August 2032, Rocket City, Bright Country
Michael Max wanted to terraform a planet as a backup for Earth, and his first choice was Mars.
For nearly twenty years, he had developed reusable heavy-lift rockets, electric cars, the Starlink internet network, intelligent humanoid robots, and even Maya soft pottery, whose composition matched the soil on Mars.
What Michael had never expected was that the plan to heat the Mars core with Superluminal waves and restart its magnetic field was completely unworkable!
Even more unexpected, the plan had not been abandoned because Mars risked exploding. The problem was that Mars was a discarded, used-up "steam engine," riddled with leaks. No matter how much energy was pumped into its metallic core, it could never be heated to the required temperature.
Even if Michael's Mars terraforming plan had succeeded, and Mars had regained its magnetic field, gained liquid water on its surface, and accumulated enough oxygen in its atmosphere to support life, it would still have been very different from Earth and unfriendly to human survival.
Mars was farther from the Sun than Earth, and its climate was cold. Humans would never be able to enjoy warm sunshine and beaches outdoors.
Mars had about one-ninth Earth's mass, and its surface gravity was much weaker. People walking there would feel as if they were floating. Without the restraint of gravity, human bones would lengthen and weaken, and people would suffer from osteoporosis and various cardiovascular diseases.
The planet most similar to Earth was not Mars, but Venus. Venus was only slightly smaller than Earth in volume and mass, and its surface gravity was 90 percent of Earth's, making it Earth's true sister planet.
So why not terraform Venus first? Because it would be far too difficult.
Venus was closer to the Sun and received twice