Mars Terraforming Not Possible Using Present-Day

[mike wightman]

While we probably don't have the means right now, the easiest way to get an atmosphere on Mars might be to build several nuclear reactors on the planet and use these to generate gigawatts of electricity. That electricity would then be shunted through a series of cables laid around the planet, or in large loops as required, to produce a strong magnetic field.
The magnetic field would then shield the planet, or a portion of it, from the solar wind. That would in turn end the solar wind stripping the atmosphere away and give it a chance to thicken.
Mars would warm and that would make the planet far more habitable.

The easiest way to do it is put a powerful magnet at the Mars/sun L1 lagrange point. I've seen this method mentioned in quite a few times now.

 

[JimMarn]

I watch Discovery science channel off and on. One show is about planets and Dr. Kaku, a theoretical physicist, pointed out that to terraform Mars we need to upgrade.

He said we are a type zero civ, and it takes a type 1 to more easily than we can, to terraform a planet.

I did see articles back in the early 1970s that suggested otherwise.

No idea myself.

 

[Enoki]

The easiest way to do it is put a powerful magnet at the Mars/sun L1 lagrange point. I've seen this method mentioned in quite a few times now.

While this would be very effective, it would also be the most difficult to maintain and operate. You'd have a space station in zero-G.

Easier would be to simply mine and refine ores on Mars itself. Iron, Aluminum, Copper. All you need is a conductor. You lay coils around the areas of your colony first then later stretch them around the planet.
On Earth we've already done something like this with trans-ocean cables, and the like.

In WW 2, for a bit there was a proposal floating around between the US and Britain to use rail lines around London hooked to a 50 MW generating station to produce a sufficiently strong magnetic field to cause V1 missiles to veer off course and crash as they used a magnetic compass to navigate.
So, crazy can work.

Maybe a combination of the two...

 

[kilemall]

The main benefit Mars is going to have is real estate that has gravity, at least until we see Traveller levels of gravitic manipulation.


Failing that, the rule of thumb I suspect is it will be infinitely cheaper to genetically alter to a planet's environment rather then alter the planet itself.

 

[Condottiere]

Apparently, you'd have to artificially trap the atmosphere so that any attempts to solidify it doesn't get blown away.

Build two large electromagnets on the Poles?

 

[wellis]

Why not just build giant colonies to hold in oxygen or whatever, with rescrubbers and such, or plants, or help keep oxygen around for the colony?

You don't have to terraform Mars. You can just terraform bits in the colonies I guess?

 

[whartung]

You don't have to terraform Mars. You can just terraform bits in the colonies I guess?

Guess it depends on how susceptible Mars is to meteor impacts punching holes in your colonies.

 

[shaunhilburn]

Well it looks like Mars won't be able to be terraformed. Not enough CO2 available.

However, aerogel might be useful as a means to create greenhouses.

Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6 ) can substitute for CO2. As a greenhouse gas, it's tens of thousands of times more potent than CO2.

It would take around 1,155,000 tons to warm the Martian atmosphere to 2,000 ppm CO2 equivalent.

 

[shaunhilburn]

Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6 ) It would take around 1,155,000 tons to warm the Martian atmosphere to 2,000 ppm CO2 equivalent.

I'm assuming here that you terraform the Martian atmosphere to Earth composition and sea level pressure, which would take 2.63x as much gas as Earth's atmosphere.

 

[BwapTED]

Guess it depends on how susceptible Mars is to meteor impacts punching holes in your colonies.

Build underground. Mars apparently has some quite large caverns.
MUH LAVA TUBEZ

You will want some solid rock between you and the nasty radiation.

 

[JimMarn]

If we had the science, Mars' solidified core could be reliquified, rotation started and that would generate a magnetic field.

Not any time soon though.

 

[kilemall]

If we had the science, Mars' solidified core could be reliquified, rotation started and that would generate a magnetic field.

Not any time soon though.

If we are able to do that, we probably don't need planets and would be at the Ancients' fiddling with entire races just cause stage.

 

[JimMarn]

If we are able to do that, we probably don't need planets and would be at the Ancients' fiddling with entire races just cause stage.

True. Or we could go see if the Inhabitable Zone for the galaxy, heading coreward, is real or not.

Or a lack of minerals like iron, etc. means that the habitable zone ends before the galaxy edge.

Saw that on 'How the Universe Works' on Discovery Science channel.