The window for life to take root across broad stretches of the Martian surface may have closed shortly after the first microbes evolved on Earth.

New results from NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft suggest that the Red Planet lost most of its carbon dioxide-dominated atmosphere — which had kept Mars relatively warm and allowed the planet to support liquid surface water — to space about 3.7 billion years ago.

“We think that all of the action took place between about 4.2 to 3.7 billion years ago,” MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky, of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder, told Space.com.
http://www.space.com/31031-mars-atmosphere-discovery-nasa-maven.html

The loss of the magnetic field is the culprit according to the latest theories but who really knows?

How would they be able to know if Mars ever had a magnetic field?

• How would they be able to know if Mars ever had a magnetic field?

Look inside the rocks…

look for fossil domains in the rocks. or something like that.

Peak Warming Man said:

How would they be able to know if Mars ever had a magnetic field?

we could build a magnetic field for mars

Peak Warming Man said:

How would they be able to know if Mars ever had a magnetic field?

It influences the habit of ferromagnetic minerals. We were able to use such things to chart the “magnetic history” of earth in quite some detail.

As yet, of course, we don’t have such detailed information on Mars.

Using seismology, the detailed structure of Mars’s interior could be examined but

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Ultimately though, the reason Mars lost its atmosphere was because of its mass. In the long term, it just doesn’t have a deep enough gravitational well to retain a light molecule atmosphere indefinitely. (At likely temperatures, there will be a significant % of molecules that exceed the escape speed).

Peak Warming Man said:

How would they be able to know if Mars ever had a magnetic field?

it will be in the real estate section

3 bedroom house on mars

comes with magnetic field

• Ultimately though, the reason Mars lost its atmosphere was because of its mass. In the long term, it just doesn’t have a deep enough gravitational well to retain a light molecule atmosphere indefinitely. (At likely temperatures, there will be a significant % of molecules that exceed the escape speed).

So speculation about terraforming Mars is just fanciful fiction? Even if it was possible it would ultimately be a waste of time?

it would last a while if we could do it.

furious said:

• Ultimately though, the reason Mars lost its atmosphere was because of its mass. In the long term, it just doesn’t have a deep enough gravitational well to retain a light molecule atmosphere indefinitely. (At likely temperatures, there will be a significant % of molecules that exceed the escape speed).

So speculation about terraforming Mars is just fanciful fiction? Even if it was possible it would ultimately be a waste of time?

I think that’s what happens in the Kim Stanley Robinson Mars book the terraforming fails in the long run and they decide not to go to extreme lengths by using nuclear weapons to heat the planetary core

furious said:

• Ultimately though, the reason Mars lost its atmosphere was because of its mass. In the long term, it just doesn’t have a deep enough gravitational well to retain a light molecule atmosphere indefinitely. (At likely temperatures, there will be a significant % of molecules that exceed the escape speed).

So speculation about terraforming Mars is just fanciful fiction? Even if it was possible it would ultimately be a waste of time?

The general mail is that Mars could retain the atmosphere for tens of millions of years at least. “Ultimately” it would need to be redone and on that time line we can probably not even imagine the technologies that we have at our disposal.

But I mean ultimately the solar system will die. Ultimately there will be no matter in the universe. Tens of millions of years is a long time by human standards.

So, not completely futile then…

Does Mars have a molten core?
Does it get any heat from nuclear decay?

Over.

• Does Mars have a molten core?

Not any more, I think…

wookiemeister said:

Peak Warming Man said:

How would they be able to know if Mars ever had a magnetic field?

it will be in the real estate section

3 bedroom house on mars

comes with magnetic field

shakes head

dv said:

furious said:

• Ultimately though, the reason Mars lost its atmosphere was because of its mass. In the long term, it just doesn’t have a deep enough gravitational well to retain a light molecule atmosphere indefinitely. (At likely temperatures, there will be a significant % of molecules that exceed the escape speed).

So speculation about terraforming Mars is just fanciful fiction? Even if it was possible it would ultimately be a waste of time?

The general mail is that Mars could retain the atmosphere for tens of millions of years at least. “Ultimately” it would need to be redone and on that time line we can probably not even imagine the technologies that we have at our disposal.

But I mean ultimately the solar system will die. Ultimately there will be no matter in the universe. Tens of millions of years is a long time by human standards.

And then the universe and the Levant become pointless, meaningless.
Without any life to observe it the universe in all reality does not exist

>Without any life to observe it the universe in all reality does not exist

Physics says: bollocks.

• Physics says: bollocks.

The universe came into existence at the moment of my birth and will cease to exist upon my death

furious said:

• Physics says: bollocks.

The universe came into existence at the moment of my birth and will cease to exist upon my death

That’s your universe, not “the” universe.

• That’s your universe, not “the” universe.

From my perspective they are one and the same…

furious said:

• That’s your universe, not “the” universe.

From my perspective they are one and the same…

As the saying goes, it’s not all about thee.

Bubblecar said:

furious said:

• Physics says: bollocks.

The universe came into existence at the moment of my birth and will cease to exist upon my death

That’s your universe, not “the” universe.

The universe is indifferent to our existence it’ll go on doing what it does whether we exist or not

We all just get a quick peep into whatever it is, then blow away in the wind.

you’d set up some solar panels and wind a HVDC power grid around the belly of the planet

the power grid would distribute power to the martians and create a large magnetic field to ward of particles from the sun and shield the planet

wookiemeister said:

you’d set up some solar panels and wind a HVDC power grid around the belly of the planet

the power grid would distribute power to the martians and create a large magnetic field to ward of particles from the sun and shield the planet

Going underground would be easier

Cymek said:

wookiemeister said:

you’d set up some solar panels and wind a HVDC power grid around the belly of the planet

the power grid would distribute power to the martians and create a large magnetic field to ward of particles from the sun and shield the planet

Going underground would be easier

yes but having a magnetic field would be a bonus

if you are on the surface you aren’t as exposed

you could tag a martian broadband network to the power line around the planet

most people might live on the equator

a smaller team might live in the polar regions

Don’t forget a maglev train around the equator too…

furious said:

Don’t forget a maglev train around the equator too…

oh course, goes without saying

Peak Warming Man said:

Does Mars have a molten core?
Does it get any heat from nuclear decay?

Over.

The internal structure of Mars is not well known. The common view at present is that there is a solid core which probably has a small overlying liquid layer.

Yes it gets some heat from nuclear decay.

If only we had unlimited knowledge.

> Mars atmosphere gone by 3.7 billion years ago

Or earlier. I’ve seen a paper on the loss of a planetary atmosphere due to the hydrodynamic shock resulting from collision with a protoplanet. I’ve also seen a simulation in which the extent of a planetary atmosphere was found to be random, the final result being a function of the mass, collision speed and initial orbit of the protoplanets that coalesced to form the final rocky planet.