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#1 2008-03-20 19:58:09

dryson
Member
From: Ohio
Registered: 2007-06-16
Posts: 104

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

Look for Dynamo theory, for an explanation of how Earth generates its magnetic field. Unfortunately just making a machine like that doesn't mean you'll get a magnetic field at all. If you stir the tea in a cup with a teaspoon, you won't get any magnetic field.

Earth has a solid iron core (called the Inner Core), engulfed in a sea of melted iron (called the Outer Core). Above that are the mantle and the crust.

Our magnetic field is produced by the currents in the ocean of iron from the Outer Core, because iron conducts electricity and is ferromagnetic. Some of these currents are generated by the rotation of Earth (actually by the difference in Earth's rotation and Core rotation), some by heat from the Inner Core.

But Mars' core is less dense, cooler, and appears to be (almost) entirely solid at this point. Also, it doesn't appear as made entirely from iron, but a mix of sulphates and iron.
So this is the reason Mars doesn't have a magnetic field, and is hard to change that. The first step would be to heat it's core, which is impossible for the next... 1000 years? After that, maybe Mars will get it's own magnetic field without the aid of any machine in orbit.

Here is a question on to create a more active Martian core. We know that magma comes from the recirculation of the lower crust level of the layers of Earth. In theory when an earthquake occures the chunks would fall into the core and since the core is super heated the material would be melted. Eventually this material would build  up in the form of magma and would push it's way to the surface through volcanoes.

The first question is this: Is it possible to create a near core quake on Mars that would add more material to the core that would then add more fuel to the furnace of Mars? Eventually wouldn't this create a more energetic core that would create a stronger magnetic field?

The second question is when the magma eventually reached the point of needing to escape somewhere, the magma would follow a fracture point to the surface thus releasing magma and super heated gases into the atmosphere. These super heated gases would then melt the polar ice caps. These gases would then inter-act with the martian atmosphere creating a possible Earth like atmosphere. Would this type of interaction create the gases needed to create an atmosphere?

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#2 2008-03-21 03:55:23

zhar2
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From: london-uk
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 106

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

first answer, adding more rock to the core shoulndt increase its energy stores, as the enery contained within bodies like earth are remenants of the energy when they formed (or from fissionable material, adding uranium like hell to the core might help reheat it.

Second answer: yes volcanic ougassing wil help replenish the martian atmosphere but not quickly enough for human time scales

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#3 2008-03-22 19:30:06

dryson
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From: Ohio
Registered: 2007-06-16
Posts: 104

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

first answer, adding more rock to the core shoulndt increase its energy stores, as the enery contained within bodies like earth are remenants of the energy when they formed (or from fissionable material, adding uranium like hell to the core might help reheat it.

Second answer: yes volcanic ougassing wil help replenish the martian atmosphere but not quickly enough for human time scales

This is true. But as the tectonic plates crash into each other wouldnt the opposite reaction of a landmass being pushed up also occure by being pushed down towards the core? Eventually this chain of events would reach the core and large chunks would break off into the core and be melted to the temperature of the core itself. We must also remember that the elements contained within the core are also the the elements contained within the planets crust and mantles. This would mean that when the chunks reached the core they would be melted by the ambient temperature of the core and returned to the liquid state of their element.
Thus adding more material to the core that when the core reached a certain pressure like a tea kettle does when it has boiled to a certain temperature would release this pressure back in the form of magma that when the magma reaches cooler temperature zones would then harden back into the material that has not been burnt off.

Take some ice cream leave it sit out in a hot zone of the day, what does it do? It begins to melt, put it back into the freezer and what happens? It refreezes.

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#4 2008-03-23 05:21:40

zhar2
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From: london-uk
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 106

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

Well yes, but all it does its transport heat from the core outwards into space, reducing over time the over all energy contained in there, but at those pressures and current heat you could chuck loads of nuclear material which would help increase the temperature (thats the only way by putting more "rock" as i see it).

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#5 2008-03-26 18:30:36

dryson
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From: Ohio
Registered: 2007-06-16
Posts: 104

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

The heat would be carried to the surface yes, but the gases released would start to circumvenulate around the planet per the wind patterns. These gases would cause changes with the polar ice caps thus causing more changes to occure.

The more material, relating to chunks of martian crust, that are fed into the core the more active the core will become eventually leading to magamatic releases to the surface.This process leads back to the first paragraph that I have written here.

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#6 2008-03-27 02:58:11

zhar2
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From: london-uk
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 106

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

But its not any old material, it has to be nuclear material.

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#7 2008-03-29 03:11:45

RickSmith
Banned
From: Vancouver B.C.
Registered: 2007-02-17
Posts: 244

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

Hi all,
  Very little (read almost none) radioactive material is at the core of Earth or Mars.  The rare earths (which include Uranium et. all.) are silicon loving elements that are concentrated in the crust.  The elements that reach the core are the ones that love iron.  These are especially, iron, nickel, sulfur (on Mars) and the elements that can close pack with these under pressure.

  The majority of the heat in the core does not come from radioactivity but from gravity.  Specifically the potential energy released when dense materials drop in the gravity field and get closer to the core.


  One way to add heat to the core would be to dig a mohole, say, 1 km wide and 50 km deep.  Then fill it with pure iron.  The mass of the iron would be so high it would crush the rock under it forcing its way downwards.  As this mass of iron sinks, it gets hot (mass dropping in a gravity field releasing potential energy)  As the iron sinks out of sight, keep adding more iron.

  There will be earthquakes, the crushed and heated rocks will be shoved sideways.  With enough time, volcanoes will erupt (either thru our mohole or near by).

  If you invent some scheme to get radioactives to sink deep, the best you can likely hope for is the lower mantle.  (Not that I think that there is ANYTHING WRONG with the lower mantle.  Some of my favorite parts of the Earth come from the lower mantle.)

  Warm regards, Rick

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#8 2013-08-30 14:32:46

Rusakov
Banned
Registered: 2012-12-19
Posts: 34

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

Considering this piece of news, maybe someday in the not so distant future we can use antimatter to restart Mars' core.


SWAT Kats fanatic

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#9 2013-09-26 17:09:14

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 7,680

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

Since Volcanism is a related subject:

http://phys.org/news/2013-09-duo-early- … nnels.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanolog … h_and_Mars

Current volcanism[edit source | edit]
HiRISE image of possible rootless cones east of Elysium region. The chains of rings are interpreted to be caused by steam explosions when lava moved over ground that was rich in water ice.
"Rootless Cones" on Mars - due to lava flows interacting with water (MRO, January 4, 2013) ( WikiMiniAtlas
21°57′54″N 197°48′25″E / 21.965°N 197.807°E / 21.965; 197.807).Scientists have never recorded an active volcano eruption on the surface of Mars;[48] however, the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter photographed lava flows that must have occurred within the past two million years, suggesting a relatively recent geologic activity.[49]

I am not expert in this at all.

However, I have tried to reason that one reason Mars does not behave like Earth with plates and subduction is that Mars may have a very thick layer of light materials over the heavier materials, and convection is inhibited by that.  It must have the full spectrum of materials, but less of the heavy materials by volume.

What is favorable about that if it were true would be that Mars would have lost less heat than would be expected in that case. The idea that their could have been volcanism in the last 2 million years might support that notion, since perviously it was not thought that Mars could have recent volcanism.

I did read an article by some scientist, from Japan I think were he put forth the idea that Mars is just now starting to form plates.  On the other hand recent discoveries of rocks similar to Earth minerals, suggests that it behaved like Earth in the past.

I read in the past that it is thought that the Moon at times had a magnetic field, because a large object had caused its outer shell to spin at a rate different than it's then liquid core.  The article seemed to say that such a situation could persist for a million years or so.

So, it could be considered to slam a volcano sideways, with a space object, hopiing to induce such an effect, and maybe even breaking open a magma pocket as well, if there were one.  (And generating effects of atmosphere loss/gain as a possible side effect).

Last edited by Void (2013-09-26 17:21:26)


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#10 2022-08-25 11:53:46

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

Swinging Strength of Earth’s Magnetic Field Could Signal Inner Core Formation

https://eos.org/articles/swinging-stren … -formation

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#11 2022-08-25 20:06:58

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

For earth it is believed that life arose from the oceans but to get to that earth would have needed to cool considerably.

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#12 2022-08-29 06:13:34

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

Icelandic volcano erupts amid series of earthquakes
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/icelandic-vol … 00626.html

old newmars discussion

'The Death of Mars Theory'
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=4562

How balloons could one day detect quakes on Venus
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bal … us-geology

Mars was recently discovered to have significant Quakes

NASA JPL's InSight Lander carried a Seismometer
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s- … es-on-mars


Scientists Finally Measure the Size of Mars' Core
https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientist … -mars-core
This is only the second planet's core we've analyzed.

Giving Mars a magnetic field
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/g … ld.630403/

physics board discussion

older article from 2014

Did big impacts turn off Mars’ dynamo?
http://redplanet.asu.edu/?p=7704

A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea: The Story of the Mohole Project.
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A … c6b5c4f6a7


Can Mars’ Core be Restarted? Questions for the Future
https://departingearth.com/can-mars-core-be-restarted/

How to restart Mars’ core

Mars’ core is made up of differentiated iron-nickel core. It measures approximately 1800 km. The temperature of Mars’ core is estimated to be about 1500 K.

Liquid iron has a specific heat of 820j/kg/v while the specific heat of nickel is 730J/kg/c. With all this, we can estimate the specific heat of the core to be at 800J/kg/c. After we then multiply the volume, density, and desired volume together, we should get the required energy of 2.9×10292.9×1029 J., which is a lot. That energy can be used to increase the rotation speed of Mars to a value almost equal to Earth. This energy is about 6 orders of magnitude more than that of the meteor that killed the dinosaurs on Earth and 12 orders of magnitude bigger than the biggest nuclear weapon.

All these comparisons are to show you the massive amount of energy we are dealing with. So it means you will need a diamond drill to get to the core and then need about a trillion of the best nuclear weapon ever to heat the core of Mars, for it to restart.

Another method that can be used to restart the core is by restoring its atmosphere. Dr. Jim (the Director of NASA‘s Planetary Science Division) and some other researchers suggested that a magnetic dipole shield should be placed at the Mars Li Lagrange point. The magnetic dipole shield is an artificial magnetosphere that can protect and shield the entire planet from solar wind and even radiation. The device must be able to generate an energy of perhaps 1 or 2 Tesla – which is about 10,000 to 20,000 Gauss – to protect the planet from the solar winds.

The researchers discovered that if a dipole field is placed at Mars L1 Lagrange point, the device will be able to counteract the solar wind which would cause Mars’ atmosphere to attain a new balance.

After it has been restored, the atmosphere of Mars will begin to get thickened with time leading to an increase in temperature. According to some scientists, an average of about 4-degrees is needed for the carbon dioxide ice in the northern polar ice caps to melt. This will eventually activate a greenhouse effect which will further increase the temperature of the atmosphere, and with time restart the core of Mars.

A video game simulation?

Mohole mine problem
https://steamcommunity.com/app/464920/d … 321550261/
After getting this it seems to produce a TON of regular metal along with rare metals. I don't know what to do with all this metal and its just stacking up on storage platforms. Any advise?

Despite the drawbacks of significant wind interference, on Sol 80 of the Viking 2 lander's mission (roughly November 23, 1976), the on-board seismometer detected an unusual acceleration event during a period of relatively low wind speed. Based on the features of the signal and assuming Mars's crust behaves similar to Earth's crust near the lander's testing site in Southern California, the event was estimated to have a magnitude of 2.7[ and a distance of roughly 110 kilometers. However, the wind speed was only measured 20 minutes previously, and 45 minutes after, at 2.6 and 3.6 meters per second, respectively.
https://doi.org/10.1002%2F2017ea000306

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-09-03 12:24:16)

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#13 2022-09-06 04:51:51

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

'An Absolutely Bonkers Plan to Give Mars an Artificial Magnetosphere'

https://www.universetoday.com/153368/an … etosphere/

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#14 2022-09-06 08:41:03

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 7,680

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

It is an interesting idea.  I have stored it in a notepad for later use.  I would make the suggestion that it along with the Martian moons could provide some protection from the space environment for orbital habitation.

Done.


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#15 2022-09-23 01:59:45

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

Perseverance rover reveals Martian lakebed is surprisingly volcanic
https://www.yahoo.com/video/perseveranc … 11380.html

Planetary Sheilds that stopped working 4 billion of years ago

Yeast experiments on Artemis I may help astronauts survive cosmic radiation in deep space
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/artemis … -1.6562794

We Might Know Why Mars Lost its Magnetic Field
https://www.universetoday.com/154461/we … tic-field/

So what happened to Mars?

“Earth’s magnetic field is driven by inconceivably huge convection currents of molten metals in its core. Magnetic fields on other planets are thought to work the same way,” Professor Hirose said in a press release. “Though the internal composition of Mars is not yet known, evidence from meteorites suggests it is molten iron enriched with sulphur. Furthermore, seismic readings from NASA’s InSIGHT probe on the surface tell us Mars’ core is larger and less dense than previously thought. These things imply the presence of additional lighter elements such as hydrogen.”

NASA’s InSIGHT lander struggled to meet all of its scientific objectives. But it has gathered some critical evidence regarding Mars’ interior structure. If InSight’s results are correct, and if the implied hydrogen is there, there’s a basis for experiments that could reveal more about Mars’ lost magnetic shield. “With this detail, we prepare iron alloys that we expect to constitute the core and subject them to experiments,” Hirose said.

Previous experiments investigated the behaviour of planetary cores at differing pressures and temperatures. But they didn’t focus on hydrogen. “Recent planet formation theories demonstrate that a large amount of water was delivered to both Mars and the Earth during their accretions, suggesting that hydrogen is possibly a major light element in the core,” the authors explain in their paper. “Despite its importance, so far the Fe-S-H system has been little investigated at high pressures.”

But if data from InSight is correct, the hydrogen in the Fe-S-H core might play a role in the collapse of Mars’ magnetic field.

The researchers prepared a material sample matching what they think Mars’ core was once composed of. It contained iron, sulphur, and hydrogen—Fe-S-H. They placed the sample in a device called a diamond anvil, or diamond anvil cell (DAC.) A diamond anvil compresses samples between two small diamond plates. Diamonds can withstand extreme pressures inside the anvil because they’re forged in extreme pressure deep inside the Earth.


Hirose and his team think that initially, two immiscible liquids became separated in Mars’ core. “While separated denser liquids stayed at the deepest part, lighter liquids migrated upward and mixed with the bulk liquid core, which could drive Martian core convection,” they write. But in the region where the two liquids separated, something else happened. “At the same time, gravitationally stable, compositional stratification should have developed in a region where liquid separation took place. Eventually, Mars’ entire core became stratified, which ceased convection.”

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#16 2023-03-14 05:15:37

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

They would need to go much deeper, the Kola Superdeep Borehole is the deepest manmade hole on Earth, reaching 12,262 meters  or 40,230 feet



Video Shows Indonesia's Mount Merapi Volcano Erupt, Sending Mixture of Lava and Gas for Miles
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/vid … 19241.html

Scientists Propose Jumpstarting Mars' Magnetic Field to Make It Habitable
https://futurism.com/scientists-propose … etic-field
The scientists suggested a few ways to pull it off. These include restarting and circulating Mars' iron core, creating a continuous solid loop or loop of solid-state magnets, or using a chain of coupled sources with a controlled beam or a plasma torus — a big ring, basically — of charged particles with an artificial current. This means there are options that include hardware in locations as wide ranging as the Martian surface and Martian orbit.
While each option has pros and cons, the team concluded that reigniting Mars' core is least feasible, and creating a plasma torus with blasted-off moon material would not significantly erode Mars' satellites. That latter option also somewhat mimics the plasma torus created in Io’s orbit around Jupiter.
Needless to say, creating a magnetic field would require massive resources; the absolute bare minimum of power needed would be around is around 10¹⁷ joules, which was nearly the entire power consumption of all humans on Earth in 2020. That means we'll likely need to employ nuclear fission reactors as a power source, which team speculates would likely be required for permanent colonization anyway.

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#17 2023-03-24 04:34:56

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

Maybe one day Earth's Core might change just as Mars went through changes.


NASA is actively monitoring a strange anomaly in Earth's magnetic field: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity in the skies above the planet, stretching out between South America and southwest Africa.
This vast, developing phenomenon, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, has intrigued and concerned scientists for years, and perhaps none more so than NASA researchers.
The space agency's satellites and spacecraft are particularly vulnerable to the weakened magnetic field strength within the anomaly, and the resulting exposure to charged particles from the Sun.

https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-is-tr … etic-field


The SAA on Earth an unsual Anonmaly, the PAMELA experiment, while passing through the SAA, detected antiproton levels that were orders of magnitude higher than expected. NASA reported modern laptops have crashed when Space Shuttle flights passed through the anomaly.

South Atlantic Anomaly, an area where Earth's inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to Earth's surface, dipping down to an altitude of 200 kilometres (120 mi). Current literature suggests that a slow weakening of the geomagnetic field is one of several causes for the changes in the borders of the SAA since its discovery. As the geomagnetic field continues to weaken, the inner Van Allen belt gets closer to the Earth, with a commensurate enlargement of the SAA at given altitudes.
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observ … etic_field

The Hubble Space Telescope does not take observations while passing through the SAA. Passing through the anomaly caused false alarms on Skylab Apollo Telescope Mount's solar flare sensor.  Astronauts are also affected by this region, which is said to be the cause of peculiar "shooting stars" (phosphenes) seen in the visual field of astronauts, an effect termed cosmic ray visual phenomena.  Passing through the South Atlantic Anomaly is thought to be the reason for the failures of the Globalstar network's satellites in 2007
https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4219/Chapter9.html
,
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archiv … 6/25/text/
,
http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q525.html
,
https://web.archive.org/web/20070214142 … sample.pdf

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-03-24 04:35:32)

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#18 2023-05-17 08:00:42

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

Restarting the core maybe not in our lifetime but a project to happen before 102,024 A.D.

news

'Seismic Waves Help Map the Core of Mars for the First Time'

https://www.universetoday.com/161401/se … irst-time/

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-05-17 08:03:54)

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#19 2023-05-17 14:20:32

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,755

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

One of the biggest problems with the long-term stability of a terraformed Mars is the lack of plate techtonics.  Even with a robust magnetic field and negligible atmospheric leakage, the planet would still eventually become dry, barren and cold with a thin atmosphere, much as it is today.  This is because the Martian geothermal gradient is shallower, the lithosphere much deeper.  Water and carbon end up trapped as hydrates and carbonates within the deep lithosphere.  The absence of techtonics means that any water and carbon trapped in this way is trapped forever.  The same mechanism may have ferried away a large amount of nitrogen as nitrate salts, trapped in deep brines within the crust.  We don't know how much of Mars' water, carbon and nitrogen got locked away like this.  But it may have been the dominant loss mechanism for the early atmosphere.

Without techtonics, the only way of releasing these trapped volatiles is by focusing solar heat and literally cooking the rock down to a depth of 10km.  Humans would need to periodically cook patches of the surface to release trapped volatiles.  When fusion is eventually mastered, we could begin injecting heat into the crust.  This would reverse the geothermal gradient, allowing radioactive decay to gradually heat the mantle, core and deep crust.  We don't need to heat the core and mantle directly.  By heating the crust, we reduce the thermal leakage from these layers, causing them to heat up due to internal radioactive decay.  This is neccesarily a long term project.  But the end result would be a planet with techtonics.

In many ways, the mastery of nuclear fusion removes the need for fast interstellar travel.  With fusion harnessed with enormous scale economies, all of those cold outer solar system worlds, Kuiper belt and Oort cloud objects could be terraformed or aquaformed.  Finding m-class planets around other stars is less of a priority when you have the means to build your own.

Last edited by Calliban (2023-05-17 14:33:32)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

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#20 2023-05-17 18:54:24

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

One issue for mars is that the core is not of the heaviest of materials and since that is also the case for the small planet. It cools rather quickly and will need to maintain a core that is continually heated as its mass does not self-generate heat internally. Add mass to mars will take a long time to do so short of adding super conductors and forever currents pulsing within then to make a motor like current cause the core to rotate as inductive motion.

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#21 2023-05-17 19:42:30

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 7,680

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

It is OK to think about how to emulate Earth, but in so doing we may miss what Mars has that is perhaps better than Earth.

https://curiosmos.com/mars-mighty-crust … rs%20thick.
Quote:

Mars’ Mighty Crust: Revealing the Red Planet with InSight

Quote:

Measuring Mars Against Earth and the Moon
Combining new findings with existing data on Mars’ gravity and topography, the researchers determined the thickness of the Martian crust to average 42 to 56 kilometers. In contrast, seismic data indicates the Earth’s crust averages 21 to 27 kilometers in thickness, while the lunar crust is between 34 and 43 kilometers thick.

Quote:

Decoding Martian Crust’s Radioactive Heat
The study also sheds light on Mars’ thermal history. As a single-plate planet, Mars’ primary heat source is the decay of radioactive elements such as thorium, uranium, and potassium. The researchers found that 50 to 70 percent of these heat-producing elements are in the Martian crust, potentially explaining the existence of regions where melting processes may still occur today.

I am thinking about Uranium which is soluble in sea water.  This is why I would like to see two seas created on Mars each around the perimeter of each ice cap.

Where on Earth the moving crust delivers heavy elements to the core, and relatively light elements erupt up, It may be that Mars has not had plate tectonics for billions of years, or ever at all.  It is next to the asteroid belt, so metallic materials have been added to its crust from those over billions of years.

And this process may have been adding to it as well: https://phys.org/news/2023-02-radioacti … rnova.html  Quote:

Radioactive isotopes reach Earth by surfing supernova blast waves, scientists discover
by University of Hertfordshire

For Mars if we melt seas, Uranium should dissolve into the water.  And the sea floor sediments should have a lot of radiolysis to support a biosphere.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiolysis

https://www.usgs.gov/publications/contr … t%20depths.  Quote:

The contribution of water radiolysis to marine sedimentary life
February 26, 2021

It may be that such a sea on Mars will have more Uranium dissolved into its waters than for Earth.

Maybe a practical extraction method will be possible: https://engineering.stanford.edu/magazi … lear-power

Or in any case there may be minable deposits of nuclear fuels, and the seas could act as radiators.

And the sea water could be a source of Deuterium, which I think if 5 times as prevalent on Mars as for Earth.

As for maintaining an atmosphere, just remove Oxygen from Rocks.

Tesla Bots, and automation may be able to do the extraction.

Well, those are possible options.

I think that would be easier than trying to convert Mars to be more Earth like per plate tectonics.

Done.

.

Last edited by Void (2023-05-17 20:12:53)


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#22 2023-05-18 05:49:15

Mars_B4_Moon
Member
Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

Martian crust like heavy armour

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Mart … r_999.html

Combining their newly obtained results with existing data on the gravity and topography of Mars, the researchers were able to determine the thickness of the Martian crust. It averages 42 to 56 kilometres (26 - 35 miles). On average, the crust is thinnest at the Isidis impact basin at ~10 km (6 miles), and thickest at Tharsis province at ~90 km (56 miles). To put this into perspective, seismic data indicates that the Earth's crust has an average thickness of 21 to 27 kilometres (13 - 17 miles), while the lunar crust, as determined by the Apollo mission seismometers is between 34 and 43 kilometre (21 - 27 miles) thick.

"This means that the Martian crust is much thicker than that of the Earth or the Moon," says Kim. Generally, smaller planetary bodies in our solar system have a thicker crust than the larger bodies. Kim explains, "We were fortunate to observe this quake. On Earth, we would have difficulty determining the thickness of the Earth's crust using the same magnitude of quake that occurred on Mars. While Mars is smaller than the Earth, it transports seismic energy more efficiently."

One of the most important results of this research concerns the difference between the northern and southern hemispheres of Mars. This contrast has been observed for as long as there have been telescopes; it is particularly visible in images from Mars satellites. The northern hemisphere on Mars consists of flat lowlands, while there are high plateaus in the south. The division between northern lowlands and southern highlands is called a Martian dichotomy.

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#23 2023-06-23 05:58:21

Mars_B4_Moon
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Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

Zhurong Mars rover reveals surprisingly weak magnetic field in Mars’ Utopia Basin, contrasting Elysium Planitia's strong field. The basin may be naturally unmagnetized or the impact site was demagnetized.

https://twitter.com/CNSAWatcher/status/ … 3726641157

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#24 2023-06-27 13:12:45

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,755

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

If we were patient, an orbital super-conducting ring would provide a way of restarting the core on Mars.  We attach solar sails to the ring, which are reflective on one side but black on the other.  Sunlight pressure would spin the ring.  As it spins, the magnetic field lines would induce eddy currents in the molten mantle, heating it up.  Unfortunately it would probably take the age of the solar system to heat up 165 billion cubic kilometres of rock by any appreciable amount.


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

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#25 2023-06-27 19:57:32

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Re-starting the Martian core

I actually watch the movie about how a special vehicle designed to basically melt its way to the liquid layer surrounding the solid core where the convention motion which had stopped was sent back into motion by setting off explosions via nuclear detonation at a times circular rotation timing to cause the liquid to ring like a stone skipped across a pond.

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