Some people dream huge.
The 60 or so scientists in attendance appeared to agree that warming the planet is the first step and thickening the atmosphere will follow naturally as carbon dioxide and water evaporate from the polar caps and the planet's permafrost. Ironically, the very sorts of things that are cause for alarm in Earth's atmosphere are being seen as great tools to Mars terraformers. The infamous greenhouse gases causing Earth's atmosphere to heat up could help make Mars habitable. Terraformers are hoping that by getting more carbon dioxide and a stew of manmade greenhouse gases into its atmosphere, Mars' mean global temperature will over years or decades rise above the freezing point of water. Greenhouse gases are tricky, however, says Margarita Marinova, a planetary scientist studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.