|
|
|
|
|
|
by nickparker
3303 days ago
|
|
|
The lack of a magnetosphere is less of an issue than popular science claims it is. The current atmosphere weighs about 25 terratonnes[1] and MAVEN estimated solar wind is removing 100 grams/sec[2]. That's an annual loss rate of 0.12 parts per billion (10e-10). A thicker atmosphere might strip more quickly, but we only want to thicken it by 2 orders of magnitude. Even if the loss fraction increases quadratically with pressure at 0m altitude, that gets you 10e-6, a millionth o your atmosphere per year, or about 1% every 10,000 years. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars [2]: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-mission-reveals-spee... |
|
|