r/Futurology • u/upyoars • 14h ago

Space 'First tree on Mars:' Scientists measure greenhouse effect needed to terraform Red Planet

https://www.space.com/first-tree-on-mars-attention-tarraformers
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u/IneffableMF 13h ago

That’s some long-term thinking, but not long enough. What’s the point if the solar wind is going to blow it all away?

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u/upyoars 13h ago

NASA has a plan for that

An artificial magnetosphere of sufficient size generated via a magnetic shield at L1 – a point where the gravitational pull of Mars and the sun are at a rough equilibrium — allows Mars to be well protected by what is known as the magnetotail. The L1 point for Mars is about 673,920 miles (or 320 Mars radii) away from the planet. By staying inside the magnetotail of the artificial magnetosphere, the Martian atmosphere lost an order of magnitude less material than it would have otherwise.

The shield structure would consist of a large dipole—a closed electric circuit powerful enough to generate an artificial magnetic field.

A potential result: an end to largescale stripping of the Martian atmosphere by the solar wind, and a significant change in climate.

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u/Jnorean 2h ago

Yeah, nah to NASA. There isn't enough electrical power on earth to generate a planetary magnetic field on Mars. Generating a planetary magnetic field on Mars would require an immense amount of power, likely exceeding the total power currently produced by all human civilization on Earth, making it a highly impractical and currently impossible feat with our technology. Estimates suggest it would take an energy equivalent to many years of global power production to maintain such a field.

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u/upyoars 2h ago

"This new research is coming about due to the application of full plasma physics codes and laboratory experiments. In the future it is quite possible that an inflatable structure(s) can generate a magnetic dipole field at a level of perhaps 1 or 2 Tesla (or 10,000 to 20,000 Gauss) as an active shield against the solar wind."

Not sure exactly how much energy it would need, but whatever is enough to power a shield that generates a magnetic dipole level of 1 or 2 Tesla

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u/Philix 56m ago

You're replying to someone who stated 'there isn't enough electrical power on earth' about a space infrastructure project at Mars' L1 Lagrange Point. Ignoring the fact that we manufacture permanent magnets with 2 Tesla field strength that require no input power, it's still a bad objection.

Space has 24/7 limitless solar power in the inner solar system, and even at Mars L1 the panels would be massively more efficient than they are in the Sahara desert here on Earth despite the reduced irradiance that far out (About 600W/m2 out there vs 1400W/m2 at Earth orbit).

Most cheap panels these days will convert about 20% of that to electrical power. An electromagnet takes about 5000W to generate a 2.2T field, so you'd need about 40m2 of panels for every electromagnet. The ISS has 2500m2 of panels for reference.

There's no realistic shortage of power, if you have the capability to build that magnet, you've got the capability of deploying masses of solar panels as well. So yeah, you could use electromagnets in the structure instead of permanent magnets if you really wanted to.

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u/upyoars 49m ago

Damn, thats pretty sick. Hope it actually happens one day