Should we/could we terraform?

Is terraforming a possibility? And if so, would it even be worth it given the time it would take?

>And if so, would it even be worth it given the time it would take?
The biggest problem with humanity is it's utter contempt for overhead costs.

would terraforming the moon be possible if we surrounded it with massive superconducting rings to make a magnetic field strong enough that we could sustain an atmosphere? I saw a paper about doing it for earth and they said something like the power from 12 nuclear power stations could easily produce a magnetic field something like 10% the strength of the earth's (i cant find the paper now but anyone else who has read it please correct me if im wrong) and it got me thinking about the moon.

No. Gravity is way too low. Same with Mars though gravity isn't that far off to keep the atmosphere in place for an extended period.

The problem. With Mars is the Cores gone solid, how the fuck would we heat that?

It would be far more energy and space efficient to make O'Neil cylinders or other orbital habitats and live in them, then it would be to terraform a planet and live in the thin shell of air and water that that provides.

Possibly if we ever reach a point where we have more energy and planets than we know what to do with we might start terraforming some of them for those who want to go back to living in a gravity well.

if i jump in one of those, does the ground move below me?
if i fly a helipcopter in one of these, which way is up?

Not practically. You'd need constant asteroid/comet bombardment to Mars to get geological things going again and to put enough moisture on it for atmosphere. the added mass will help increase gravity too.

The down side is that if it isn't done correctly if could ruin space travel for 10,000+ years after the last impact. Although, it'll take 10,000 years of impacts just to do this then another 100,000 years or more for things to settle properly and see if it actually worked. Even then humans won't have enough gravity on Mars to stay properly healthy through multiple generations.

You want something "soon"? Use O'Neill Cylinders.

O'Neill cylinders are so fucking stupid, its an accident waiting to happen

>automobiles are so fucking stupid, its an accident waiting to happen