Uh, sorry - perhaps my question was unclear: By “where?” what I’m asking is: Where is this 10k Gauss field measured? At the surface of the inflatable generator? (And how big is that generator?)
What I’m getting at is that 10k Gauss would be an incredible field to generate if it was being produced by an electromagnet as “small” as, oh, say, 20 miles in “radiating” diameter. That, I believe, is almost “enough”. (If we assume we only need a field density of 0.1 Gauss at an Earth radius of approximately 3960 miles, then if I calculated inverse-square correctly, that’s almost 16 kGauss @ 10 miles radius.)
This is admittedly easier than shoving a good size moon near to Mars to siphon off water in, oh, say 100 years or so trip time, but, it is still one heck of a magnet...
“Where is this 10k Gauss field measured?”
My reading of the article was that the 10K to 20K Gauss strength of the field would be measured at the generating station, at the L1 point.
They also mentioned that it would be about 1.6 times the strength of Earth’s magnetic field (again I assume, measured at the point of generation).
These were just the results of modeling what the requirements would be for a magnetic shield of Mars. Actually building such a device would be monumental. 20 miles across however, seems actually feasible - like building a Panama Canal in space.
For materials, it would require a huge amount of lift to boost them from Earth, less for Mars, but even less if we could find a suitable asteroid.
They mention an inflatable structure to be used to generate the field, so that seems fundamentally different that the massive metallic magnet which I am envisioning. Perhaps they envision inducing the magnetic field with a huge current, powered by nuclear reactors.
How much electric current do you think it would it require to generate such a field?