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Why do you say it would take 10 million years? If there's not enough gravity, then the gases that are too light just need to transverse from the surface to outer space.
Going back to what you said about protection at the North and South Pole: Aren't "inhabitants" of these regions only there for, usually, at most, a year. And aren't there only, at most, just a thousand or so scientists? The effects of charged particles could require years to decades of exposure for there to be a significant increase in health problems, and to be able to see these results you might need a population size more varied and bigger than a mere few thousand people.
Additional note: If solar wind isn?t such a main problem, then why is it such a concern to NASA? They give astronauts protection for trips that only last days to weeks.
The program I saw on Nova also showed some serious concern, especially if the field strength was weak for only a few hundred years (and they even talked about the possibility that it would be weak for a few thousand years) during the pole reversal.
~Wolf
g = GM/r^2.... If the Mars radius is 0.53 times as small, then dividing by that squared will appx = 4 (1/ (1/2)^2) = 4)
Since the small size of the radius helps make up for the small mass in making 'g' bigger, you only need to 2.63 times the mass of Mars to simulate Earth's gravity, hence you add 1.63 times the mass of Mars.
The only thing I didn't consider was the new radius if u added a lot of mass- I assume it won't be too influential in the new calculation of gravity... (The whole idea is not conceivable, so let's not even argue it- but I see the reason for your concern)
And yes, a Mars with a higher g would have more of an atmosphere. Also, you need a high mass to keep the dynamo in the core hot so it can keep turning to create a magnetic field.
Meanwhile, no one has answered the more serious question about the magnetic field...
~Wolf
Earth is appx 9.3 times as massive as Mars (5.9742 ? 10^24 kg / 6.4191 ? 10^23 kg), and its radius is about 0.53 times as small (3395 km / 6371 km).
If you do the math, Mars has appx .38 the surface gravity of Earth, which means you would need to add 1.63 times the mass of Mars (1.46 x 10^24 kg) to simulate the gravity of Earth, and it would need to be appx evenly distributed...
I made a mistake in my math- The numbers on the site compare Mars' magnetic field strength of 180 million years ago with the present day Earth's; the site says Earth is 30 times stronger today than Mars was in the past, which means that Mars? is even less today. Despite the numbers, 1/30 is still too little to support unprotected life.
Also, earlier on the page, it mentions that because of the low gravity on Mars, a lot of the lighter gases escaped from Mars' atmosphere in the distant past- wouldn't it cost a lot/ take up a lot of resources to continually replenish this loss of gases? Is it even feasible to keep an atmosphere with the low surface gravity?
~Wolf
I saw a program on Nova a little while back (I think it was Nova.) It was exploring the decreasing magnetic field strength of earth, and the program showed how researchers came to the conclusion that we are overdue for a switching of polarity within the magnetic fields.
While going into the possible reasons for the decrease in strength, they mentioned how Mars has almost no magnetic field left (I found a site which supports this: [http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personnel/ … mars_mag/)]http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personnel/ … mars_mag/)
Now the reason why this is important is because the program mentioned the effects that the changing magnetic field will do to Earth: At some moment in time we will have no magnetic field, and for a period ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand years, we will have a very weak magnetic field. The result of this is that, yes the atmosphere will bleed into space, but as somebody mentioned earlier, (and as was mentioned on the show) this won't have much effect (it would take a much longer period to lose a considerable portion of the atmosphere.)
The other main result would be the increased rates of cancer. We are constantly bombarded with charged particles from the sun- solar wind as it is commonly called- and our magnetic field deflects much of these away from the earth and our atmosphere. What does this mean for future plans to send humans to Mars since Mars has almost no magnetic field strength (less than 10^-4 in magnitude in comparison to earth's)?
~Wolf
P.S. Not to mention the muscle and bone atrophy that will be experienced both during the long trip there, and the small gravity on Mars (unless I?m mistaken and Mars? gravity is comparable to Earth?s- I?m not sure of this fact.)
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