The red planet owes its barren nature mostly to the loss of its magnetic field some 4.2 billion years ago, without that protection solar winds gradually took away what remained of its atmosphere. However, it is not too late according to some scientists.
A NASA-led team of scientists has proposed a preposterous idea so much so that it could actually work which dictates that a magnetic shield to be situated at the L1, Lagrange Point beyond the Martian planet creating an artificial magnetosphere to deflect solar winds and incoming radiation.
Simulations suggested that the atmosphere consequently would get thick enough for the carbon dioxide ice to melt at Mars northern pole, triggering a greenhouse gas effect melting some water ice and restoring some of Mars oceans.
The notion is not as farfetched as it sounds, as research is already underway into inflatable structures that may create mini-magnetospheres. However, the quandary steps in whilst taking into account the amount of time it would take for the atmosphere to thicken and the temperatures to rise.
The magnetic shield to block the space radiation and contribute to a sort of terraforming, but according to researchers even such a relatively quick change could take decades. Amongst all the Mars propaganda and talks of interplanetary migrations such, an idea merely on the proverbial table could prove to be fortuitous for the time to come.
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