The idea to raise the temperature on Mars arose soon after it became clear that its surface was cold even for microbial life. Over the past decades, many theories have been put forward on how to warm the Red Planet, including Elon Musk’s idea of dropping a lot of thermonuclear bombs on the planet. In a new work, US scientists have substantiated a practical way to warm Mars, which is 5000 times more effective than previous proposals.
Transformation of Mars. Image source: Daein Ballard/ Wikipedia
It has been studied that the average temperature on Mars is -62 °C. This is too low even for the life of bacteria and microbes. An increase in this temperature by at least 10 °C would be the start of the process of terraforming the planet. Basically, ideas for raising the temperature of Mars were built around the need to deliver raw materials from Earth or extract rare resources on the planet itself. In all cases, the starting point for the calculations was the maximum return from the processes that increase the temperature on Mars, which immediately raised the price of the issue to sky-high heights.
A group of scientists from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Central Florida have proposed another solution that promises to be 5,000 times more effective than previous proposals. Researchers have proposed spraying nanoparticles into the Martian atmosphere, made on site from common raw materials there – iron and aluminum, which are rich in the ubiquitous Martian dust.
On Earth, as we know, humanity is beginning to suffer from global warming, an aggravation of which it could itself provoke through industrialization. Emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols into the atmosphere play an important role in this process. In a similar way, but under strict control, it is possible to raise the temperature on Mars, a new study shows. A special form of nanoparticles, somewhat reminiscent of ordinary glitter, will help to effectively scatter the light of the Sun reflected from the surface of the planet.
According to the researchers, the threshold for reaching a temperature acceptable for microbial life is not that high. It is enough to inject nanoparticles into the Martian atmosphere at a rate of 36 liters per second, so that within a few months the planet will become 10 °C warmer. This is the most realistic scenario of all those proposed earlier, as calculations show. Moreover, the warming process is completely reversible. It is enough to stop introducing nanoparticles into the atmosphere and it will get colder on Mars again.
Researchers also believe that there is no need to strive to create conditions for people to live on Mars without spacesuits and other protection. For the first and main stage of climate change on the planet, a breakthrough will be microbial life for agricultural purposes, for which the planet does not need to warm up that much. Microbes and bacteria will be able to provide the Martian colony with food and may begin to gradually fill the atmosphere with oxygen. But this will be a different and very slow story. Atomic bombing will definitely not help with this.