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0 pointsupwardbound4y ago0 comments

Relatedly: apparently it would be a good idea to destroy the Martian moon Phobos before settling the planet. It's a fascinating proposal and makes sense; you can read about it here:

https://marspedia.org/Bringing_down_Phobos

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ortusdux4y ago

If we are going down that rabbit hole, I love the plan to create an artificial Martian magnetosphere by placing a magnetic field generating satellite between mars and the solar winds. Generating an atmosphere on mars is all well and good, but it will just blow away again without some protection. The generator would only require roughly 583.9 exajoules, or roughly the world's total energy consumption in 2020.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2111.06887.pdf

db65edfc79964y ago

>Generating an atmosphere on mars is all well and good, but it will just blow away again without some protection.

NASA estimates the Martian atmosphere is ~2.5e16 kgs[0]. Current estimate[1] is that the Martian atmosphere loses 2-3 kg/s. Presently losing something on the order of 1e-9 percentage per day. I think if humans ever have the ability to thicken the Martian atmosphere, we can cover the loss.

[0] https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/marsfact.htm... [1] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2018.05.030

m4rtink4y ago

A man made denser atmosphere after terraforming would presumably loose more due to higher pressure.

ncmncm4y ago

A superconducting tape girdling the planet's equator would suffice, and require after startup only the power needed to keep it chilled at all times below 70K.

upwardboundOP4y ago

That sounds actually quite practical and like an amazing option! Are there papers about this you could please share the links to?

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ryanmercer4y ago

>but it will just blow away again without some protection.

Not in any appreciable amount over human timescales.

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