NASA plans to create a magnetic shield to terraform Mars

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) believes that the magnetic shield around Mars could help restore the planet's atmosphere and oceans billions of years ago.

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Magnetic shields may help thicken Mars' atmosphere. Photo: Phys.org.

NASA scientists have proposed deploying a magnetic shield around Mars to protect the planet's atmosphere from solar wind, giving Mars a more Earth-like atmosphere. The plan was presented by Dr. Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division (PSD), at a workshop held from February 27 to March 1 in Washington DC, according to International Business Times.

According to Dr. Green, putting an artificial magnetic field into a stable orbit between Mars and the Sun called MarsL1 will help create an artificial magnetosphere to protect the red planet's atmosphere from the effects of solar wind and radiation.

"Mars' enhanced atmosphere, both in temperature and pressure, would be sufficient to sustain large amounts of liquid water on the surface, and would benefit human science and exploration from 2040 onwards. Similar to Earth, a thicker atmosphere would allow heavier landings on the planet's surface, shield it from much of the radiation from space and the Sun, prolong the use of oxygen, and provide a greenhouse effect for growing plants," Green said.

Researchers believe that Mars once had a protective magnetic shield around its atmosphere. However, this shield disappeared about 4.2 billion years ago, causing the planet's atmosphere to slowly erode and eventually disappear. Over the next 500 million years, the planet transformed from a wet environment into a cold, dry place unsuitable for life.

Mars orbiters such as NASA's Maven and the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express confirm this hypothesis, pointing to solar wind as the culprit in eroding the Martian atmosphere.

Mars' current atmosphere poses major challenges for a manned mission that NASA plans to launch in the 2030s. Astronauts would face risks of radiation exposure, asphyxiation and other difficulties.

In an effort to mitigate these risks, Dr. Green and a team of researchers have come up with the ambitious idea of ​​creating an artificial magnetosphere for Mars to help the planet's atmosphere thicken over time.

In theory, this would open up new possibilities, including boosting the greenhouse effect, warming the planet’s atmosphere to the point of melting the polar ice caps. The end result could be the restoration of about a seventh of the ocean that covered Mars billions of years ago.

According to VNE