Space Colonization Part 05: Mars and The Terraforming project

diasdr (54)in #science • 7 years ago (edited)

Mars

First of all Mars plan is nothing like the Moons. Most of us do know that humanities big plan is to one day terraform the small red planet and make it a habitable colony for humans and animals. But the big question is what will it take for us to change the inhospitable environment of Mars to what we call perfect for human life.

What Mars lacks?

Mars for starters lacks an atmosphere good enough for humans. We already calculated that we can actually change its thin atmosphere to what we need by just emitting CO2. This is going to change the temperature for just 3 degrees Celsius but that's more than enough to start a chain reaction to the planet and make it habitable in about 100-200 years. But that's not all that Mars lacks, atmosphere is not the only thing we need to survive. A magnetosphere is what humanity needs first and foremost. If we just create an atmosphere the sun is going to slowly rip it apart again, as it did to the old and physical atmosphere of the planet.

What is a magnetosphere?

Earth’s magnetosphere (magnetic field) is generated by a dynamo inside the planet. Dynamo theory is very complicated, but put simply the rotation of the earth produces rotating currents in the molten outer core which act like a giant electromagnet. Earth’s magnetic field is special; these currents cannot form on Venus, because it does not rotate fast enough, or Mercury and Mars, because their cores are too cool. Magnetic fields act as the first line of defense against the solar wind. Charged particles in the solar wind are deflected around Earth’s magnetic field while a small fraction are directed in toward the poles. This is why aurora can be seen near the north and south poles.

How can we create a Magnetic Field on Mars?

First we would have to somehow liquefy the outer core of the planet. Then the planet’s own rotation would create a dynamo and generate a magnetic field like Earth’s(we are not sure if it is going to keep up or cool off again). This could be done using an extremely large nuclear bomb which would be placed near the core of the planet. The bomb would have to release enough energy to liquify the core, that’s a lot of energy. Another interesting idea is to run an electric current through the planet. The resistance of the core would cause it to heat up, similar to how a wire heats up when you short circuit a battery. Again, this would take a lot of energy but this way it would be delivered by electricity which could use solar or some other power source. More over in case the core is to cool off again we could simply reuse it(the bomb idea is not something that you would want to use a second time while the planet is already habitable).

Finally how do we create an atmosphere?

The main idea i read about is to land on Marses surface a few hundreds of mini factory rovers that are going to use the CO2 which is at solid form on the surface burn it and create a greenhouse effect just enough to create the right temperatures. After that we just fertilize massive parts of land while the trapped water is getting in liquid form again and we plant around it some forests, oxygen will be emitted by them and in a few decades Mars will be ready and terraformed.

Source links:

https://www.universetoday.com/113346/how-do-we-terraform-mars/

http://askanastronomer.org/planets/2015/11/20/can-we-create-a-magnetic-field-for-mars/