Posted on 11/22/2021 7:23:40 AM PST by BenLurkin
So just how much of a magnetic field would be needed to protect Mars and the humans that might someday live on it? Surprisingly, the team writes that the force needed to deflect say, solar wind, is about the same as a regular fridge magnet. But they’d need to generate it over the entire planet, a substantial challenge.
The scientists suggested a few ways to pull it off. These include restarting and circulating Mars’ iron core, creating a continuous solid loop or loop of solid-state magnets, or using a chain of coupled sources with a controlled beam or a plasma torus — a big ring, basically — of charged particles with an artificial current. This means there are options that include hardware in locations as wide ranging as the Martian surface and Martian orbit.
While each option has pros and cons, the team concluded that reigniting Mars’ core is least feasible, and creating a plasma torus with blasted-off moon material would not significantly erode Mars’ satellites. That latter option also somewhat mimics the plasma torus created in Io’s orbit around Jupiter.
Needless to say, creating a magnetic field would require massive resources; the absolute bare minimum of power needed would be around is around 10¹⁷ joules, which was nearly the entire power consumption of all humans on Earth in 2020. That means we’ll likely need to employ nuclear fission reactors as a power source, which team speculates would likely be required for permanent colonization anyway.
(Excerpt) Read more at futurism.com ...
“How do they know it already not molten”
because vibrations picked up by lander instruments show that the planet rings like a bell when struck by meteorites ... that wouldn’t happen if the core was molten ...
basically, lack of magnetic field is why no atmosphere and no protection from lethal output from the sun ...
“The utter hubris. We can’t even unload container ships anymore, and we’re going to terraform Mars?”
Just 100 years ago no ‘serious’ person like yourself thought it was possible to have spaceflight, computers, robots, jet aircraft, moon landings, cheap telephone communication all over the world, inexpensive food, cheap international air travel, modern medicines, open heart surgery, or etc.
Yet because of people who ignored people like you we have all of those things.
Yes, the current cargo issue is a problem but mostly for the Chinese economy (meaning I think it’s a good thing).
But that doesn’t mean farsighted people have to stop thinking about the future just because there are and will always be extant problems in the present day.
I’ve been piddling away on the idea of wireless transmission of energy for a lot of years now and have made very little progress. But I’ll keep at it because if something comes of it then it’ll be pretty spiffy.
True, I could work on the cargo issue but I really don’t care if Wal Mart can bring in cheap crap from China. I’ll keep working on my ‘crazy’ little idea. Who knows? Maybe my idea might solve the power problem for the magnetic field on Mars.
Make everything in the USA again and the problem is solved FOREVER.
“Why are we seeing all these articles lately about colonizing other planets?”
Because the technology to do so is now commercially viable. Just as the Americas were principally colonized by private companies so to will be the planets and the stars beyond them.
The protection of a magnetosphere would allow accumulation of a more significant atmosphere and provide some protection for its inhabitants from solar radiation but that doesn’t change the fact that Mars is 52% further from the sun than earth and receives only 44% as much solar energy. It’s an icebox with an average temperature of -80°F. so who’s going to pay the heating bill?
But the bigger problem with any plan to quit earth and go live somewhere else is that it would require a quantity of energy that is unprecedented in human experience just to get the minimum number of people there to create a stable breeding population and create an enduring habitat for them. All 8 billion of us? Fuggedaboudit!
Other than the sun burning out, there’s nothing that could go wrong with the old planet that couldn’t be fixed with less energy than rocketing to and colonizing a new planet. Plans like this are as cost inefficient as draining the swamp next to your house, putting up a windmill to keep it drained, then building a whole new replacement house where the swamp once stood when all that’s wrong with the old house is a leak in the roof.
And we haven’t gone near addressing the adverse consequences to human physiology that would result from living somewhere that only has 38% of earth’s gravity ....
“Make everything in the USA again and the problem is solved FOREVER.”
See? That’s the kind of innovative thinking that will lead America through this millennium and on into the next!
(-:
Can’t they just roll it down a hill and then pop the clutch?
They just need some Unobtainium.
Probably easier to create FTL drive and that is most likely impossible.
A really big Mixmaster would do the job. The extension cord might be a problem.
JUST LEAVE IT ALONE...
Fishing for funds scam. Not one tax dollar should be spent on this.
Why do they want one ?
Are they you g to give it an atmosphere too?
One with O2 and deadly CO2 ?
Yup, fishing for funds.
Oh, I forgot plate tectonics. If you get Mar’s iron core spinning again, that necessarily would make it more energetic. There’d be no way to isolate the extra heat just to the core so it likely would make much of the planet geologically unstable, with potentially disastrous consequences to the inhabitants.
Ok. Knock yourself out.
Now, I feel smarter than ever! :^)
LMAO!
Yes our biggest concern at the moment is trying to live on Mars. 🙄
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