Category Archives: Terraforming Mars

Mars may be our best hope for a human colony on another planet, but it has real drawbacks: For a start, its mainly a rocky desert that is blasted by deadly radiation, exposed to hostile temperatures, and, so far, seems to possess no identifiable forms of life or sustenance.

But thats not stopping scientists here on Earth from trying to find workarounds and dreaming up new ways to grow Earth stuff on the Red Planet. One controversial approach involves identifying pioneer species that could survive the harsh soils and conditions on Mars and begin to generate Earth-like conditions that could support other lifealso known as terraforming.

In colonies on Mars, and on the moon as well, we are going to have very limited resources, explains astrobiologist Rebeca Gonalves, a research scientist at the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB). Energy, physical space, water, nutrientseverythings going to be limited.

It turns out that tortula moss possesses a resilience to stress worthy of a comic-book superhero.

According to a new study in the journal The InnovationGonalves was not involvedthe best candidate for terraforming may be a type of moss that dominates the desert floor in many dryland regions, including the Gurbantnggt and Tengger deserts in China and the Mojave Desert in the United States, as well as mountainous regions of Tibet, the Middle East, and Antarctica. The moss, known as tortula moss (Syntrichia caninervis), can survive in some of the most extreme conditions on Earth, lethal to most types of life.

The Gurbantnggt Desert in northwest China, for examplewhere one of the most concentrated distributions of the moss in the world can be foundfeatures temperatures that range from 40 to 65 degrees Celsius, and relative humidity as low as 1.4 percent. (By comparison, average relative humidity in the desert community of Palm Springs, California ranges from 28 percent to 48 percent.)

The authors of the new study wanted to test the moss ability to survive in conditions similar to those found on Mars, so they bombarded it with stress in the lab. They dried some samples to the point where they had lost 98 percent of their water, blasted others with gamma radiation that would kill a human in an hour and severely damage most plants, stuck another set of samples in a freezer set at -80 degrees Celsius for five years, and still others in a liquid nitrogen storage tank set at -196 degrees Celsius for 15 to 30 days. Finally, they placed a separate set of samples in a simulated Martian environment that combined many of these conditions as well as the extremely low oxygen concentrations found in the thin Martian air.

It turns out that tortula moss possesses a resilience to stress worthy of a comic-book superhero. In the wild, the moss turns completely black when it has lost 98 percent of its water, and it responded similarly in the lab. But within just two seconds of rehydration, the moss regained its green color and its capacity for photosynthesis. Similarly, after a period of recovery from the freezer and liquid nitrogen storage tank, the moss was able to bounce right back and generate new growth at a rate close to that of controls that had not been whacked with freezing temperatures. Radiation levels well above those that would kill a human in an hour actually encouraged increased growth in the plant, though at a certain threshold (8 to 16 times the dose that would kill a human in an hour), the radiation did more damage than good.

The evidence suggests that tortula moss could be one of the best candidates for terraforming Mars, the authors of the study argue. It could contribute to oxygen production, carbon sequestration, and soil fertility, and support other atmospheric, geological, and ecological processes familiar to us here on Earth, they say. After all, moss carpets represent the most advanced stage in the formation of so-called biological soil crusts, among the first living things thought to have colonized the Earth. (Compared with algae and lichen crusts, moss crusts have greater biomass and are better at fixing carbon and allowing desert soils to retain water, which helps to stabilize the soil.)

Maybe a superhero plant is just what we need to turn Mars into Earths escape hatch, to make it nice for human, animal, and plant habitation. Of course, theres no telling what other processes we might set off on Mars and or other planets with our tinkering. Its a very philosophical issue, says Gonalves, who recently published her own study in PLOS One about the potential benefits of an ancient agricultural technique called intercropping for growing food on Mars. A lot of people are thinking about how to colonize Mars ethically while protecting its environment.

Lead image: Sheri Hagwood / Wikimedia Commons

Posted on July 10, 2024

Tom Metcalfe is a science journalist based in London, where he writes mainly about space, energy, archaeology, Earth, and the oceans. He has written for Scientific American, National Geographic, Live Science, NBC News, BBC News, and others.

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The Super Moss that Could Terraform Mars - Nautilus

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question youd like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Is it possible that one day we could make Mars like Earth? Tyla, age 16, Mississippi

When I was in middle school, my biology teacher showed our class the sci-fi movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

The plot drew me in, with its depiction of the Genesis Project a new technology that transformed a dead alien world into one brimming with life.

After watching the movie, my teacher asked us to write an essay about such technology. Was it realistic? Was it ethical? And to channel our inner Spock: Was it logical? This assignment had a huge impact on me.

Fast-forward to today, and Im an engineer and professor developing technologies to extend the human presence beyond Earth.

For example: Im working on advanced propulsion systems to take spacecraft beyond Earths orbit. Im helping to develop lunar construction technologies to support NASAs goal of long-term human presence on the Moon. And Ive been on a team that showed how to 3D-print habitats on Mars.

To sustain people beyond Earth will take a lot of time, energy and imagination. But engineers and scientists have started to chip away at the many challenges.

After the Moon, the next logical place for humans to live beyond Earth is Mars.

But is it possible to terraform Mars that is, transform it to resemble the Earth and support life? Or is that just the musings of science fiction?

To live on Mars, humans will need liquid water, food, shelter and an atmosphere with enough oxygen to breathe and thick enough to retain heat and protect against radiation from the Sun.

But the Martian atmosphere is almost all carbon dioxide, with virtually no oxygen. And its very thin only about 1% as dense as the Earths.

The less dense an atmosphere, the less heat it can hold on to. Earths atmosphere is thick enough to retain enough heat to sustain life by whats known as the greenhouse effect.

But on Mars, the atmosphere is so slight that the nighttime temperature drops routinely to 150 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (-101 degrees Celsius).

So whats the best way to give Mars an atmosphere?

Although Mars has no active volcanoes now at least as far as we know scientists could trigger volcanic eruptions via nuclear explosions. The gases trapped deep in a volcano would be released and then drift into the atmosphere. But that scheme is a bit harebrained, because the explosions would also introduce deadly radioactive material into the air.

A better idea: Redirecting water-rich comets and asteroids to crash into Mars. That too would release gases from below the planets surface into the atmosphere while also releasing the water found in the comets. NASA has already demonstrated that it is possible to redirect asteroids but relatively large ones, and lots of them, are needed to make a difference.

There are numerous ways to heat up the planet. For instance, gigantic mirrors, built in space and placed in orbit around Mars, could reflect sunlight to the surface and warm it up.

One recent study proposed that Mars colonists could spread aerogel, an ultralight solid material, on the ground. The aerogel would act as insulation and trap heat. This could be done all over Mars, including the polar ice caps, where the aerogel could melt the existing ice to make liquid water.

To grow food, you need soil. On Earth, soil is composed of five ingredients: minerals, organic matter, living organisms, gases and water.

But Mars is covered in a blanket of loose, dustlike material called regolith. Think of it as Martian sand. The regolith contains few nutrients, not enough for healthy plant growth, and it hosts some nasty chemicals called perchlorates, used on Earth in fireworks and explosives.

Cleaning up the regolith and turning it into something viable wouldnt be easy. What the alien soil needs is some Martian fertilizer, maybe made by adding extremophiles to it hardy microbes imported from Earth that can survive even the harshest conditions. Genetically engineered organisms are also a possibility.

Through photosynthesis, these organisms would begin converting carbon dioxide to oxygen. Eventually, as Mars became more life-friendly to Earthlike organisms, colonists could introduce more complex plants and even animals.

Providing oxygen, water and food in the right proportions is extraordinarily complex. On Earth, scientists have tried to simulate this in Biosphere 2, a closed-off ecosystem featuring ocean, tropical and desert habitats. Although all of Biosphere 2s environments are controlled, even there scientists struggle to get the balance right. Mother Nature really knows what she is doing.

Buildings could be 3D-printed; initially, they would need to be pressurized and protected until Mars acquired Earthlike temperatures and air. NASAs Moon-to-Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technologies program is researching how to do exactly this.

There are many more challenges. For example, unlike Earth, Mars has no magnetosphere, which protects a planet from solar wind and cosmic radiation. Without a magnetic field, too much radiation gets through for living things to stay healthy. There are ways to create a magnetic field, but so far the science is highly speculative.

In fact, all of the technologies Ive described are far beyond current capabilities at the scale needed to terraform Mars. Developing them would take enormous amounts of research and money, probably much more than possible in the near term. Although the Genesis device from Star Trek III could terraform a planet in a matter of minutes, terraforming Mars would take centuries or even millennia.

And there are a lot of ethical questions to resolve before people get started on turning Mars into another Earth. Is it right to make such drastic permanent changes to another planet?

If this all leaves you disappointed, dont be. As scientists create innovations to terraform Mars, well also use them to make life better on Earth. Remember the technology were developing to print 3D habitats on Mars? Right now, Im part of a group of scientists and engineers employing that very same technology to print homes here on Earth which will help address the worlds housing shortage.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question youd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

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Could people turn Mars into another Earth? Heres what it would take to transform its barren landscape into a life-friendly world - The Conversation

Elon Musk is determined to establish a civilization on Mars, despite its harsh conditions.

His plans include using thermonuclear explosions to create an artificial Sun for warmth and energy, and envisioning Martian residents driving Tesla's Cybertrucks.

Despite some skepticism and confusion over his personal involvement in Mars reproduction research, Musk remains undeterred in his mission.

Was a long read? Making it simpler...

What's the story

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, is fast-tracking his plans to colonize Mars with a focus on practical aspects such as dome habitats, spacesuits, and human reproduction on the red planet. Internal documents viewed by The New York Times reveal that SpaceX teams are diligently working on designing a Martian city. Musk's ambitious timeline now anticipates one million people living on Mars within 20 years, a significant acceleration from his previous estimate of 40 to 100 years.

Despite the harsh conditions on Mars, including barren terrain, icy temperatures, dust storms, and unbreathable air, Musk remains steadfast in his mission to establish a civilization there. His vision is reflected in the six companies he leads or owns, each potentially contributing to an extraterrestrial colony. Notably, The Boring Co., Musk's private tunneling venture, was initiated partly to prepare equipment for burrowing under Mars's surface.

Musk has revealed that his acquisition of the social platform X was partly to test how a citizen-led government ruling by consensus might function on Mars. He also envisions Martian residents driving a version of the steel-paneled Cybertrucks produced by his electric vehicle company Tesla. In 2022, when Musk testified about his Tesla pay, he stated that "It's a way to get humanity to Mars because establishing a self-sustaining city on Mars will require a lot of resources."

To counteract Mars's icy temperatures, Musk plans to generate warmth through a series of thermonuclear explosions, essentially creating an artificial Sun. This, coupled with hundreds of solar panels, is expected to provide energy for the Martian city. The proposed city layout includes a central large dome surrounded by several smaller domes, forming a communal living space. Despite skepticism from some quarters about the feasibility of his plans, Musk remains undeterred in his mission to colonize Mars.

According to NYT, Musk has personally volunteered his sperm for research into human reproduction on Mars, marking a shift toward more tangible planning for life on the red planet. A medical team at SpaceX is currently investigating the feasibility of human procreation off Earth. However, contrary to the report, Musk said in a post on X that he had not volunteered his sperm and stated that no one at SpaceX had been instructed to work on a Martian city.

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Elon Musk's radical Mars plan: Thermonuclear blasts and engineered life - NewsBytes

Everything gets better if you put it in space! Well, okay, maybe not everything, but entertainment products generally do, including board games.

Part of the point of gaming is to escape, to leave this world and escape to another, and theres no setting better suited to that than a science fiction one, where you can literally leave the earth. If youre looking to blast off, to leave this dull world and escape to the stars, then these are the games for you.

Best Deception Game

A great bluffing game

This elegant and fast social deduction game tasks players with managing the intrigues of a bunch of futuristic aristocrats as they try to outmaneuver one another both financially and militarily.

The simplest and quickest game on this list, Coup is a satisfying bluffing game that puts players in charge of a group of sci-fi aristocrats reminiscent of those living in the Dune universe. In this game, youre dealt a couple of cards, each with different character types on them, such as a Duke, a Captain, or an Assassin. Each of these characters allows you to use different abilities, and its your job to figure out how to use the ones you get to outmaneuver and kill off your opponents.

Except, youre not really restricted to the cards you have. Your cards are hidden, and youre free to pretend you have cards you dont have. If someone calls you out, youll be punished for it, but if someone calls you out when you really do have the card you say you have, they get punished instead!

Best Hidden Identity Game

Try to Identify the Traitors

Set in the same dystopian sci-fi universe as Coup, The Resistance is a social deduction game where a group of rebels work to accomplish missions while trying to sus out the identities of the corporate spies working to sabotage them.

Another deception game, set in the same universe as Coup, this slightly-longer and slightly more intricate game is still a very fast, simple, and newbie-friendly take on the hidden-identity genre. In it, players are members of a resistance, whose self-appointed duty is to stand up to the corporations and aristocrats that control their world (whose intrigues were explored in Coup!)

The rebels must have some of their number to go on a variety of missions for the resistance. Unfortunately for them, not everyone at the table is a loyal rebel. A couple of the players are enemy spies, and if they get sent on missions, they have the option to sabotage them. Of course, the traitors risk revealing themselves by sabotaging missions, so they must balance the need to hide their identities with the need to prevent the rebels from succeeding in enough missions to win the game.

Premium Pick

One of the grandest games ever created

Among the most ambitious strategy games ever created, Twilight Imperium is a staggeringly deep game that has players compete against each other for rulership of the stars as one of seventeen unique alien factions.

We started with a couple of fast and simple games, and we hope you got your fill of those, because Twilight Imperium is anything but simple. It is one of the most ambitious and finely crafted tabletop games ever created. This 4-8 hour epic for 3-6 players casts everyone as the head of a different sci-fi civilization. Each civilization has different abilities and offers a completely different play experience, and their different abilities and tactics interacting with one another in different combinations makes for an incredibly rich experience.

This game has all the tools you need to find your own approach to becoming the dominant civilization in the galaxy. Trade, warfare, diplomacy, its all here, and its up to you to make the most of it as you struggle to become the undisputed master of the stars!

Spiciest Game

Thats not just a pun. It can be brutal.

Another complex, deep, strategic game of astral dominance, Dune casts its players as the noble houses and other factions from Dune, the titanic classic of science fiction, and has them competing against each other for control of Arrakis.

Just as its source material is a classic of science fiction, this board game is more than forty years old, making it a classic in the science fiction genre of tabletop gaming. Like its source material, Dune follows the intrigues of several factions, including the houses of Atreides and Harkonnen, as they vie for control of the planet Arrakis, and the spice mlange that it produces.

This game is old-school and very unforgiving, but if youre smart and a bit lucky, there are numerous ways to get ahead. Every faction plays differently, so this game has a wide variety of experiences to offer, and youll be challenged not just by the other players, but by the harsh environment of the planet itself, including its ceaseless storms and giant sandworms. If youre a fan of this classic science fiction franchise, its intrigue, and its characters, or if you just want a brutal but rich strategic experience, this game is for you.

Best Star Wars Game

Reenact one of the greatest stories ever told

Star Wars: Rebellion is a strategic game of sci-fi combat and military dominance that places its players in the role of either the Galactic Empire or the Rebel Alliance and has them reenact the epic struggle between these factions over the course of the game.

Another game based on a classic science fiction franchise, Star Wars: Rebellion is a strategic miniatures game about retaining, or toppling, the Galactic Empires control over the galaxy. The galactic empire commands a superior military force, but the Rebel alliance has loads of tricks and secrets up its sleeve. Only they know the location of their hidden base, which the Empire must find and destroy in order to win the game. All the while, both sides are sending their factions leaders on missions to accomplish a variety of goals, and if the Rebellion completes enough of them, they win the game.

Best Classic Game

This game has stood the test of time

Another strategic game of galactic dominance, this game casts its players as different alien races vying for control over the stars through a combination of diplomacy, warfare, and their unique powers.

In many ways, Cosmic Encounter is an older and somewhat less complex version of Twilight Imperium. We say somewhat because its still a relatively complicated game. Like Twilight Imperium, it casts its players as aliens of different factions, each with different abilities, and has them competing for galactic power. This time, the winner is the first race to hold five colonies at once, though some factions also have alternative victory conditions they can pursue instead. The races will engage in diplomacy and warfare with one another to establish colonies and destroy those of their enemies.

This game is heavy on shifting alliances. Players will need to negotiate with each other in order to accomplish their short-term objectives, but only one of them can win in the end. If youre looking for a strategy game of galactic dominance thats stood the test of time (and that wont have a chance of taking you eight hours to play through) this is the game for you.

Best Tile Placement

Turn Mars Green!

Terraforming Mars is an engine-building and tile-placement strategy game that casts the players as corporations who have taken on the task of terraforming mars into a habitable planet, competing with each other to make the greatest contribution to this endeavor.

Terraforming Mars is a strategic tile-placement and resource management game that casts every player as a different corporationand there are dozens of corporations to choose fromcompeting for the biggest role in terraforming Mars and resulting control over the planet. Each corporation has its own flavorful backstory and personality. While most of them are still fundamentally out for profit, they have their own plans for the Red Planet, and a few of them have plans beyond making money.

Terraforming Mars takes place over a long period of time, with each round corresponding to a generation, during which corporations will work to modify the planets environment to place lively green and watery blue tiles and use their various cards strategically to achieve victory.

Best Campaign

An enormous long-term campaign

ISS Vanguard is a cooperative space exploration campaign game with heavy RPG elements. Over the course of a long campaign, you and your friends will control the crew of the ISS Vanguard and the many heroes aboard it, who must explore planets and accomplish missions to complete this epic story.

ISS Vanguard is a cooperative space exploration game meant to be played in a long-term campaign. In this epic story, you and your friends will take control of the titular starship, including the large cast of playable characters onboard. Each session, these characters will use their skills to explore one of many, many planets this game has to offer. They level up and gain skills over the course of the campaign, and its good that they do, because theyll need all the help they can get to accomplish the tasks before them. Beware, characters can also accumulate injuries over the course of this game, and if they take enough, they will permanently die.

Playing this game is a massive undertaking, but if you have the right kind of friends and the time to spare, you can get as much out of this as you would out of any fantasy dungeon crawler or Tabletop RPG.

The most popular board game of all time is monopoly, so the most popular sci-fi board game is likely to be one of the more sci-fi monopoly variants. Alternatively, many of the games on this list are among the most popular sci-fi games of all time. Cosmic Encounter and Dune are both decades-old classics, and Twilight Imperium is regarded by many as one of the greatest games ever made.

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Best Sci-Fi Board Games In 2024 - TheGamer

SpaceX called the Starships second test flight on Nov. 18 a success, andElon Muskpredicted that the interplanetary rocket would bring about a fork in the road of human destiny. The Starship has the potential to make all life multiplanetary,Musk wrote on X.

Some, especially in the media,have questionedwhether SpaceX can achieve its interplanetary aspirations. The naysayers focus on thetechnical troubles, but Muskconsiders them surmountable.

All 33 engines on the Starship fired. The main Starship stage detached from the booster and continued tofly for several minutes. Then its system activated a self-destruct mechanism above the Gulf of Mexico, despite a planned trip around the globe. SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration will investigate what triggered Starships Automated Flight Termination System.

All but a small few have no idea whether wecancolonize Mars. The technological subjects overawe most minds. But all must consider whether weshouldcolonize Mars and eventually other planets in distant solar systems.

We, indeed, face a fork in the road of human destiny, and we should consciously plot our course.

Musk has given a compelling philosophical defense of multiplanetary colonization. In an interview with Google co-founder Larry Page,Musk saidthat human consciousness is a precious flicker of light in the universe, and we should not let it be extinguished.

If current models of our solar system hold, then humans only have a few billion years left to prepare for the suns death. After those short years pass, the sun will no longer sustain life on Earth. Musk wants humans to get ahead of this calamity. Hes waking us all up to the idiom: Dont put all your humans on one planet. By spreading out, well become extinction-proof.

Unlikemany agnostic scientists, Musk regards human consciousness as something like a miracle. That has led some todescribe his viewsas compatible with Christianity. And theres certainly good reason to defend Musks stance, especially when prominent atheists want humans to understand their consciousness as a subjective illusion and its development as a random occurrence. Once we dive into the details, however, theres reason for skepticism.

The goal of his companies from SpaceX to Neuralink is to expand the scope and scale of consciousness and to help humans become more enlightened so they can better understand what questions to ask. This will require both mental and spatial expansion, hence the dual concern with biotechnology and space exploration. Abstract philosophical and theological speculation cannot answer fundamental questions. We need applied science to make philosophical progress.

Consciousness, though worth preserving for its own sake, is not self-sufficient. Without technological aid, consciousness will both fail to ask the right questions and to provide for its own preservation.

If we need to expand consciousness to answer fundamental questions about our nature, then we might take extreme steps to do so. Musk acknowledges as much.

It appears that consciousness is a very rare and precious thing, and we should take whatever steps we can to preserve the light of consciousness, Musk said in a 2019 speech at SpaceXs Boca Chica Launch Facility.

The whatever-steps-we-can framework might sound innocent, perhaps even like a courageous defense of the species. But the principle the preservation of consciousness by any means necessary unavoidably places mans actions beyond moral limitation.

InPerelandra, the second book of hisSpace Trilogy, C.S. Lewis described the motivation behind humanitys quest for interplanetary colonization.

It is the idea that humanity, having now sufficiently corrupted the planet where it arose, must at all costs contrive to seed itself over a larger area: that the vast astronomical distances which are Gods quarantine regulations, must somehow be overcome. This for a start.

He warned that if man ever had the power put into its hands to reach distant planets, then it would open a new chapter of misery for the universe.

When humans arrive on distant planets, they would disrupt the native ecosystems. Think of thedestruction that European explorersbrought with them beginning in the late 15th century. The island of Mauritius, as a famous example, lost its endemic dodos and giant tortoises in a few generations.

Even if there isnt life on Mars or distant planets, we might wonder whether humans have the right to change other planets. Andrew Coates, a physics professor at University College Londons Mullard Space Science Laboratory,calledit cosmic vandalism to change the environment of Mars from what it is at the moment.

Maybe we can tolerate some losses of native extraterrestrial species for the preservation of the human species. And maybe humans will perpetually land on worlds with nothing but raw materials. But we need to determine whether God gave us our native terrestrial ball to govern, as Lewis contended, or whether he gave us a universe to govern.

Our vision of human nature helps us determine how far the human empire should extend. If we, with Lewis, view man as a fallen species that brings sin and destruction, then we probably dont want his domain to increase. If we, with Musk, view man as essentially good as a civilizing and enlightening force in the universe then we should increase his domain in space and time as much as possible.

Lewis saw a problem in the hope that scientists placed on interplanetary colonization. It merely delays the inevitable. In an essay, On Living in an Atomic Age, Lewis argued that the whole story is going to end in NOTHING.

The astronomers hold out no hope that this planet is going to be permanently inhabitable, he wrote. The physicists hold out no hope that organic life is going to be a permanent possibility in any part of the material universe. Not only this earth, but the whole show, all the suns of space, are to run down. Nature is a sinking ship.

InPerelandra, he again described the absurdity of trying to resist mankinds unavoidable extinction:

But beyond this lies the sweet poison of the false infinite the wild dream that planet after planet, system after system, in the end galaxy after galaxy, can be forced to sustain, everywhere and for ever, the sort of life which is contained in the loins of our own species a dream begotten by the hatred of death upon the fear of true immortality, fondled in secret by thousands of ignorant men and hundreds who are not ignorant.

While we seek out ever-habitable planets over billions of years, innumerable cruelties might become necessary to sustain humanitys preservation for a few more precious years. Lewis warned that interplanetary colonization would increase the possibility of inter-species warfare. He seemed to consider extraterrestrial life a likelihood.

The destruction or enslavement of other species in the universe, if such there are, is to these minds a welcome corollary, Lewis said of those supporting space colonization.

Now, I dont think that Musk has Martian chattel slavery or extraterrestrial genocide in mind. But he will not captain the Starship forever. The terraforming of Mars would take hundreds of years. Other generations, with different aspirations, will lead civilization toward more and more distant planets.

These considerations run into the truth that Musk appears to act with regard to justice and the common good. And it clashes with the rights practical need to defend the man at all costs. In the past week, he hastrashed Media Matters,totalitarian security measures, andthe Anti-Defamation League, easily placing him among the worlds top defenders of free speech. He has gone thermonuclear against the regime.

Theres undeniable greatness in a man who can find a way to sustain life on another planet. His vision makes the heart swell with pride in the human race.

You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great. And thats what being a spacefaring civilization is all about, Musk said. Its about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I cant think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.

Once we open the path to the stars, however, we set humans on a quest for eternity that this life can never fulfill. The only hope of eternally maintaining the light of human consciousness is in the Holy Spirit. Musks dream for mankind might turn into a nightmare that stretches across galaxies and millennia.

Joshua Paladino is a staff editor at The Federalist.

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Elon Musk's 'Multiplanetary' Civilization Doesn't Offer Real Hope - The Federalist

The concept of terraforming Mars has captured the imaginations of scientists and artists alike. Although Mars may have once held the potential for life millions of years ago, today it stands as a desolate world. Mars does possess an atmosphere, but its oxygen levels are insufficient to support human life. Transporting oxygen from Earth to Mars would be a prohibitively expensive endeavor. Consequently, the focus in recent years has shifted towards finding a reliable method for producing oxygen on Mars itself, utilizing the planets available resources.

NASAs Perseverance rover has been exploring the Martian surface since 2021, and it has now successfully completed its mission to produce oxygen using MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment).

MOXIE is an instrument carried by the Perseverance rover, and its operations have come to a close after successfully generating oxygen for the 16th and final time aboard the rover. Developed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MOXIE has exceeded their initial expectations.

Pam Melroy, NASA Deputy Administrator, expressed, MOXIEs impressive performance shows that it is feasible to extract oxygen from Mars atmosphere oxygen that could help supply breathable air or rocket propellant to future astronauts. This breakthrough in technology development is seen as crucial for utilizing resources on the Moon and Mars, establishing a sustained lunar presence, creating a robust lunar economy, and supporting eventual human exploration missions to Mars.

Since the landing of Perseverance on Mars in 2021, MOXIE has produced a total of 122 grams of oxygen, which is approximately equivalent to the amount a small dog breathes in over a span of 10 hours. This surpasses NASAs initial goal for the project, and the oxygen produced had a remarkable purity of 98 percent. On August 7, during MOXIEs final oxygen production as part of its mission, it generated 9.8 grams of oxygen.

Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations at NASA Headquarters, stated, Were proud to have supported a breakthrough technology like MOXIE that could turn local resources into useful products for future exploration missions. By proving this technology in real-world conditions, weve come one step closer to a future in which astronauts live off the land on the Red Planet.

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NASA's Perseverance rover successfully completes its oxygen ... - East Coast Daily (English)

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The current range and quality of board games available is pretty astounding. Unfortunately, being spoilt for choice is both a blessing and a curse. With so many options available, trying to figure out what title you want to play can feel a bit daunting. Especially if youre someone who is fairly new to the board game, uh, game.

To help you out, weve chosen a few of our favourite titles that deserve to be part of any collection, from beginner to expert. From all-time strategy classics to epic fantasy quests and titles based on popular movies and TV shows, these are just a few board games that deserve a spot on your shelf (if you can fit them, that is).

This article has been updated since its original publication.

Team up with your friends to solve a mysterious haunting.

Betrayal At House on the Hill has two phases the first is the Exploration phase, where the players build a mansion room by room. Eventually, youll trigger the second phase, the Haunt, and thats where the fun starts as youre beset by supernatural monsters. To make things even more interesting, one of the players is secretly a traitor who takes the side of the monsters and uses the Exploration phase to assist their undead master.

With the mansion being procedurally generated, theres a ton of replay value. Unlike the rotting corpses hidden beneath the mansions floorboards, every game feels fresh. The variation in monsters is also fun, ranging from ghosts to vampires to dragons. If youre new to the game (or these types of board games in general) it does come across as a bit overwhelming to master, but its surprisingly easy to learn.

If youre a fan of Dungeons & Dragons, theres an alternate version of Betrayal At House on the Hill thats themed around the popular tabletop RPG and set in Baldurs Gate.

Where you can buy Betrayal At House on the Hill:

In Cosmic Encounter, you play as the leader of an alien race, and intergalactic conquest is the name of the game. Your aim is to spread your influence throughout the galaxy, establishing colonies in the planetary systems of the other players.

This board game has been around since 1977, and its easy to understand why it has been beloved for so long. The strategy is both fun and fulfilling, with the different gameplay cards available allowing for an enjoyable variation of tactics.

One of the biggest draws of Cosmic Encounteris the table politics. The gameplay requires you to form alliances and negotiate deals with other players to help screw over the other players while also potentially setting up your ally for a masterful double-cross.

Where you can buy Cosmic Encounter:

After years of being out of print, the Dune board game is finally available again and the world is a better place for it. Originally published in 1979 and based on Frank Herberts classic sci-fi epic, Dunehas a reputation for being one of the best board games around. The good news is that it absolutely lives up to the hype, as we learned when we reviewed it:

I cant remember the last time I laughed, gasped and cursed like I did playingDune. The way alliances can be made but then broken, the elastic nature of the basic victory conditions and the treachery lurking behind every decision made it feel like every player was always one step away from victory but at the same time one battle away from utter ruin.

The board game draws a healthy amount from the original novel, putting you in control of one of six factions House Atreides, House Harkonnen, the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit, the Emperor and the Fremen as you strategise, fight and scheme your way to controlling the planet Arrakis and its spice melange. Dune is great to play with friends but, much like in the novel, a huge part of the game involves diplomacy, secret alliances and inevitable betrayals. Theres nothing like a fun afternoon of friendly backstabbing.

Dune has mostly aged well, although much like the deserts of Arrakis, theres a degree of random cruelness that you cant fully prepare for. Just remember that he who controls the spice controls the universe.

You can read Kotaku Australias review of the Dune board game here.

Where you can buy Dune:

Based on the video game series,Fallout: The Board Gameis a pretty faithful adaption. Start by choosing a scenarioand then set off to explore the wasteland, complete quests and fight the various monsters, mutants and marauders that come across their path.

If youre a fan of Bethesdas Fallout games, this thing is great. It keeps the RPG elements of the source material, by allowing you to spend points to increase your characters ability skills and customise your equipment loadout. It even manages to keep the VAT system, with dice that let you target specific body parts of your enemies. It does a good job of ticking the boxes of what we like about Fallout:

As a board game,Falloutis great. It combines a genuine sense of exploration with some fantastic story-telling to create an experience that sits neatly between a solo and multiplayer adventure. As an adaptation of theFalloutvideo games, though, its almost perfect.

Theres also an expansion set, New California,which adds two scenarios, along with a bunch of new quests, companions and items.

If we have one big criticism of Fallout, its that the game moves much slower when playing with four people. Theres a delicate balancing act because more players help increase the fun but the threat of gaming fatigue is real.

You can read Kotaku Australias review of the Fallout board game here.

Where you can buy Fallout: The Board Game:

While the TV show squandered our collective goodwill over those final seasons, A Game of Thrones has remained a consistent go-to with friends. Choose your House, start manoeuvring your armies to secure as much of the Seven Kingdoms as you can, and finally claim your spot on the Iron Throne. (If you want to play as House Targaryen, youll have to grab an expansion pack.)

A Game of Thrones is an all-around solid strategy game, the real charm comes from the table politics and scheming. Making deals to crush a specific opponent, only to turn around and stab your ally in the back isnt just a fun thing to do, its an essential tactic.

For the A Song of Ice and Fire purists, the game is directly inspired by the books, with this second edition being released the same year the HBO adaptation aired. You can also try to create your own (and much better?) ending to the series. Rob Stark teams up with Stannis Baratheon, sieges Casterly Rock and decimates the Lannisters? Sure, why not?

Where you can buy A Game of Thrones:

Gloomhaven is only a few years old, but its quickly become one of our favourite board games. A campaign-driven dungeon crawler where you play a mercenary trying to get paid while surviving the dangerous world surrounding Gloomhaven. It plays like a mix of eurogames and dungeon crawlers like HeroQuest, with a lot of different dungeons to explore and an emphasis on tactical decisions.

There are almost 100 unique scenarios you can play through, where your every action will determine what happens next. Considering each scenario can take anywhere between one to two hours to complete, youve got plenty of game ahead of yourself. There is so much packed into Gloomhaven that it can feel like youve barely even scratched the surface of your campaign.

Just put aside some time to set it up and clear some space on your shelf because this thing is a beast. It comes with 1,500 cards, and the whole bundle weighs around 10kg.

If youre interested in Gloomhaven, but maybe arent keen on the commitment required for both time and physical space, there is an alternative option. Jaws of the Lionis a prequel game that gives you the Gloomhaven experience but with a fraction of the quests. Its a less intensive way to learn the game and will let you slip straight into Gloomhaven proper once youre done with it.

Where you can buy Gloomhaven:

Speaking of dungeon crawlers like HeroQuest, why not check out HeroQuest proper? Its an incredibly straightforward and easy-to-pick-up game, which plays like a streamlined tabletop RPG, like Dungeons & Dragons, and is less of a time investment than something like Gloomhaven.

HeroQuest is played with up to five players, with four taking on the dungeon explorers while one acts as the game master, Zargon, the evil sorcerer. You dont even need four players you can split out the characters with whoever is available to play, even if that means one person playing as the whole party.

With 14 premade quests, the four characters will need to make their way through the dungeons while Zargon is tasked with introducing various traps and creatures for them to fight. Once you finish one of the quests, youre able to spend whatever gold and treasure youve accumulated to upgrade your characters gear, before delving into another dungeon. Or, it can just be a satisfying done-in-one campaign that you and your mates roll through when its your turn to pick something for games night.

Where you can buy HeroQuest:

Kings of Tokyois a very easy-to-pick-up board game that is a lot of fun to play. You pick one of six giant monsters to play as, and your aim is to become the King of Tokyo by battling it out with your opponents. Thats it, thats the game.

Its a king of the hill game that uses a combination of dice rolls and strategising with the power-up cards in your hands to stake your claim on the Japanese capital. The goal is to be the first to 20 victory points or be the last monster standing.

If you really enjoy this game, theres a heap of different King of Tokyo expansion packs currently available. Theyll give you new monsters and power cards to battle with, so theres an option to add even more content to this game to keep it fresh.

Where you can buy King of Tokyo:

The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth does what it says on the box. You, and up to four other friends, play as one of J.R.R. Tolkiens iconic heroes while questing your way across the realm of Middle-earth, from Gondor to the Grey Mountains.

While most of the games on this list are more tactically focused, Journeys in Middle-Earth places its focus squarely on adventuring. As you progress youre able to customise your skills and items, giving you just enough RPG elements that, despite playing pre-set characters, you can still give them your own spin.

The game requires a companion app that takes the role of the game master while also tracking your progress and dishing out scenarios that play into the greater campaign. The app also keeps track of your characters items, which helps alleviate the usually frustrating mess of flipping through a stack of cards to find that one specific piece of equipment.

You can read Kotaku Australias review of The Lord of The Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth here.

Where you can buy LOTR: Journeys in Middle-Earth:

If you dig the world of Dungeons & Dragons, but want something thats less of a commitment than a long RPG campaign, try Lord of Waterdeep. Its a game where you play as one of the titular Lords of Waterdeep and attempt to gain the most influence over the City of Splendours.

The game works by placing your factions agents at various locations that will help you gain resources, like gold or various types of adventurers, and then sending those resources to complete quests. The goal is to collect the most victory points from the various quests you complete over the games eight rounds. Throw in some intrigue cards that can give you a much-needed hand (usually at the expense of your opponents), and youve got a great strategy game.

If youve never played D&D before, dont worry. Lord of Waterdeep requires no pre-existing knowledge of the franchise. And if youre a long-time fan, youll appreciate the familiar faces.

Where you can buy Lords of Waterdeep:

Mansions Of Madness is a cooperative board game inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. In it, you play as investigators who are tasked with exploring a cursed mansion to solve the mystery of a chosen scenario. This edition of the game uses a companion app that tracks your progress and also takes care of randomly spawning monsters, triggering events and randomising the layout of the mansion.

Its very easy to immerse yourself into Mansions Of Madness spooky atmosphere, and weve had a lot of fun investigating and trying to solve the puzzles of the scenarios that weve played. If youre someone who loves a good game piece, Mansions Of Madness monster figures are fantastic. Being able to throw down a giant Cthulhu figure onto the board really helps to sell the enormity of the threat.

A single game will eat up a couple of hours, so make sure youve set enough time to adequately lose your mind to an eldritch horror. The app lets you save your progress, so you can easily jump back into a game you couldnt finish.

When we reviewed Mansions Of Madness, on top of enjoying the mythical romp of fighting Cthulhu, we were impressed by how little effort it took to set up and play. You can read Kotaku Australias review of Mansions Of Madness here.

Where you can buy Mansions Of Madness:

Scythe is set in a dieselpunk reimagining of 1920s Europe where you play as one of five nations currently vying for control in a power vacuum created by the closure of The Factory, a capitalistic city-state that previously ruled the region.

At first,Scythedoes feel a bit complex but once you get the hang of it, youll be playing one of the best engine-building games of the last decade. Farm some resources, conquer new territories, recruit new followers and activate some chunky-looking mechs to keep your domain protected. It isnt particularly combat-heavy and the skirmishes that do occur play through fairly fast.

When we reviewed the game, we were impressed by how all of these gameplay elements combined:

Its blend of resource gathering, exploration, turn management and combat results in a conflict thats entirely unpredictable. Because the game isnt just about fighting, or just about farming, there are multiple approaches to confronting your opponents and winning the game, which makes for a fascinating struggle, and a game that plays out differently every time you get it out.

Scythe also has one of the most unique aesthetics of any board game Ive played and some gorgeous game art by Jakub Rozalski. When we first opened up our copy we spent plenty of time looking through each individual card, completely ignoring the rulebook.

You can read Kotaku Australias review of Scythe here.

Where you can buy Scythe:

Im a firm believer that every household should own a copy of this. Settlers of Catan is one of the all-time classic board games endlessly replayable and a great place to start for those new to strategy games.

The gameplay is pretty straightforward. Youre plopped onto the randomly generated isle of Catan and need to collect as many different types of resources as possible. From there, youll combine those resources to build new settlements, upgrade existing ones and increase your domain by laying down some roads. Its simple to play, but the strategic trading element keeps it consistently interesting. One turn youll be rolling in wheat, and the next youll be trading all of your wood to get a single piece.

Where you can buy The Settlers of Catan:

The set-up for Star Wars Rebellionis pretty simple: It is a period of civil war, so pick a side.

The game is built around a series of skirmishes and missions that are all led by classic Star Wars heroes and villains. If youre playing as the Empire, your goal is to sniff out the Rebel Alliances base and wipe it from existence. As the Rebels, your goal is to raise your reputation throughout the galaxy, drawing as many planets to your side as possible and strategically striking the Empires resources.

While this might sound a bit unbalanced towards the Empire, the game does a good job of keeping the two factions fair:

This isnt a game where one side will slowly overrun another until victory becomes inevitable. Its a game where even if the Rebels are getting their arse kicked from one end of the galaxy to another, theyre still very much in contention so long as their base is secret and their best heroes are in play, since the game runs on a timer which essentially grants victory to the Alliance if they survive long enough.

You also get a lot of great minis, ranging from Stormtroopers to X-Wings to Star Destroyers. You even get a Death Star, which, if youre a Rebel, is a looming menace. The game does take a couple of hours to play, so clear your afternoon schedule.

You can read Kotaku Australias review of Star Wars Rebellion here.

Where you can buy Star Wars Rebellion:

If youre a fan of Sid Meiers Civilizationseries,Tapestry is right up your alley. Starting from the dawn of mankind, its up to you to build your own civilisation from nothing and help it grow throughout the following millennia. The type of civilisation you want to build is up to you and is influenced by which of the four skills science, technology, exploration, and military you want to invest your points into.

The variation that comes from those is what keeps me coming back to Tapestry. We dont think weve built the same civilisation twice, and even when weve tried to repeat previous tactics, our strategy inevitability changes depending on what the other players are doing.

Where you can buy Tapestry:

This resource management game does exactly what it says on the box. In Terraforming Mars, each player takes on the role of a different corporation and is tasked with making the red planet habitable for humankind. While you work together on the terraforming process as a whole, the aim is to see which player has the most contributions.

You build various projects, gaining income and resources that you can spend on further productions. Once Mars has the appropriate temperature, oxygen levels and quantity of oceans, the game is over.

Terraforming Mars is very card-heavy, and you really need to keep track of what youre holding during any given round. Its also one of the more aggressive resource management games weve played, as there are a lot of cards you can play that directly target your opponent. Overall, its an experience that we really enjoyed while playing through it:

The game absolutely nails its theme and its blend of cooperative outlook and competitive urges means its a tight, tense experience the whole way through.

You can read Kotaku Australias review of Terraforming Mars here.

Where you can buy Terraforming Mars:

If you enjoy the Euro-style gameplay of something like Settlers of Catan and want to pick up something similar, then you might get some miles out ofTicket To Ride. The aim of the game is to be the player who can build the longest continuous train, claiming routes and connecting cities.

Ticket To Rideis an incredibly easy game to pick (especially compared to some of the other titles on this list) and isnt too intensive when it comes to strategising. Each player is randomly assigned Destination Tickets at the start of each match, giving you set goal cities that you need to reach.

Theres an economy of knowing which cards you need to play or stockpile, as you need these specific cards to claim certain routes. The last thing you want to do is lose out on the route that will connect your assigned destinations.

Where you can buy Ticket To Ride:

We cannot stress how much we enjoy Wingspan. Released back in 2019, this engine-building card game is all about building the best wildlife preserve by strategically assigning birds to certain habitats. Its a simple premise (especially when compared to some of the other games on this list), but nevertheless engaging as hell.

The rules are pretty easy to pick up, and the game only runs for four rounds, so youll be done in about an hour. Thankfully, the 170 bird cards, each with its own set of effects, give the game plenty of variety and replayability. If the look of a board game is particularly important to you, Wingspan also features some of the most beautifully illustrated cards of any board game that weve ever played.

If you decide to pick up bird watching as a new hobby after playing this, we dont blame you. If youre a fan of digital board games, the digital edition of Wingspan is also worth your time.

Where you can buy Wingspan:

If none of the above sounds like your thing, the good news is that there are still plenty of solid board game options out there, and you better believe Kotaku Australia has opinions about them.

This article has been updated since its original publication.

Whether youve got the need for speed or simply looking for a better deal, these are the best prices going right now for the NBN 250 speed tier.

Read the original post:

18 Board Games That Everyone Needs To Play - Kotaku Australia

In 1984, Hasbro partnered with Takara Tomy and Marvel Comics to repurpose two existing toylines into a pop culture juggernaut. Micro Change and Diaclone, the two toys in question, featured robots that could become everyday items, weapons, and vehicles, and they acted as a launching point for Hasbro's newest venture. Marvel writer Bob Budiansky and editor-in-chief Jim Shooter created the story of two warring alien factions. These robotic characters, capable of transforming into myriad vehicles, were named the Autobots and the Decepticons, and the Transformers franchise was born.

Since the '80s, Transformers has exploded in popularity, with over two dozen animated series and movies, seven live-action films, and hundreds of toys. Given its almost 40 years of existence, many franchises have used Transformers as a foundation, producing several rip-offs and clones. Each varies in how much "inspiration" it takes from its parent series, and they all range in quality, with some standing on their own and becoming their own thing. These 15 are just some of the best (or worst, depending on your perspective) rip-offs of the Transformers franchise.

The '80s were rife with toy companies trying to match Transformers success, and while many simply copied the transforming vehicle aesthetic, some ideas were more novel. Milton-Bradley was among the latter, combining the robotic alien narrative with construction toys like the Erector Set to create Robotix. This allowed for kids to be involved in the building of powerful, motorized machines, connecting them with the story of the two warring factions.

Sunbow and Marvel Productions partnered with Milton-Bradley to create the Robotix cartoon, attempting to match their past success with The Transformers: The Animated Series. The central conflict wasn't between Autobots and Decepticons but Protectons and Terrakors. These robotic shells contain the life force of their creators, who live on the planet Skalorr V. A human space shuttle crashes on the planet, and the pilots split into two groups, each choosing a side. They had the benefit of riding the Robotix like mechs, but this didn't help it maintain the same level of popularity of Transformers.

Another benchmark of '80s toys and animation was G.I. Joe. Taking the traditional army man toys of the day and infusing them with unique stories and characters, G.I. Joe became another massive franchise in pop culture. It, too, saw many rip-offs and clones, but the most unique combined elements of various popular series at the time. M.A.S.K. took the transforming vehicles of Transformers and combined them with the military, super-soldier aesthetics of G.I. Joe, creating a franchise that, while not nearly as popular as its two inspirations, holds a level of reverence with the fan base.

M.A.S.K. follows the exploits of the "Mobile Armored Strike Kommand," an elite unit of special agents who piloted transforming vehicles. They also wore masks that granted them enhanced abilities, which they used to fight V.E.N.O.M. (Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem). These villains, led by Miles Mayhem, sought power and wealth through stealing precious artifacts and technologies. Interestingly, Hasbro has acknowledged their connection to Transformers; in the IDW Comics, M.A.S.K. bases their transforming vehicles on Cybertronian technology, meaning they are canon rip-offs of the Robots in Disguise.

Originally released in 2013, Super Wings is an ongoing Korean children's animated series following a group of transforming planes. Seemingly taking joint inspiration from both Transformers and Cars, the series is known for its cartoony aesthetics, though these have gotten more complex and interesting as new machines are added into the mix. The series has the tone of most kids educational programming, focusing heavily on travel and locations around the world, but the ideas behind the series take obvious cues from the Robots in Disguise.

Jett is a delivery plane for World Airport. Alongside his friend and supervisor, Jimbo, Jett travels the world in order to pick up and help deliver packages for children in various locales. This often ends in some mishap or problem that requires Jett to call in another Super Wing for help. Later seasons see the introduction of more complex tech, including some that give the planes elemental powers and an ally in the transforming aircraft carrier World Robot. The series has become a popular children's cartoon, which makes sense given its simple premise and similarities to the Transformers franchise.

What if humans were the Transformers? That seems to be the central conceit that inspired the strange 1986 animated series and toyline Centurions. Similar to M.A.S.K., Centurions took the best parts about G.I. Joe and Transformers and mashed them together to create something new, equipping powerful robotic suits to specialized soldiers to give them a leg up in a battle against evil. The show was weird, but while arguments can be made as to its quality, it definitely lives up to the tagline that was shouted several times each episode: Man and Machine, Power Xtreme!

The series followed the titular heroes as they battled the villainous Doc Terror and his Doom Drones. Based in an orbiting space station, the Centurions (Max Ray, Jake Rockwell, and Ace McCloud) donned powerful exo-frame suits that allowed them to equip unique sets of weaponized armor, each specialized for a different combat scenario. The series ran for 65 episodes, adopting the typical "threat-of-the-week" structure. The action took centerstage over character and plot, which means that, sadly, this novel idea has largely been forgotten.

Let's be perfectly clear: Super Sentai, the inspiration for Power Rangers, is not a Transformers rip-off. With its first season releasing in 1975, Super Sentai preceded the Robots in Disguise by nine years, and Battle Fever J, the first season to introduce mecha combat, released in 1979. Nevertheless, Power Rangers and their brand of mecha-based combat made their way to America in 1993, nine years after Transformers, and while the Cybertronians may not have influenced the plot or overall designs, they did inspire a surge of interest in transforming robots, helping bring the teenagers with attitude to American televisions.

The '90s were a time of increased interest in Japan and Japanese storytelling. There was a massive surge in localizations of anime and live-action series from the country, with Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, and other Japanese series soaring to massive popularity in the United States. Meanwhile, Transformers made fighting robots cool. Stores couldn't keep Transformers toys in stock, and this led to a tidal wave of new robotic toys. Power Rangers allowed for Saban and Fox Kids to capitalize on these two growing markets, while simultaneously saving money by reusing film from the existing Super Sentai series.

While you may have heard of many of the titles on this list, chances are Heavy Gear might have escaped your notice. Despite the popularity of the board and video games of the same name, this 3D animated series flew under many fans' radars in 2001. Due to the clunky animation and the younger intended audience, the series was far less popular than Mainframe Entertainment had hoped for, leading to a single season of 40 episodes. While the Heavy Gear franchise focuses heavily on mech combat, strategic warfare, and complex science-fiction world-building, the series solely focused on the fighting robots.

The show followed two professional fighting teams, the Vanguard of Justice and the Shadow Dragons. The pair were pitted against each other in a tournament, followed by several exhibition matches. While the series loses some of its more in-depth war narratives, the connections to Transformers come from the mecha combat. Companies were trying to find the magic formula of the Robots in Disguise, and most banked on the spectacle of giant robots fighting. Many of these copycat shows overlooked the depth of the storytelling in Transformers, creating series light on plot and heavy on action.

Related: Terrible Video Game Movies That Are Still a Lot of Fun to Watch

Combining elements of Power Rangers and Transformers, 2010's Sym-Bionic Titan is one of the most original series on this list. Created by Genndy Tartakovsky, the series followed Ilana, Lance, and Octus, two aliens and a robot from the planet Galaluna. Ilana, a princess, was forced to flee her home after a coup. The three landed in Sherman, Illinois, where they masqueraded as typical high school students. When the monstrous Mutraddi and General Modula arrive on Earth, though, Ilana and Lance don powerful robotic battle armor, and together with Octus, they can merge to form the unstoppable Sym-Bionic Titan.

While it only aired for 20 episodes, Sym-Bionic Titan showcases the possibilities of a "rip-off." Taking elements from several mecha and alien war storylines, the story melded them together to create something distinct and interesting. The character designs harken back to those seen in Transformers, as does the general plot structure, but Tartakovsky took these similarities and twisted them into something new. For that reason, fans still hold Sym-Bionic Titan in high regard, and though it had a short lifespan, the series is still considered one of Tartakovsky's most unique.

Guillermo Del Toro's 2013 hit mecha science-fiction film Pacific Rim held all the trademarks of the director's best work. It was a dark examination with incredible monster designs, intimate storytelling, and plenty of robot-alien combat. Its sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising, lost Del Toro's direction, and instead of breaking down genre tropes, it instead leaned heavily into them. It took inspiration from nearly every giant robot franchise, from Transformers to Robotech to Power Rangers, and while fans were less invested in this campier, fun action flick, it was still an entertaining summer blockbuster thrill ride.

Pacific Rim: Uprising is a direct sequel to Del Toro's film. After the Battle of the Breach and the closing of the Kaiju portal, the Earth has seen relative peace. Former Jaeger pilot Jake Pentecost, the son of the late Pan-Pacific Defense Corps director Stacker Pentecost, makes a living selling Jaeger parts on the black market, but after an altercation involving a young woman named Amara and her homemade Jaeger, Jake is brought back into the PPDC. He is just in time for the newest crisis, as a rogue Jaeger, classified as Obsidian Fury, has begun attacking key PPDC members and locations around the world.

Including any Asylum film on a list of rip-offs is a bit of a cheat. The company has made their name with "mock-busters," intentional rip-offs of some of the world's most popular films. Low budget and often low effort, these films are the best of the worst, leaning into their campy premises and creating some of the best "so-bad-they're-good" films in movie history. Transmorphers is the company's attempt at parodying the Transformers live-action franchise, just with far lower-quality animation, character designs, and acting.

The most interesting change of pace with Transmorphers is that it isn't the battle between two robotic alien races. Instead, it is your typical alien invasion story. Years before, the alien robots arrived on Earth and drove humanity underground. A resistance force was formed among the surviving human soldiers, under the command of General Van Ryberg. After a confrontation with a new breed of robot that can disguise themselves as parts of the terrain, the resistance decides to reinstate a disgraced officer, Warren Mitchell, to help them capture one of the aliens for study.

There are some rip-offs that take the ideas presented in the original IP and expand on them in new and unique ways, and then there are some like Gladiformers: Robos Gladiadores. This blatant, unapologetic rip-off of Transformers sees an evil empire run by the Supremobots holding a deadly gladiator tournament, capturing other transforming robot aliens from across the universe.

Julius Drive, the prince of an unnamed world (how's that for world-building?), is sold as a slave into the tournament, and forced to fight for the entertainment of Locutor's forces.

The series suffers from stunted animation and plenty of clichs throughout. Produced by Video Brinquedo who have made their name with cheap knockoffs of popular franchises (looking at you, Little Panda Fighter and Ratatoing), the plot is somewhat original, with the robot coliseum leading to some fun fights and interesting characters, but the film's horrendously low budget and overall aesthetic make it one of the worst rip-offs of Transformers. Despite all of this, the film did receive a sequel in 2009, so if you are somehow invested in the adventures of Julius Drive, there is more to see.

Transformers is about so much more than giant robots at war. While the live-action films focus mostly on the explosions and the intense action of the Autobots vs. the Decepticons, the films ignore the deeper narratives and more complex characterizations that made the Robots in Disguise famous.

1993's Exosquad was another in the long-line of rip-offs that focused on giant robots fighting an alien menace, but it came the closest to matching the magic of Transformers in its overall narrative. The story had a darker tone, exploring concepts like slavery, PTSD, and the general horrors of war.

Exosquad takes place in the 22nd century. Terrans have expanded beyond Earth, terraforming Venus, Mars, and beyond with the help of genetically altered Neosapiens. The Neosapiens of Mars stage a revolution, taking over the Terran territories, while Earth's Exofleet is sent to deal with a space pirate threat. Unhappy with their years of slave labor, the Neosapiens have decided to take back their rights by any means necessary. With war now raging on the homeworlds, the series follow Able Squad, a group of Exosuit pilots, as they undertook operations to undermine the Neosapien resistance.

Related: 15 Saturday Morning Cartoons That Every '90s Kid Remembers

The Asylum makes it explosive return to this list, and this one is a little on the nose, even for them. In 2018, Travis Knight released Bumblebee, the sixth film in the live-action Transformers film franchise and a soft reboot of the Michael Bay era. The film was generally well-received by many fans with its more personal, character-driven story of the titular Autobot's arrival on Earth. Hornet has none of the charm of Bumblebee, relying more on the gimmick of giant robots fighting each other and its interesting character designs than actual storytelling.

Releasing three days prior to Bumblebee,Hornet is the worst kind of rip-off, capitalizing on the premise of a film without adding anything new to it. The story follows an alien invasion of Earth. These aliens are brainwashing humans, forcing them to commit terrible acts of destruction. Humanity's only hope is a high-tech, untested giant robot.

The most unique part of the movie is its filmmaking. The story is told through found-footage, switching between the recordings from the humans involved, and the live camera feeds within the giant robot's eyes, but even this unique premise couldn't save this horrible movie.

Do you know what the Transformers franchise needed? More human/robot romance. At least, that's what the producers of the 2009 Hong Kong film Metallic Attraction: Kungfu Cyborg seemed to think. The story follows De Ming, an experimental cyborg peace officer who is assigned to a small town for training. While stationed there, he encounters Su Mei, a woman who falls in love with him. De Ming must confront his lack of humanity, his Pinocchio-esque desire to be a real person, as rogue cyborg assassins begin to plague the town.

Kungfu Cyborg is bizarre, mixing such disparate genres that don't quite fit into place together. The robot designs are taken straight from the Michael Bay Transformers films, with clunky armored warriors presented in impressive CGI. Despite the oddity of the premise, the film kind of works. The story isn't anything particularly inspiring, but the unique focus on the robotic characters and their mental states is actually really interesting. Not only that, but the fight scenes, while less intense and fewer in number, take a lot of inspiration from traditional kung-fu movies, making this an interesting experience at the very least.

Given its release in 1989, Robot Jox is surprisingly ahead of its time. It most definitely feels dated, with animation that feels a bit stilted, but given its release date, this film is a technical marvel. Inspired by Transformers, director Stuart Gordon wanted to bring the giant robot combat from so many animated series and films into the real world, and he succeeded in a way that nobody could have expected. While the film was critically panned on its initial release and poor marketing kept it from box office success, the film has become a cult icon with a hugely devoted fan base.

Playing on Cold War tensions, the film was set in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic Earth that has suffered from the decimation of its population by nuclear war. With open war outlawed, disputes between the Market (America) and the Confederation (Soviet Russia) are settled with gladiatorial mech battles. With Alaska on the line, the Market sends in Achilles, one of their greatest pilots, to defeat Alexander.

However, after his first near loss against Alexander, Achilles is nearly replaced by a genetically modified pilot named Athena, and he must put his attraction to the woman aside to prove he can defeat the Confederation bot.

Many Transformers rip-offs try to hide their influences behind an interesting twist or unique character designs, but the Mark A. Reyes-directed Transmutators leans heavily into its inspirations. With a lead character that is clearly meant to be a knock-off Optimus Prime, the only real difference between the two films is that the transforming robots in this film are piloted mechs instead of sentient alien defenders. It has received nothing but poor reviews, making it one of the all-time worst Transformers rip-offs, and while the Asylum films are intentionally bad, this film is made all the worse by how seriously it takes itself.

In a far-future Earth, mutants and giant robotic aliens have taken over the planet. Humanity's last hope is a rebel group of survivors who have developed piloted mech suits from recycled machine parts, and they must battle an army of mutated humans, alien monstrosities, and horribly animated CGI robots in order to survive. This film has a horribly low budget, with costume designs on par with bad cosplay and some horrendous special effects. The film has some fun ideas, but the execution makes it one of the worst Transformers rip-offs of all time.

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The 15 Best Transformers Ripoffs - MovieWeb

Apple TV+ is a solid streaming service with a couple of very good shows and even an Academy Award winner for Best Picture. With nonewTed Lassoepisodes in the immediate future, though, they could definitely use a new signature program, something big and splashy. So how about a massive TV series starring Godzilla?

ThatsMonarch: Legacy of Monsters, which brings the big fire-breathing lizard to the small screen, along with an impressive cast that includes Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, and Kiersey Clemons. The first trailer for the show is below, and it very strongly connectsMonarch to the recent Godzilla (andKong) films, and the shadowy organization known as Monarch tasked with protecting the world from them while also confirming the series is not just about a bunch of scientists standing around looking at computer monitors; theres some big kaiju action in here as well.

Check out the firstMonarch trailer below:

READ MORE: 20 Movies You Never Knew Became TV Series

The scale of the show looks impressive, but there should be a solid story foundation behind it too; the series wasdeveloped by Chris Black and Matt Fraction, an outstanding comic book writer of series likeThe Invincible Iron Man,Casanova, andHawkeye.(The recentHawkeyeTV series was heavily inspired by his run on the comic.)

There are a bunch of newMonarch images as well:

Here is the series official synopsis:

Following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco, and the shocking revelation that monsters are real, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters tracks two siblings following in their fathers footsteps to uncover their familys connection to the secretive organization known as Monarch. Clues lead them into the world of monsters and ultimately down the rabbit hole to Army Officer Lee Shaw (played by Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell), taking place in the 1950s and half a century later where Monarch is threatened by what Shaw knows. The dramatic saga spanning three generations reveals buried secrets and the ways that epic, earth-shattering events can reverberate through our lives.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters premieres on Apple TV+ on November 17. Two episodes premiere on that day, with new episodes weekly on Fridays through January 12.

Like video games, the complex storylines and exaggerated characters of even the best anime and manga out there can be difficult to translate to the screen. Heres the proof...

Originally posted here:

Godzilla Stomps Onto Television With 'Monarch' Trailer - ScreenCrush

If humanity is going to colonize other planets, we probably have to start with Mars. But the North Pole is balmy by comparison with the Red Planet, and the surface of Mars makes Earths radioactive Lake Karachay look like a country spa. The solution, some futurologists and scientists believe, is to terraform Mars transform the planet until it is more capable of supporting human life.

Its a mammoth task. Mars is lethal in multiple ways. If you were to be teleported this moment to Mars, in the clothes youre wearing now, the gas in your bloodstream would turn into bubbles. Like a shaken can of Coke, you would fizz to death. If somehow you avoided that, you would soon die of oxygen deprivation, cold exposure, or radiation poisoning.

Ultimately, a terraformed Mars would need a strengthened magnetosphere the protective magnetic layer that shields Earth from the Suns ultraviolet radiation and a thicker atmosphere. That atmosphere is currently almost entirely composed of carbon dioxide, with negligible amounts of oxygen. The planet would also need to be much warmer; its surface temperature is, on average, -81 degrees Fahrenheit.

If we managed to warm the planet up, wed release frozen CO2 reserves at the planets polar caps and elsewhere. That would help thicken the atmosphere, making it possible for water, rather than ice, to exist on the surface conditions that would make it easier to introduce plants, which produce oxygen. But how would we even start that warming process?

Musk proposes a continuous stream of very low fallout nuclear fusion explosions above Mars.

Elon Musk has repeatedly suggested that we nuke Mars. Wed do this, he suggests, by creating a continuous stream of very low fallout nuclear fusion explosions above the atmosphere to create artificial suns. This could warm the planet, melt the frozen CO2 ice caps, and thicken the atmosphere, causing even more warming. Even if there were enough frozen CO2 to melt, this strategy would involve an almost infeasible number of nuclear weapons.

There are other proposed strategies for Martian global warming, such as the diversion of asteroids into the poles, and the production, on a massive scale, of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) potent greenhouse gasses that are horrible for Earths ozone layer but which would help heat Mars. Another idea involves the creation of a huge space mirror as large as the side of Mars, reflecting vast amounts of additional sunlight onto the Red Planet.

These proposals involve huge costs and inventing new technologies.

These proposals would require huge costs and significant upgrades in human technological capabilities. Is there a cheaper, easier way of beginning the terraforming process? Casey Handmer thinks so.

Handmer, formerly of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is now the founder of a startup that seeks to create carbon-negative natural gas by sucking CO2 out of Earths atmosphere. He also publishes a space blog, where he outlined a proposal that he argues could, at the modest cost of $10 billion, make significant progress towards terraforming Mars.

Speaking to Freethink, Handmer explained his idea: mass producing small solar sails. Solar sails are an existing (albeit nascent) technology; they use the Suns light to propel themselves just as a ship sail uses wind.

The sail devices would be launched up into low Earth orbit, and would then fly themselves to Mars. There they would reflect sunlight onto the night side of the planet. A decade of these launches could, according to Handmers calculations, result in a 1% temperature increase.

You could mass-produce relatively inexpensive solar sails using cell phones supply chain.

It seemed to me that you could mass-produce relatively inexpensive solar sails using cell phones supply chain, he argues. We produce hundreds of millions of them per year.

Why cell phone factories? These solar sails, he writes, would, like phones, need a processor, a camera (for navigation), and the ability to transmit data. In harnessing cell phone electronics, they would resemble Nasas existing PhoneSat project, which takes the form of small satellites that use cell phone technology.

The sails would also need an LCD panel to steer the sail by shining light into it, as well as a solar photovoltaic cell to power it. And, of course, each of these devices would require the sail itself: a thin space blanket that would weigh a kilogram and would, when unfurled, span about the size of two basketball courts.

Building these devices on Earth sidesteps the multiple engineering challenges that would affect manufacturing on Mars. If you can solve the problem on Earth, you should solve the problem on Mars, says Handmer.

Starship would be more than capable of launching essentially arbitrary quantities of these

Aside from taking advantage of the modern worlds efficient cell phone industry, Handmers proposal relies on the tumbling cost of bringing cargo into space. A launch vehicle like Falcon Nine, Falcon Heavy or Starship would be more than capable of launching essentially arbitrary quantities of these (solar sail devices) into higher ends of low Earth orbit, he says.

Would this plan enable us to terraform Mars, to a significant extent, within our lifetimes? Handmer says, The short answer is No. I think if you put enough money into solar sails, you can make it warm and possibly wet.

Quite aside from the feasibility of such a massive project, any terraforming plan opens a host of thorny ethical questions. Who gets to decide whether to do it, or how? Who counts as a stakeholder? What if theres indigenous microbial life that the terraforming activities would disturb or kill? Handmer, however, sees terraforming as a mission whose importance outweighs other considerations.

I think its pure upside to expand the scope of our ambition, of what we are prepared to achieve, and basically leave a more expanded range of human experiences and possibilities for our descendants, rather than for example, saying, Well, we could, but we wont, so f it, and then, in three generations or so, losing that ability, or forgetting how to do it. That would be pretty dismal, I think.

See the original post here:

How to terraform Mars, without nukes, on a budget - Freethink