
NASA proposes a magnetic shield to protect Mars' atmosphere (2017) - ColanR
https://phys.org/news/2017-03-nasa-magnetic-shield-mars-atmosphere.html
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java-man
I wonder if it makes sense also to deorbit Phobos (instead of exploding a
thermonuclear device on the surface per Elon Musk suggestion). The resulting
series of collisions might release enough CO2 to create a denser atmosphere.

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ColanR
I think the magnetic shield would still be needed, though, since the solar
wind would otherwise just strip away the new atmosphere.

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java-man
Do both! I think the magnetic shield is an excellent idea.

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ColanR
If we ever end of doing the deorbit, I really want to see a video of the
impact. That would be intense.

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simonblack
If we can't fix our own planet from our (so far) relatively minor
degradations, we have no hope whatsoever that we can expect to completely
change another planet without our copious earthly resources around to help us.

It's a bit like the announcements "Wow! We've found a planet that we could
live on easily!". The only problem being that planet is 'only' 200 light years
away. Two hundred light years. It's going to take the Voyager space craft
_thousands of years_ to reach an equivalent distance of the nearest star which
is but a mere FOUR light years away.

Whistling in the wind.

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lxmorj
I would argue that the manipulation of the interactions of geological & solar
radiation systems is orders of magnitude less unpredictable than manipulating
intentionally manipulating living systems on a living planet.

