How about living on Mars?

BANGALORE: Pollution, spaceconstraint, too many people.... complaints against the Earth one too many. So,why not check out the option of living on Mars?The idea is quiteplausible, says space scientist U R Rao. "With six billion people and counting,Earth is very crowded. Optimistic estimates put the population at over 12billion by 2050. It���s time we moved," Rao told The Times ofIndia.Colonising the apparently hostile Red Planet is seeminglysimple: Begin by installing 100 sq km of plastic sheets coated with reflectivematerial which will catch the Sun���s rays and melt the ice; introducebacteria and then hardy plants to begin the process ofphotosynthesis."Once this is done, greenhouse effect will kick inand we���re in business. This is the process Earth went through, and it tookmillions of years. But humans can accelerate the process," said Rao, who alsomooted this idea at the recent Humanity 3000 symposium organised in Seattle bythe US-based Walter Kistler���s Foundation for the Future.Twentyspace scientists from around the world agreed it was both plausible and probablyinevitable. The genesis of the idea of colonising Mars was in the fact thatthere was no plan B if a catastrophe hits Earth, making it inhabitable.Rao���s idea may seem like a fantasy straight out of Star Trek, butit���s not wacky. "It is not something we plan to achieve next year, butmaybe in the next 1,000 years. Think of all the technology breakthroughs, newmaterials discovered and new modes of travel discovered by then. These wouldmake it possible," he said.On travel, Rao said: "With currenttechnology, a trip to Mars takes six months. Early explorers travelled formonths so it should not be a problem and plenty of things can be done toalleviate boredom.Advances in rocketry should make travel cheaper and faster.Reusable shuttles can be designed whose turnaround time could be less than afortnight."But Rao got the global scientific community excited bysomething even more bizarre ��� an elevator spanning the entire distance toMars. "Why not? Theoretically it is possible, though we realised traditionalcables would not hold. Many breakthroughs in nanotechnology have given ushope.Who knows? What we think now as preposterous may be routine stuff in a 100years."