terraforming n.
the process of transforming a planet into one sufficiently similar to Earth to support Earth life-forms, esp. humans
SF Encyclopedia
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1942
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Jack Williamson
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Smaller… Less than a tenth the mass. There’s plenty of time to land a terraforming crew, to install a new-type directional drive. It’s a job for the guard.
Collision Orbit in Astounding Science-Fiction July 85/2
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1942
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Jack Williamson
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But the directional space drive; the negative safety field, to guard a ship’s hull from spatial drift; the peegee reducer, that broke up compounds by direct selective attraction, yielding oxygen to breathe and iron for construction out of common hematite; the peegee terraforming unit, that held man and his precious blanket of air to any tiny rock—those were all unexpected gifts, amazing even the engineer.
Collision Orbit in Astounding Science-Fiction July 87/2
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1949
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Jack Williamson
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I've got the Martian industrial trust interested in an atomic furnace to make synthetic terraforming diamonds.
Seetee Shock in Astounding Science Fiction Feb. 15/1 -
1980
David Brin
Have only allowed the Pring to colonize class A worlds, devoid of life and requiring terraforming, but free of use restrictions by the Institutes of Tradition and Migration.
Sundiver .x. 107
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1988
C. J. Cherryh
Terraforming, while wreaking havoc on many native species, has provided a unique opportunity to study interface zones and compare adaptive changes in Terrene and indigenous species.
Cyteen 41
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1993
Arthur C. Clarke
At one time, Phobos had been regarded as an invaluable source of raw materials for space-construction projects, but Martian conservationists—perhaps feeling guilty about the steady terraforming of their own planet—had managed to prevent this.
Hammer of God 66
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1993
Kim Stanley Robinson
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The treaty also says we have to take measures to prevent the disruption of planetary environments, I think is how they put it. It’s in Article Seven. That seems to me to expressly forbid the terraforming that so many of you are talking about.
Red Mars ii. 88
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1995
Peter David
After all, terraforming techniques were being used on far-off worlds to transform them into Earth-like environments.
Captain’s Daughter . v. 48
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2010
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Robert Reed
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Preliminary teams were plotting the terraforming of Venus.
History of Terraforming in Asimov’s Science Fiction July 81
Research requirements
antedating 1942
Earliest cite
Jack Williamson in Astounding
Research History
Rick Hauptmann submitted a 1942 cite from Jack Williamson's "Collision Orbit". (Earliest cite in the OED: 1949)
Last modified 2020-12-16 04:08:47
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.