SimEarth: Terraforming Mars by the Numbers

Posted by timothy on Monday December 16, 2002 @08:34AM from the plug-in-values-for-q dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Today NASA has an online terraforming simulation based on the McKay/Zubrin/Fogg model of Mars' weather modification. The simulation shows that the greening of Mars can be done in at least three ways: 1) mirrors melting stored carbon dioxide in tropical soil and polar dry ice; 2) a fluorocarbon (CFC) factory; 3) blowing a vent thruster in the side of a methane-rich asteroid and engineering a collision (perhaps many impacts, but a mere 0.3 km/s impulse drive if using an outer solar system asteroid, such as Chiron, beyond Saturn). Irrespective of the merits or wisdom of these huge engineering projects, their simulation allows moving back the clock to a previous time when Mars was blanketed by greenhouse gases, and thus much warmer."

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Magnetic field. by gmiller123456 · 2002-12-16 09:15 · Score: 4, Interesting

What do they plan to do about the fact that Mars has a very weak magnetic field, which is why it lost its atmosphere to begin with?

Without creating a large magnetic field to shield mars from the solar wind, any terraformation will only be temporary.