~ Terraform Mars? ~ The importance of the magnetosphere ~

in #space6 years ago

Could we turn Mars into something similar to our amazingly beautiful planet Earth?

_20171210_191113.JPG
1 - This color image of Earth was taken by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC)

The terraforming of other planets seems every day a more acceptable solution for the survival of the human species in the long term. The limited resources of the Earth place material limits on the increase in the world's population of the future. Mars for its proximity would be the best candidate. Other techniques for attracting resources are currently being considered, such as Asteroid mining. But the idea of ​​terraforming planets may be more important for the future colonization of our solar system. Especially from the point of view of the continuity of human life.

_20171210_140138.JPG
2 - Artistic recreation of the Mars Odyssey 2001 - Credits: JPL / NASA / CALTECH

Sixteen years ago NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft found significant amounts of ice beneath the Martian surface. The news was published on May 28, 2002. Thanks to the Gamma Ray Spectrometer or "GRS" that made topographic studies of Mars it was determined that in the "Red Planet" there is enough water in the form of ice to fill twice the Lake Michigan. In addition, this probe was able to show clear signs of the presence of ice a meter and a half deep under the Martian south pole.

_20171210_134854.JPG
3 - The soil enriched in hydrogen is indicated by dark blue colors - Credits: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona

The Martian ice will serve as raw material for the creation of the essential elements for the sustaining of long-term life. Water, oxygen and hydrogen for fuel. These essential elements for life are relatively easy to obtain from ice and we shouldn't have too many problems to do so in the near future.

In addition to the simpler ways to obtain oxygen and water, other more aggressive theories have also emerged, such as the bombardment of the Martian poles with nuclear bombs to evaporate those gases trapped in the ice. According to these theories, releasing greenhouse gases would be a way to raise the temperature of the planet; since by forming a thicker atmosphere it would be able to retain more heat from the sun. But this is only the simple part of Terraforming.


The importance of the magnetosphere.

_20171210_132500.JPG
4 - Artist's conception of the complex environment of the magnetic field on Mars - Credits: Anil Rao / Univ. de Colorado / MAVEN / NASA GSFC

Every second charged particles from the Sun in addition to cosmic radiation bombards the Martian surface.

Without the magnetic shield or magnetosphere the gases of the thin Martian atmosphere would be swept from its surface. As is believed to have been happening since Mars lost its magnetosphere millions of years ago.

The MAVEN spacecraft has been studying the Martian atmosphere since September 2016 and has provided us with data to understand how the Sun has stripped Mars of its atmosphere. Evolving from being a habitable planet at least to the microbial life, in to a desert.

_20171210_181311.JPG
5 - Artistic recreation of the MAVEN spacecraft - Credits: Goddard Space Flight Center / NASA

”MAVEN has measured the rate at which the sun and the solar wind are stripping gas from the top of the atmosphere to space today, along with the details of the removal processes. Extrapolation of the loss rates into the ancient past -- when the solar ultraviolet light and the solar wind were more intense -- indicates that large amounts of gas have been lost to space through time.”
Q1 - MAVEN’s Top 10 Discoveries at Mars - NASA


With the data that has been accumulating from the Martian atmosphere, the most difficult part to achieve in my opinion would be to protect the gases from the atmosphere from the action of the solar wind. Although theories of dipole shields placed at the Lagrange point L1 of the Sun - Mars system have already been raised, they could produce an artificial magnetosphere.

Who knows, maybe it's not that difficult to terraform Mars after all?

It has been theorized with a Solar shield for Earth. Is this the first step before protecting Mars?

What do you think?


References


1
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-captures-epic-earth-image

2
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/services/missions/solarsystem/MarsOdyssey.html

3
https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/gallery/latestimages/latest2002/march/Fig2_NS_Global.html

Q1, 4, 5
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/maven/main/index.html


DQmboGhZmuYCxpmYNTbLGJqz67yNJr4aGZHhL3rpbr76fqa.gif

Gift-thanks to @markperandin

Let's take care of the pale blue dot

Enjoy your day. Enjoy your life.


20171105_185607.gif

Gift-thanks to @stellabelle

Sort:  

Wow!
What if mars later get habitable @teks what did you think will happen.

A permanent base on Mars could be another great step for the future colonization of our solar system.

You are right a lot of people will just start relocating to mars. it will be a surprise when bill gate will be about to set up an hotel over there

One thing scientists will find soon is that man needs the earth's magnetic field to sustain life. If he travels to other places he will have to take this magnetic field with him.

Without this field, he will literally turn to dust.

Yes this is true.
There are already theoretical proposals to realize shields for the spacecraft of future missions outside the protection of the Magnetosphere.

Qurator
Your Quality Content Curator
This post has been upvoted and given the stamp of authenticity by @qurator. To join the quality content creators and receive daily upvotes click here for more info.

Qurator's exclusive support bot is now live. For more info click HERE or send some SBD and your link to @qustodian to get even more support.

Spend the time to build colonial ships and head to the Trapist system.

Proxima Centauri is closer.
But it will take much longer to go out and colonize other solar systems.

Trapists has more possibilities.

That's why they are colony ships. The first or second generation aboard might not be alive when they reach it, but the next would.

The Trappist system is very promising but to travel forty light years it would take many generations at high speeds.

Well, at close to light speed, it would take close to 40 years. ;)

This post received a 6% upvote from @morwhale team thanks to @teks! For more information, click here! , TeamMorocco! .

This post has received a 0.78 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @banjo.

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by teks from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP. Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.

This post has received a 0.91 % upvote from @buildawhale thanks to: @teks. Send at least 1 SBD to @buildawhale with a post link in the memo field for a portion of the next vote.

To support our daily curation initiative, please vote on my owner, @themarkymark, as a Steem Witness

Hey! Ho! @originalworks are you there?

The @OriginalWorks BETA V2 bot has upvoted(0.5%) and checked this post!
Some similarity seems to be present here:
https://phys.org/news/2017-06-maven-discoveries-mars.html
This is an early BETA version. If you cited this source, then ignore this message! Reply if you feel this is an error.

Yes, it's and error.
References are there, Quote are boxed..

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.36
TRX 0.12
JST 0.039
BTC 70112.96
ETH 3549.99
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.71