UCF’s Ramses Ramirez is part of a team analyzing Martian climate models to study the possibility of using Mars-based nanoparticles to warm the atmosphere to accommodate human life. They found it may be feasible to fabricate tiny reflective nanorods from iron and aluminum found in the Martian soil and launch them into the atmosphere, where they would concentrate sunlight onto the surface and trigger a greenhouse effect.

“There have been attempts in the past to try to warm Mars using greenhouse gases, but they require many resources to be brought from Earth and there’s the issue of cost,” Ramirez says. “We were trying to find a solution that was more cost effective and also made it possible to live off the land per se using Martian materials.”

• Ramses Ramirez