Edwin Kite

From Science Fiction to Science Fact: A Mars Warming Precursor Mission for the Next Decade An article that explores a realistic concept for a Mars surface payload that can answer critical questions about the first step in terraforming - warming the surface of Mars by 35 °C.

A Mars Warming Precursor Mission for the Next Decade marsterraforming.substack.com/p/from-scien...

Solar sail trajectory from low earth orbit to Mars. (1) Escape from earth (spiral up from ~800km); (2) Navigate through interplanetary space; and (3) Spiral down / get captured at Mars. Top-down visualization, work by Ari Essunfeld and
Yuji Takubo, idea by Casey Handmer.

NASA-DARES Community Webinar Series Registration Form - NASA Science Every Wednesday between February 25 - March 25, 202612 - 4 PM ET | 9 AM - 1 PM PT

NASA Decadal Astrobiology Research and Exploration Strategy sign-up: science.nasa.gov/astrobiology...

Pacing Early Mars Sedimentary Rock Formation Syndepositional craters constrain accumulation rates at Meridiani Planum to be 4.2−3.1+14.4−11.4−10.5+37.6 ${4.2}_{-3.1}^{+14.4}{-11.4}_{-10.5}^{+37.6}$ μ ${\upmu }$m/yr Best estimates for deposi...

New paper alert!

Led by Madison Turner, "Pacing Early Mars Sedimentary Rock Formation," Geophysical Research Letters:
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Pacing Early Mars Sedimentary Rock Formation Syndepositional craters constrain accumulation rates at Meridiani Planum to be 4.2−3.1+14.4−11.4−10.5+37.6 ${4.2}_{-3.1}^{+14.4}{-11.4}_{-10.5}^{+37.6}$ μ ${\upmu }$m/yr Best estimates for deposi...

New paper alert!

Led by Madison Turner, "Pacing Early Mars Sedimentary Rock Formation," Geophysical Research Letters:
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

How to export life to Mars A new science—applied astrobiology—is taking shape

New science is making the export of life into the universe possible, practical and perhaps inevitable

The future of space exploration depends on better biology Rockets are great, but sewage treatment is what you need for the long haul

The goal for space exploration should be a new golden rule linking the search for life elsewhere to the spread of life beyond the bounds of Earth

Martian cities could be built from ice Astronauts could theoretically harness frozen water on the Red Planet to construct habitats and research stations, new analysis suggests

Martian cities could be built from ice | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

An open-source particle screening tool for Mars warming research Accelerating iteration on Mars-warming particle designs.

On marsterraforming.substack.com: "An open-source particle screening tool for Mars warming research"(also useful for modeling the effect of natural aerosols!) marsterraforming.substack.com/p/an-open-so.... Code: github.com/mars-terrafo.... Dashboard: mars-terraforming-research.github.io/TerraScreen/

An open-source particle screening tool for Mars warming research Accelerating iteration on Mars-warming particle designs.

On marsterraforming.substack.com: "An open-source particle screening tool for Mars warming research"(also useful for modeling the effect of natural aerosols!) marsterraforming.substack.com/p/an-open-so.... Code: github.com/mars-terrafo.... Dashboard: mars-terraforming-research.github.io/TerraScreen/

New on marsterraforming.substack.com: "A Million Fireflies in the Martian Sky? On Warming Mars Using Solar Sails", by Ari Essunfeld. Based on work by Ari Essunfeld, Yuji Takubo, and Casey Handmer.
marsterraforming.substack.com/p/a-million-...

New on marsterraforming.substack.com: "A Million Fireflies in the Martian Sky? On Warming Mars Using Solar Sails", by Ari Essunfeld. Based on work by Ari Essunfeld, Yuji Takubo, and Casey Handmer.
marsterraforming.substack.com/p/a-million-...

Early thinning, late persistence, diachronous boundaries, and a regional dichotomy in Mars' young sedimentary rocks - Communications Earth & Environment A global analysis of Martian remote sensing data identifies a decrease in sediment accumulation rate and layer thickness with age, suggesting a diachronous transition in sedimentation and a migratory ...

New paper alert!

Madison Turner et al., "Early thinning, late persistence, diachronous boundaries, and a regional dichotomy in Mars' young sedimentary rocks", Communications Earth and Environment: (open access link) www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Early thinning, late persistence, diachronous boundaries, and a regional dichotomy in Mars' young sedimentary rocks - Communications Earth & Environment A global analysis of Martian remote sensing data identifies a decrease in sediment accumulation rate and layer thickness with age, suggesting a diachronous transition in sedimentation and a migratory ...

New paper alert!

Madison Turner et al., "Early thinning, late persistence, diachronous boundaries, and a regional dichotomy in Mars' young sedimentary rocks", Communications Earth and Environment: (open access link) www.nature.com/articles/s43...

An Introduction to Mars Terraforming, 2025 Workshop Summary Terraforming Mars is an age old science fiction concept now worth revisiting through the lens of modern science and technology. This document serves as a summary of contemporary ideas about Mars terra...

An Introduction to Mars Terraforming, 2025 Workshop Summary
arxiv.org/abs/2510.07344

The Future Of Space Is More Than Human | NOEMA The time has come to expand our visions of life beyond Earth.

“If building space habitats is hard & machine technology is gradually developing more life-like capabilities, does this mean we humans might as well remain Earth-bound forever?”

— @rdword.bsky.social

#spacetravel #spaceexploration #rovers

An Introduction to Mars Terraforming, 2025 Workshop Summary Terraforming Mars is an age old science fiction concept now worth revisiting through the lens of modern science and technology. This document serves as a summary of contemporary ideas about Mars terra...

An Introduction to Mars Terraforming, 2025 Workshop Summary
arxiv.org/abs/2510.07344

Life on Mars: Is it possible for humans? with Edwin Kite Scientist examines how we could terraform Mars make the Red Planet habitable

Check out this U. of Chicago podcast with Edwin Kite offering insights on climate and life on Mars, the Mars Sample Return mission, a transformative scaled up version of Ingenuity that can fly hundreds of kilometers, and more! @edwinkite.bsky.social

news.uchicago.edu/big-brains-p... 🧪🔭 #Mars

That's not what the papers say. Glidden et al. write, "Both a bare rock and an N2-rich atmosphere provide adequate fits to the data." That's not "hints of an atmosphere," any more than flipping a coin and covering it with my hand is "hints of heads."

The Role of Tectonic Luck in Long-Term Habitability of Abiotic Earth-like Planets Carbonate-silicate weathering feedback is thought to stabilize Earth's climate on geologic timescales. If climate warms, faster mineral dissolution and increased rainfall speed up weathering, increasi...

New paper alert!

Brandon Park Coy et al., "The Role of Tectonic Luck in Long-Term Habitability of Abiotic Earth-like Planets" (accepted by PSJ):

arxiv.org/abs/2507.23124

Fostering a world-scale biosphere on Mars: a research agenda Mars has been a frozen desert for three billion years. Can we change that?

open.substack.com/pub/marsterr...

Carbonate formation and fluctuating habitability on Mars Nature - A modelling study suggests that Mars had a desert-like climate with intermittent liquid-water oases regulated by a negative feedback among solar luminosity, liquid water and carbonate...

New paper: "Carbonate formation and fluctuating habitability on Mars", Nature, open access: rdcu.be/euuTb . Inspired by data from Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover

Terraforming session @agu.org 2025 Fall Meeting: P008 - Creating sustainable habitats and ecosystems beyond Earth

To submit an abstract, please visit
agu.confex.com/agu/agu25/pr...

biogeochemistry, in-situ resource utilization, oxygen production, ecology, and space physics and space environment monitoring, as well as the exploration and distribution of terraforming-relevant resources. Submissions on technologies/techniques that support terraforming goals are also encouraged.

We encourage contributions on all aspects of both local and global terraforming, including planetary atmospheres, climate modeling/climate feedbacks, monitoring of climate change beyond Earth, spacecraft data analysis, hydrology, soil/regolith composition and suitability (or otherwise) for life,

If we decide in the future to create sustainable habitats and ecosystems beyond Earth, then science will have a critical role to play. As the cost of access to space continues to fall, a fresh look at the research agenda for this topic is timely.

Conveners: Edwin Kite ( @asterainstitute.bsky.social + @uchicagopsd.bsky.social
), Nina Lanza (LANL), @rdword.bsky.social‬ (@harvard.edu), and Chuanfei Dong (BU)

Terraforming session @agu.org 2025 Fall Meeting: P008 - Creating sustainable habitats and ecosystems beyond Earth

To submit an abstract, please visit
agu.confex.com/agu/agu25/pr...

Is terraforming Mars possible? | Los Alamos National Laboratory The possibility of terraforming Mars to make it habitable by humans has captured recent headlines and the imagination — but is there science to support it?

www.lanl.gov/media/news/0...

Today I and 11 other scientists describe in Nature Astronomy how recent breakthroughs in launch capabilities, climate, and synthetic biology demand a new assessment of the feasibility of terraforming Mars.

www.erikadebenedictis.com/s/The-case-f...