On January 3, 2021, the British "Daily Mail" published a wonderful idea of Jim Green to transform Mars, build a huge magnetic field shield to block the radiation from high-energy particles from the sun, and create a habitable environment for Mars, and Musk, who has been determined to colonize Mars a few years ago, also proposed a clever move to bomb Mars with nuclear bombs.
What is the principle of NASA scientists' hood?
Jim Green has been NASA's chief scientist for 40 years, leaving behind a "legacy" when Green bid farewell to NASA on Saturday, a grand plan to transform Mars.
It is planned to place a giant magnetic field generator on the Lagrangian point L1 between Mars and the Sun, and the source of electricity is solar cells, which will generate a magnetic shielding area that stretches for millions of kilometers and has a diameter of tens of thousands of kilometers, which will deflect high-energy charged particles from the sun in a direction away from Mars, protecting Mars from being bombarded by the sun's high-energy particles.
So that Mars stays in a relatively "quiet" environment, future colonists of Mars will not have to wear thick radiation-proof clothing, and Mars will also transform itself in this environment and become an environment in which plants can survive.
Why block high-energy particles? What does it have to do with the Martian environment?
Mars environment is relatively harsh, although its diameter is only about half of the Earth, but very similar to the Earth, for example, Mars a day is only 40 minutes more than the Earth, the axis of rotation is also inclined, and slightly larger than the Earth is 25.19 °, there are four seasons in a year, and it is also considered to be in the habitable zone of the solar system.
But the atmospheric pressure of Mars is only 1% of Earth's, almost all carbon dioxide! The surface of Mars is even drier than the Sahara Desert in Africa, but mars was not like this a long time ago, and scientists have found that the previous Martian environment was quite good from the traces left on the surface of Mars.
Early Mars
About 3 billion years ago, there were large oceans on Mars, and there was also a suitable atmosphere for survival, but this ocean and atmosphere only existed for less than a billion years, and scientists believe that Mars did not have enough magnetic field to protect the atmosphere, bombarded by high-energy particles in the solar wind, took away the atmosphere, and the ocean gradually dried up, eventually forming what it is now.
So NASA scientist Green suggested building a giant magnetic field generator to block the solar wind from bombarding the Martian atmosphere, which is fine, so the question is, build a planetary-level magnetic field generator, how big is this project? Who is responsible for this budget? Of course, the more critical thing is that the conditions on Mars will improve after the magnetic field generator is built?
Musk: Nuclear bombs bombard the north and south poles of Mars, releasing carbon dioxide
On August 15, 2018, Musk proposed a surprising plan while participating in the "Stephen Colbert's Evening Show", when Musk's plan to colonize Mars was just proposed and was still in the hot stage, at which time Musk's every movement about Mars was in the public attention.
In the show he proposes the ultimate plan to transform Mars, which will bombard the poles of Mars with nuclear bombs! Although there is no more liquid water on the surface of Mars, the Poles of Mars still retain a lot of fresh water and carbon dioxide in a dry icy state, and Musk's move is to release Martian carbon dioxide to create a greenhouse effect.
Theoretically, water vapor and carbon dioxide can produce a good greenhouse effect, because these gas molecules do not block visible light radiation to Mars, but will block the thermal radiation on the surface of Mars from escaping heat into space, so the release of carbon dioxide from the poles of Mars will greatly increase the greenhouse effect, thereby increasing the surface temperature of Mars.
Carbon dioxide will also increase atmospheric pressure, so that liquid water can exist on the surface of Mars, and then use cyanobacteria and bacteria on Earth that are suitable for living in extreme conditions to modify Mars, so that Mars will slowly become habitable.
The plan, paired with NASA scientists' Mars Magnetic Field Generator, is seamless, and in theory, a Mars transformation could indeed be completed, at least with technical theory.
But to remind everyone, whether it's Musk's nuclear bombing of Mars or NASA scientists building the magnetic field, it was a few years ago, and in a speech at NASA's Planetary Science Vision 2050 Symposium at NASA headquarters in March 2017, Jim Green showed simulations, models, and early ideas about how the Martian magnetic field could be reconstituted and how the Martian climate could become more human-friendly, and the magnetic field generator's plan to protect Mars was proposed at that time.
After nearly 5 years, Jim Green proposed this plan again, it seems that the ambition is not old, but it is a pity that the current technology wants to implement such a planetary-level plan, as far as humans are concerned, it is still too early, but Musk's nuclear bomb bombing of Mars can be achieved, as long as the probe is replaced by a nuclear bomb, aiming at the North and South Poles of Mars, the cost is not particularly high, and the efficiency-cost ratio is still acceptable.