TAKE-AWAY: Terraforming Mars isn’t about speed — it’s about persistence. It’s a multi-century experiment in extending civilization itself, one that would eventually set Earth and Mars on separate evolutionary paths. To turn the Red Planet green will take a couple thousand years, not decades as some hope. The real work won’t start with humans in spacesuits, but with machines, microbes, and carefully engineered atmospheres doing the slow, patient work of planetary change. The path forward likely begins with autonomous robots and AI-driven systems warming Mars, thickening its atmosphere, and preparing the soil. Genetically engineered microorganisms may come first, reshaping barren ground into something that can eventually support life. Humans will already be there, but living in domes, not outdoors.