Wiktionary
n. terraforming (literally, "Earth-shaping") of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth to make it habitable by human. vb. (present participle of terraform English)
Wikipedia
Terraforming (literally, "Earth-shaping") of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to the environment of Earth to make it habitable by Earth-like life.
The concept of terraforming developed from both science fiction and actual science. The term was coined by Jack Williamson in a science-fiction story ( Collision Orbit) published during 1942 in Astounding Science Fiction, but the concept may pre-date this work.
Based on experiences with Earth, the environment of a planet can be altered deliberately; however, the feasibility of creating an unconstrained planetary environment that mimics Earth on another planet has yet to be verified. Mars is usually considered to be the most likely candidate for terraforming. Much study has been done concerning the possibility of heating the planet and altering its atmosphere, and NASA has even hosted debates on the subject. Several potential methods of altering the climate of Mars may fall within humanity's technological capabilities, but at present the economic resources required to do so are far beyond that which any government or society is willing to allocate to it. The long timescales and practicality of terraforming are the subject of debate. Other unanswered questions relate to the ethics, logistics, economics, politics, and methodology of altering the environment of an extraterrestrial world.
Usage examples of "terraforming".
Under the terms of the Mutual Use Treaty, which had been hammered out during that momentary thaw in relations between England and the Celtic Federation, every settler on Mars had received an Allotment of acreage for private terraforming.
Terraforming Project offices, a blandly sociable gesture that did not fool Miles for a moment.
The new Empire had overseen its terraforming and repopulation, but Virimonde was a poor and grim place, and would be for centuries yet to come.
People had started settling down, pairing off, and having kids, and that, while by no means a problem now, was the reason why the big boys at Headquarters Anchorwhich still meant van Haas and Cockburnhad instructed the landscape people to begin looking at area fill, the solidification and terraforming of the region between Anchors and Gates in each region.
Granger datachats indicate widespread willingness to start over elsewhere, but a planetary plebescite of six million votes altered the constitution two years ago, placing a moritorium on new terraforming anywhere on Jefferson.
Nakon Sawan four years earlier turned out to be genetic engineers from a local terraforming installation.
As a pilot, Defoe had to believe in terraforming --starships needed places to go.
Space Gamers finished terraforming Mars it would be turned over to the Burroughs Bibliophiles.
The Settlers set out to colonize the galaxy in earnest, terraforming endless worlds, leapfrogging past the Spacer worlds and Spacer technology.
Nearly five thousand people had died in Klameth Canyon, including some of the region's best expertise in animal husbandry and terraforming biogenetics.
The cat's-eye stones the local people were wearing-which were more properly called chrysoberyls - were not only beautiful and sacred, according to Nadhari's lesson on Makahomian culture, but also very useful in the mining and terraforming industries across the universe.
Once he had his political organization going, he ran another analysis of the profiles in his databanks and organized a Terraforming Committee.
With parts of Barrayar itself still undergoing active terraforming, and with the planet of Sergyar drawing off immigrants from both the worlds damned near as fast as they can board ship, some members of the government are wondering openly why we are spending so much Imperial treasure dinking with such a marginal world as Komarr.
DI sent out the infobursts that spread Dreamtime to the expansion processors in other systems, sent the initialisation code to set the drones to terraforming the other worlds they found once the Dreamworlds were finished.
The greening of Mars required two different kinds of planetary engineering: crude terraforming, to raise the surface temperature and atmospheric pressure to a plausible threshold for life, and ecopoiesis: using microbial and plant life to condition the soil and oxygenate the air.