We are in the middle of a new era in space exploration, in which everyone from NASA to SpaceX has expressed an interest in the idea of sending humans to Mars and even establishing permanent settlements on the red planet. Terraforming Mars appears to be a viable option if we humans consider living on this planet. However, since the red planet is uninhabitable for humans, scientists have come up with a somewhat unusual idea to transform it into a second Earth.
Recipe for terraforming Mars
One of the biggest obstacles to terraforming Mars is its weak magnetic field, which would leave potential inhabitants exposed to harmful solar radiation. The reason magnetic fields are so important is that they can protect a planet from the solar wind and ionizing particles. While Mars has small regions where a magnetic field remains on the surface, these areas are confined to the southern hemisphere of the planet and are not large or powerful enough to offer sufficient protection for any future colony.
The key, then, would be to provide it with an artificial magnetosphere to make it habitable for the humans of the future, explains a new study published in the journal Acta Astronautca. While this concept may seem totally outlandish, the team, which includes two experts from NASA and one from Princeton University, are exploring how it could be done, in theory. The main interest of the research is to reactivate the old magnetic field of the planet that disappeared due to natural phenomena.
Our field is generated by a dynamo effect in the Earth’s core, where the convection of iron alloys generates the Earth’s geomagnetic field. But the interior of Mars is colder and smaller, so this system does not work. How to get this artificial magnetic field? (As featured in the excellent sci-fi series The Expanse ). Taking advantage of the power of one of the moons of Mars, Phobos , which orbits its planet from very close (it barely takes 8 hours to complete an orbit). Scientists propose ionizing the surface of this Martian moon so that it forms a plasma ring around the red planet, which would generate a magnetic shield for Mars . Depending on the job, it is doable.
Specifically, ionization refers to the process of converting an atom or molecule into an ion, one that has positive or negative electrical charges as a result of having lost or gained one or more electrons. After the matter on the surface of Phobos has been ionized, these charged particles would accelerate to create a ring-shaped ion cloud around Mars (as has been naturally and similarly observed on Jupiter’s moon Io). Experts argue that this approach would create a persistent magnetic field strong enough to protect a terraformed Mars.
“An important requirement for such terraforming is to have the protection of a planetary magnetic field, which Mars does not currently have. In this article we comprehensively explore for the first time, the engineering and practical challenges that affect the feasibility of creating an artificial magnetic field capable of encompass Mars, “the authors explain.
The race to get to Mars warms up . Although there is still a long way to go.
Referencia: R.A. Bamford, B.J. Kellett, J.L. Green, C. Dong, V. Airapetian, R. Bingham,
How to create an artificial magnetosphere for Mars,
Acta Astronautica, Volume 190, 2022, Pages 323-333, ISSN 0094-5765,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.09.023.
