were unaware of the eminent arrival of a technology enabling engineering feats of mythic proportions.

After the arrival of humans possessing nanotechnology, Mars could be transformed into a "shirt sleeve" environment in just two decades -- utilizing a few inventions made possible with self-assembling machinery.

The human imagination has always been larger than the wallet. Be on notice: this size differential will be decreased considerably with self-assembling machinery... Welcome the era of Mega-Engineering Projects, beautiful gigantic projects that normally could not be afforded by an individual, or by all the collaborative assets of the planet, and/or -- projects that physically could not be constructed with "first wave" industry. Nano was made for space. Because of the novel economics (if you can design it, you can build it ultra cheap), and the performance of nano-supermaterials embedded with all those nanocomputers -- enabling Mega-Engineering Projects, solar space becomes wide open for massive colonization in a short time frame after the arrival of the assembler.
(The PC .PDF file is zipped and downloadable by clicking here. The MAC equivalent is available by clicking here.)

Dan (expecting PhilW any second now)