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Pornelius_McSucc OP t1_j8rjbf6 wrote

Reply to comment by ah-tzib-of-alaska in Terraforming a magnetosphere possible? by Pornelius_McSucc

Well there is also the radiation. Theoretically Mars with a magnetosphere would be able to support walking around in a t-shirt and jeans. Provided you have sufficient atmospheric pressure and composition. Otherwise we would have to live underground or in shielded habitats. It's not just the atmospheric loss, though if you did jumpstart the dynamo you would make atmospheric deterioration a non-issue for the next 2 billion years of inhabitants. Yeah, that doesn't really matter when it still takes 200 mil to deplete without one, but if civilized society were to collapse it would still be inhabitable.

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ah-tzib-of-alaska t1_j8rltr5 wrote

That’s a great point and I should have included that as follows:

If you want similar to Earth levels of atmospheric pressure on mars you’ll need much more atmosphere than you have on Earth. In other words, you’ll need a lot more physical barrier between you and the radiation. AGAIN, if you can make the atmosphere you need the magnetosphere is a non issue.

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Pornelius_McSucc OP t1_j8rmksq wrote

Would that much atmosphere being packed onto small Mars possibly create an issue where exponentially more of it is lost at x rate?

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ah-tzib-of-alaska t1_j8rnof0 wrote

oh yes for sure; more than it is now. But it’s already getting less than half the amount of radiation / solar winds force than Earth is. BUT this is is still a non issue; if you can increase mars atmosphere to 3x Earths atmosphere for the same pressure than the loss rate even if it’s 30x what Earth loses is going to be a non issue. You already creating trillions of times of atmosphere than what you’re losing. So after atmo creation you just exude some 1/trillionth of the amount of atmo you already just created. SO ANY useful amount of atmosphere creation makes the magnetic shield a non issue of the goal is humans breathing.

Earth loses 90 tones a year. So if Mars loses 900 tones it’s still going to be a non issue because Earths atmo is like 5.5 quadrillion tones. And if you want 1 bar on earth you’ll need 3x that. And you want to worry about a 100 tones a year after we just made 16.5 quadrillion tones?

Hell if Mars loses 8100 tones a year it’ll be a nonissue.

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