In the short term, the solution to colonizing Mars is the construction of special enclosed habitats. Scientists accept that any proposal for terraforming Mars is decades away, although calculations are already underway to assess how this titanic process might work. To achieve this, the researcher suggests bombarding it with asteroids from the far reaches of the solar system. Mars is a desert planet, devoid of oxygen, and with an atmosphere so thin that it prevents the accumulation of liquid water on its surface. That immediately rules out anything from the solar system’s asteroid belt, which lies between Jupiter and Mars.