Slashdot Mirror
NASA Proposes a Magnetic Shield To Protect Mars' Atmosphere (phys.org)
New submitter Baron_Yam writes: Apparently it is no longer necessarily science fiction to consider terraforming the red planet in a human lifetime. NASA scientists have proposed putting a magnetic shield at the Mars L1 Lagrange Point, diverting sufficient solar wind in hopes that the Martian atmosphere would thicken and heat the planet to the point of melting the ice caps, causing what remains of Martian water to pool on the surface. While not enough of a change to allow walking around without a space suit, this would make human exploration of the planet a much easier task.
What the hell are we waiting for? Having 4.2 Billions years of evolutionary investment held captive at the bottom of one gravity well is not a good long term strategy.
This is a cool idea, but do the math: if you were able to shut off the reported 0.1 kg/s of atmospheric mass loss, how long does it take to double the atmospheric mass (about 2.5 x 10^16 kg)?
Related question: does it count as terraforming if the Sun blows up before you finish the job?
Dropping a few space rocks on Mars might work better and add even more volatiles to the planet.
1. Make a list of known space rocks of suitable size and composition.
2. Sort list by amount of delta-v required to have each candidate impact on Mars.
3. Pick one of the candidates with the lowest delta-v requirements.
4. Apply necessary delta-v.