Topic: They are finally doing it! making terraforming plants for mars!

[Grand Master of Shadows NCC37385]

Without a magnetic field, building up the atmosphere would be pointless because the solar wind would errode it. Many scientist believe that Mars once had a dense atmosphere, but that it lost most of its magnetic field as the planetary core cooled, and the atmosphere simply "blew away".

This picture is incomplete...  Venus doesn't have a magnetic field and it's atmosphere is much denser than ours, despite it being ravaged even more harshly by the solar wind...

But Venus has protective properties that Mars doesnt.

http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personnel/russell/papers/interact_solwind/

Unlike the Earth, Venus's ionosphere, not a magnetosphere deflects the solar wind flow However, as on the Earth, this deflection is accomplished with the formation of a bow shock, which heats and compresses the solar wind flow The shock is both closer to the planet and weaker than would be expected for an ideal gas dynamic interaction with a perfectly reflecting obstacle. The ionized flow of the magnetosheath can interact directly with the neutral atmosphere through charge exchange and photoionization. The former process removes momentum from the flow; both processes add mass to the solar wind, since the high altitude neutral atmosphere is mainly hot oxygen, not hydrogen. Finally, Venus, like Earth, has a magnetotail but not for the same reason. The mass loading of the flow in the magnetosheath slows the transport of magnetic flux tubes past the planet, while the ends of the tubes continue to travel rapidly in the solar wind. Thus the planet accretes interplanetary magnetic flux. This process is the dominant source for the magnetotail flux, not unipolar induction, although the latter process is present at least when the solar wind dynamic pressure is high. On the whole, the solar wind interaction with Venus is more comet-like than Earth-like.

[Stormbringer]

Set off a nuke in the planet core???

perhaps put abreeder reactor of some sort there (a geo reactor) since much of our cores temperature is attributed to radioactive elements therein.

[Grand Master of Shadows NCC37385]

That erosion took 16 *million* years.

The cooler the core got the weaker the magnetic field. At first it was probably a very slow loss that accelerated over time. Even if we could rebuild the atmosphere the process of erosion would be much, much faster.

[Stormbringer]

even if the field blinked off instantly it would take 16 million years based upon gravity, random motion at the boundary layer and the collision probability. if the field lingered even weakening it would have taken longer.

[prometheus]

Without a magnetic field, building up the atmosphere would be pointless because the solar wind would errode it. Many scientist believe that Mars once had a dense atmosphere, but that it lost most of its magnetic field as the planetary core cooled, and the atmosphere simply "blew away".

This picture is incomplete...  Venus doesn't have a magnetic field and it's atmosphere is much denser than ours, despite it being ravaged even more harshly by the solar wind...

But Venus has protective properties that Mars doesnt.

http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personnel/russell/papers/interact_solwind/

Unlike the Earth, Venus's ionosphere, not a magnetosphere deflects the solar wind flow However, as on the Earth, this deflection is accomplished with the formation of a bow shock, which heats and compresses the solar wind flow The shock is both closer to the planet and weaker than would be expected for an ideal gas dynamic interaction with a perfectly reflecting obstacle. The ionized flow of the magnetosheath can interact directly with the neutral atmosphere through charge exchange and photoionization. The former process removes momentum from the flow; both processes add mass to the solar wind, since the high altitude neutral atmosphere is mainly hot oxygen, not hydrogen. Finally, Venus, like Earth, has a magnetotail but not for the same reason. The mass loading of the flow in the magnetosheath slows the transport of magnetic flux tubes past the planet, while the ends of the tubes continue to travel rapidly in the solar wind. Thus the planet accretes interplanetary magnetic flux. This process is the dominant source for the magnetotail flux, not unipolar induction, although the latter process is present at least when the solar wind dynamic pressure is high. On the whole, the solar wind interaction with Venus is more comet-like than Earth-like.

Agreed, but either Venus or Earth's approach to protecting it's atmosphere seems technically out of our depth to replicate on Mars.  What I was wondering is whether we can replenish the Maritian atmosphere faster than it is being stripped away...

[Stormbringer]

if we increased Mar's diameter the pressure at the core would increase and so would it's temperature. another way is to inject radioactive materials.

[prometheus]

We'd need a hell of a lot of material to increase Mars diameter...

[Stormbringer]

We'd need a hell of a lot of material to increase Mars diameter...

we have the kuiper objects, asteroid belt and Oort cloud/trans-pluto objects.

[prometheus]

We'd need a hell of a lot of material to increase Mars diameter...

we have the kuiper objects, asteroid belt and Oort cloud/trans-pluto objects.

There could be some useful stuff out there, water being chief among it... A habitable Mars would need oceans...

[Stormbringer]

True and a horde of self replicating mini probes that gather the stuff and shepherd it back to Mars where another horde drops it on Mars' surface could do it in a reasonable time scale.

[Nemesis]

even if the field blinked off instantly it would take 16 million years based upon gravity, random motion at the boundary layer and the collision probability. if the field lingered even weakening it would have taken longer.

Version 1

1/ Move some asteroids to Mars - Sun #1 Lagrange point.

2/ Build a power station / construction station there.

3/ Using asteroids for raw materials build a super conducting web

4/ Super conducting web creates magnetic shield for  planet.

Version 2

1/ Move some asteroids to Mars geosynchronous orbit

2/ Build a power station / construction station there.

3/ Using asteroids for raw materials build a super conducting web circling the planet

4/ Super conducting web creates magnetic shield for  planet.

[Stormbringer]

I meant it would take 16 million years for the oxygen to escape Mars' gravity field based on calculations provided by your friendly neighborhood DeathMerchant.

[Nemesis]

I meant it would take 16 million years for the oxygen to escape Mars' gravity field based on calculations provided by your friendly neighborhood DeathMerchant.

I was under the impression from previous sources (and postings) that part of that escape was driven by the particles in the solar wind that Earths magnetic field protects us from. 

I could provide a more "exotic" means of giving Mars a magnetic field  by changing the core of Mars. 

[Stormbringer]

I meant it would take 16 million years for the oxygen to escape Mars' gravity field based on calculations provided by your friendly neighborhood DeathMerchant.

I was under the impression from previous sources (and postings) that part of that escape was driven by the particles in the solar wind that Earths magnetic field protects us from. 

I could provide a more "exotic" means of giving Mars a magnetic field  by changing the core of Mars. 

Indeed it is. You see; there is a boundary layer at the edge of the atmosphere where random motion and collisions with solar wind can knock a molecule of oxygen out of the gravity well. over time almost all of the oxygen is knocked out this way but the magnetic field redirects the oxygen back down and deflects the solar wind so that the colisions are much rarer. So the magnetic field does almost totally stop erosion of the atmosphere. so would a stronger gravity field.