Mars is the largest construction area in the Solar System and the second-most inhabited planet with approximately 250 million people. The Mars Terraforming Corporation owns land rights to the planet's entire surface and is rapidly changing the red planet's climate through introducing water and carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
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Mars, as photographed in August 2003
by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera
Credit: NASA; J. Bell (Cornell University) and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)
Under MTC's plan, surveyors have nudged comets into the Interplanetary Transport Network en route to Mars-Sun Lagrange points. Once there, construction workers break the comets down into fragments smaller pieces, which they direct toward collision courses with uninhabited areas of Mars' surface. MTC also transports carbon dioxide from Venus, which it releases directly into the atmosphere along with CFCs created as industrial byproducts.
Near the Martian equator, the largest fusion reactor in the Solar System shunts 100-million-degree plasma directly into the planet's core in an attempt to "kick start" Mars' currently weak magnetic field -- a process that will allow Mars to retain more of its atmosphere. This is one of the riskiest MTC operations, both because of the potential engineering hazards involved and because engineers are not altogether certain whether the operation can heat Mars' core sufficiently to restart its magnetic field.
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A artist's impression of Mars during terraforming
Credit: Daein Ballard
The Terran Defense Force also has a sizeable presence on Mars. The Olympus Mons Fleetyards, located in geosynchronous orbit over the Solar System's highest mountain, are the Solar System's largest starship manufacturing center. The fleetyards, which came online in 2139, originally produced one starship every three to five weeks, depending on the size of the starship. Today, the yards produce three to four starships per week -- which, while impressive, is not sufficient to significantly alter the numerical disadvantage that the Terran Defense Force faces against the Ceti.