NASA Proposes a Magnetic Shield To Protect Mars' Atmosphere (phys.org)

Posted by BeauHD on Monday March 6, 2017 @07:00PM from the science-fiction-to-science-fact dept.

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.

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Timescale is all wrong by goodmanj · 2017-03-06 20:17 · Score: 5, Insightful

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?