
Atmosphere's worth of dry ice found at Mars south pole - evo_9
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/04/mars-south-pole-holds-nearly-an-atmospheres-worth-of-co2.ars
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ericb
While part of me likes that this doesn't have a breathless tone about
terraforming possibilities, another part of me really would like to hear some
intelligent analysis of the impact on terraforming possibilities.

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MichaelApproved
Without larger magnetic field the sun would blow the atmosphere into space.

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ericb
How does the atmosphere it has now remain there?

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MichaelApproved
I believe small amount left is relative to the small amount of magnetism
protecting from the solar winds.

<http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-atmosphere-00b.html>

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protomyth
What is the actual story of Mars's magnetic field and would we ever have the
tech to create one?

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rflrob
As things stand now, we don't have a perfect understanding of how the Earth's
core works. Even if we did, though, the amount of energy that would be
required to start up a magnetic field on another planet would be, well,
astronomical. Keep in mind, the planet weighs 6x10^23 kilograms. A full mole
of kilograms is going to take a lot to get spinning.

Will we ever have that much energy at our disposal? That depends on how likely
you think humans are to a) annihilate ourselves and b) continue our roughly
exponential growth of technology indefinitely.

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wlesieutre
Should we ever have that much energy at our disposal, I think we're pretty
likely to annihilate ourselves with it

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ck2
China is building 400 nuclear reactors over the next 30 years, that would do
it.

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DEADBEEF
Not even close.

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neuro_home
reminds me of Total Recall.

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covercash
Welcome to Hacker News! I see your account is brand new, so please accept this
HN pointer...

I'm sure plenty of people thought of Total Recall when reading the headline,
but most realized that it didn't actually contribute anything of substance to
the conversation. If we were on reddit, I'd chime in with a Schwarzenegger
quote and it would cascade into an Arnold quote thread, we'd all have a laugh
and move on with our lives. But this is HN where we try not to be your typical
Internet hangout. If you can't add value to the discussion, just read and
appreciate what others have to say.

