A new development: NASA recently created a device which converts carbon dioxide (CO2) to breathable oxygen (O2). They plan on deploying and testing this device on Mars by 2003. Not only will this device make the atmosphere more breathable, it will also warm the climate by making the atmosphere more dense. The device will also be reliant only on solar energy, a virtually guaranteed form of energy. NASA right now is saying that the oxygen created will be used to sustain astronauts, and not terraform Mars, but the implicated possibilites cannot be denied. Looks like terraforming may be closer than Tristam suggests. But probably not.