How to Give Mars an Atmosphere, Maybe

Nautilus ^ | 11/17/17 | Marc Kaufman

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks LibWhacker, extra to APoD. As someone pointed out in another recent thread (I think it was here...) the process of the solar wind depleting the atmosphere of Mars would take 100,000 years or more. The fact is, Mars will only have an atmosphere if we give it one, and given the transit time from the outer solar system -- where the frozen nitrogen and oxygen are available in quantityy -- and the technology we have available, it'll take generations (a couple centuries?) to accomplish that. In the meanwhile, building transparent canopies/domes out of (for example) aluminum oxide (sapphire) obtained from space resources (the Martian moons perhaps) and dropping them to the surface will have to do.

[null and void]

Mars is said to have no appreciable atmosphere because it has no magnetic field and that lack allowed the solar wind to strip it away.

Venus, OTOH, being closer to the Sun and therefore exposed to ≈4x the solar wind intensity has a very thick atmosphere despite also lacking a protective magnetic field.

Why?

[Red Badger]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_Way