Terraforming has become a necessity since, inversely, Earth has become almost uninhabitable due to the moon getting destroyed and debris bombardment that continues.Ganymede is completely covered in ocean, while Titan is all desert. Cowboy Bebop has numerous terraformed planets, moons and asteroids it appears only small sections of Mars that are protected by some sort of force-field dome are livable, though on Venus the plants used to terraform could cause some people to develop 'Venus Sickness' with such side effects as going blind.And even if it had an identical atmosphere to Earth, it would still average 73☌ (163☏) due to its greater proximity to the Sun., and unlike Mars, Venus's slow rotation would have to be dealt with. Venus is also a popular candidate in fiction, being almost completely similar to Earth in terms of size and gravity, but it's second to Mars because warming something up is a lot easier than cooling it down note And there'd be a lot of cooling to do Venus has a surface temperature of a whopping 462☌ (864☏), over 100☌ hotter than the melting point of lead. It has one of the shortest travel distances (second only to Venus), and is solid. As seen in the trope picture, Mars is likely to be a popular target for any terraforming operation in both fiction and reality. Often applied to the Colonized Solar System. A few old sci-fi serials and pulps would have their heroes' effort designed to create a 'domestication' of savage planets, much like The American West was 'tamed' with all the attendant heartache and extinctions. too alive, with man-eating plants, semi- to hyper-evolved sentients, and scores of other dangers. Sometimes though, the planet is only harsh to humans, not other forms of life. Harder scifi settings can construct entire books about the sciences and engineering involved, not to mention the political and social effort these huge undertakings would entail. According to the NASA, terraforming Mars is simply not possible with our current technology (see press release here). Literally, because soft sci-fi settings tend to sneeze out terraforming efforts and planets like Martians with a cold. Terraforming itself is an actual area of study right now, as scientists try to design methods to create both self-contained environments (Bio-Domes being famous examples) and species that can survive in a hostile environment and improve it until it has a self-sustaining biosphere that can sustain humans. Often used to explain why All Planets Are Earth-Like. (Hey, at least one setting actively proselytizes, at gunpoint!) Within a given setting, it's often done to showcase humanity's drive to explore and colonize new places for the famed trifecta of God, Gold and Glory. Narratively, this is done to give the cast a place to go outside the ship (off Earth) that won't require them dressing in Space Clothes constantly. A Speculative Fiction staple, the act of turning an otherwise human-unfriendly environment into an Earth-like, or 'Terra-formed' planet.

Starbound terraformers