Polish scientist Dr Leszek Czechowski suggests hurling frozen asteroids at Mars to create a breathable atmosphere and make the planet habitable for humans.
April 9, 2025: As humanity looks beyond Earth for future colonization, one scientist has proposed a radical new idea for transforming Mars into a liveable world: crashing icy asteroids into it.
Dr Leszek Czechowski, a planetary researcher at the Polish Academy of Sciences, believes that conventional terraforming methods — like growing hardy moss or lichen on the Martian surface — may be unrealistic or too slow to make meaningful change.
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Instead, in his new research paper titled “Energy Problems of Terraforming Mars,” Dr Czechowski proposes a high-impact method: sending frozen asteroids from the outer solar system and smashing them into Mars.
“Mars’ soil contains perchlorates, which are toxic to humans, and its thin atmosphere — mostly carbon dioxide — can’t support life. In fact, without a pressure suit, water in a human body would literally boil,” Dr Czechowski explained.
The idea is to source icy asteroids from regions like the Kuiper Belt or the distant, theorized Oort Cloud, which may contain billions of frozen bodies. By redirecting these towards Mars, their impacts could potentially release essential gases — possibly helping thicken the Martian atmosphere and initiating a greenhouse effect.
The concept may sound like science fiction, but Dr Czechowski insists it’s worth exploring, especially given the limitations of current terraforming models. He notes, however, that current propulsion technology would take around 15,000 years to bring an asteroid from the Oort Cloud to Mars — highlighting the challenge in execution.
Still, his bold vision adds to the growing list of innovative strategies for long-term Martian colonization, as space agencies like NASA and SpaceX continue to push boundaries.
“It’s not about what we can do today, but how we imagine and plan for the far future,” Dr Czechowski concludes.
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Mars colonization, asteroid terraforming, space exploration, Leszek Czechowski, Mars atmosphere, Red Planet habitability, terraform Mars, future of space travel, Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud, NASA, SpaceX, sci-fi to reality