This is part 5 of my series on Mars, planet of surprises, great to explore, not so great to colonize. It seems that a human mission to the surface of Mars significantly increases the risk of irreversibly contaminating Mars. If that's right, the best way to explore Mars would be with telerobotics or telepresence. 

Airplanes For The Martian Atmosphere

This is an example of an entomopter, which flies like a bumble bee but on Mars can be far larger because of the thin air.

Supposing we do eventually decide to terraform Mars, and know how to do it, will it be possible at all if humans visit the surface of Mars first? Could aerobes and other microbes introduced by humans work against all our attempts to terraform the planet?

There are more immediate issues to think about such as need to keep Mars pristine for present day scientific exploration. Also, I am not yet at all sure myself that terraforming is the best way forward, or that we are anywhere close to the level of knowledge needed to do it successfully. But it is not too soon to start thinking about this possibility.

This is part 3 of my series on Mars, planet of surprises, great to explore, not so great to colonize. In "Is it as good a place to live as a desert? we saw that Mars is a more inhospitable place than the coldest driest deserts on Earth, and has severe supply issues from Earth. It is a place for highly trained hardy explorers like the early Apollo astronauts. 

This is part 3 of my series on Mars, planet of surprises, great to explore, not so great to colonize. In "Is it as good a place to live as a desert? we saw that Mars is a more inhospitable place than the coldest driest deserts on Earth, and has severe supply issues from Earth. It is a place for highly trained hardy explorers like the early Apollo astronauts. 

This is part 2 of my series on Mars, planet of surprises, great to explore, not so great to colonize  We saw so far that Mars is less hospitable than the coldest driest deserts on Earth. This is Wright valley, which is colder than it looks. It's an extremely cold place in Antarctica which only stays free of ice because it is also so very dry. The most hospitable areas on Mars may be similar, except for the near vacuum of its atmosphere. Surprisingly, in these extremely hostile conditions in Antarctica, you do get life, and this gives insight into possibilities for life on Mars.

In "Asteroid Resources Could Create Space Habs For Trillions; Land Area Of A Thousand Earths" I looked at a possible future where humans could colonize space and build habitats using materials from the asteroids. Later on, once we have fusion power able to build miniature suns to warm our new habs ,it would be easy to spread to the Oort cloud. Then, since Oort clouds of stars mingle, we would be well on our way to colonization of the galaxy