Microscopic worms may hold key to living on Mars

"(Reuters) - British scientists believe microscopic worms which are biologically very similar to humans may be the key to helping humans colonize other planets like Mars by giving clues on coping with long-term space living."


Terra forming is the concept of changing one planet to suit the living requirements for beings that wish to live there but cannot handle the conditions that exist. The idea is not new, but the time may soon be at hand when this becomes a reality.
From:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/30/us-science-mars-worms-idUSTRE7AT00820111130


So, what would life be like on the red planet?

"Mars is actually a tiny little world. The diameter of Mars is 6,800 km across. This is 53% the diameter of Earth. And then consider the mass of Mars. It has only 10% the mass of Earth. Because of the small diameter and low mass, the surface gravity on Mars is only 38% the gravity on Earth. If you weighed 100 kg on Earth, you would weigh 38 kg on Mars.
"Mars and Earth are very similar in terms of their day length. A day on Mars lasts 1.03 Earth days. So humans could actually probably adapt to the day length on Mars. And the axial tilt on Mars is 25.19 degrees. Very close to Earth’s 23.5 degree tilt. This means that Mars has seasons where are very similar to Earths. Of course, since a year on Mars lasts about twice as long as an Earth year, the seasons are twice as long."

From:
http://www.universetoday.com/22603/mars-compared-to-earth/

For more information about Mars as it is now, take a look here:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/solar-system/mars/