Colonization of other planets has been a far-fetched idea of science fiction for many years, but, recently, it seems to be an idea in action. There are many different countries and private companies working on colonizing Mars. Cam Peer, senior, said, “It’s cool that we have come to the point where going to live on other planets is a possibility. It’s exciting to see what will happen.” Mars One and NASA are the closest to making it real. Mars One is planning on sending buildings to Mars in 2020 and will have a crew of four land on the planet to live there permanently in 2024. Their plan involves sending more buildings, resources, and people to live on the planet every few years. NASA, however, is looking into a different solution. Their plan is to have a permanent settlement by 2040, but they want to make the planet less harsh and more habitable first. They want to build a giant magnetic shield to orbit the planet to protect the surface from solar winds and radiation that come from the sun. Jordyn Haessler, senior, said, “That would be a giant structure that would be hard to make, but if they could do it, it would transform Mars.” These winds and radiation destroyed the planet 4 billion years ago and made it the cold wasteland it is today. In theory, this shield would also help the atmosphere thicken and warm up. This would cause a chain reaction of events that would allow life on Mars to be a possibility. The warm air would melt the frozen carbon dioxide and release greenhouse gases, making the air breathable and allowing plants to grow. The warm air would also melt the frozen water that would start to restore Mars’s once great lakes and oceans. “Terraforming” the planet will take hundreds of years, but the result would allow for many more possibilities of colonization. Stephen Hawking, a famous physicist, predicted, “We only have about 1,000 years left on Earth.” If his prediction is accurate, these advancements in colonization will only be more necessary.