Re:Previous Evidence of Water on Mars Now Identified as Grai...
by barrkel on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @08:42AM
(#15747764)
Without a decent atmosphere water will just boil / sublimate off and get blown away; Mars would need a magnetosphere to retain anything.
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Re:Previous Evidence of Water on Mars Now Identified as Grai...
by junkcollector on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @11:01AM
(#15748741)
A sufficiently large radio system built on Mars or at its solar LaGrange point could provide the shielding effect that is normally the responsibility of the magnetosphere. It was studied for feasibility by NASA and found possible with current technology. Of course, possible doesn't imply practical and the natural formation of Martian atmosphere if we did that would be on geologic timescales.
Re:Previous Evidence of Water on Mars Now Identified as Grai...
by adrianN on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @09:02AM
(#15747870)
Water would get blown away over a period of millions of years though. I think that's not much of a problem.
Re:Previous Evidence of Water on Mars Now Identified as Grai...
by Reason077 on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @10:19AM
(#15748398)
Even if you could increase the atmospheric density, the lack of magnetosphere is still a problem when it comes to human habitation, however. Any long-term habitats would need to be built underground, or at least heavily shielded against solar radiation.
Re:Previous Evidence of Water on Mars Now Identified as Grai...
by eru on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @10:41AM
(#15748597)
Could people go out at night?
Re:Previous Evidence of Water on Mars Now Identified as Grai...
by jon_richards on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @08:52AM
(#15747816)
I've previously seem ideas such as nuking the poles. It implied there were enough gases stored in the ice to created a sufficient atmosphere. The loss of the atmosphere due to lack of a magnetosphere would take millions of years.