Great Country Academician

Chapter 989 Terraforming Mars~

As his eyes fell on the document in his hand, staring at the Mars atmosphere transformation plan described by Xu Chuan, Academician Chang Huaxiang's eyes were full of interest.

Terraforming Mars is actually a very complicated task.

For example, the improvement and reconstruction of the atmosphere is not just about transporting air from the earth to cover the surface of Mars, or stimulating the carbon dioxide inside the Martian soil to create a greenhouse environment.

In the current situation of Mars, even if they transplant artificial atmosphere on the surface of Mars through various means, it will be lost quickly because of its weak magnetic field and gravity, which makes it difficult to protect itself.

In particular, the lack of magnetic field is one of the key reasons for the disappearance of the surface atmosphere of Mars.

According to astronomers' observations of Mars, Mars once had a much thicker and warmer atmosphere than it does now.

Although the thickness cannot be compared with that of the Earth, it is enough to ensure that the surface of Mars forms a warm environment and allows water resources to flow on the ground.

Today, the thickness of the atmosphere of Mars is only one percent of that of the Earth.

The core reason is the disappearance of Mars' magnetic field, so that the strong solar wind has blown away a large number of atmospheric molecules on the surface of Mars in the past few billion years.

It is estimated that about 1 million tons of gas are blown away by the solar wind every year, and this is the assessment made by astronomers on the situation of Mars after entering the 21st century.

If it was in ancient times, this speed might be faster.

After all, the activity of the sun was more frequent and intense in ancient times.

In order to make Mars have a living environment like the earth, reconstructing the atmosphere is important, but more importantly, it is to give Mars a magnetic field that is enough to protect itself!

If the atmosphere is the umbrella of life, then the magnetic field is the umbrella of the atmosphere.

Only when Mars regains its magnetic field and has the ability to resist the blowing of solar wind and external radiation interference can the atmosphere exist stably on Mars.

In other words, the atmosphere and magnetic field of Mars must be constructed together.

It can even be said that restoring the magnetic field of Mars is the first step in transforming Mars.

Because only by restoring the magnetic field can the atmosphere and moisture of Mars be effectively protected and no longer stripped away by the solar wind.

It is not meaningful to construct or transform only one of them for the Mars terraforming project.

However, how to make Mars have a magnetic field is no less difficult than rebuilding the atmosphere of Mars, and it can even be said to be greater.

After all, this is a huge planet, and it is conceivable how difficult it is to transform it with human power.

Of course, there are ways.

To build a planet's magnetic field, you must know the source of the planet's magnetic field.

Taking the mother planet Earth as an example, the core of the Earth is composed of metal elements such as iron and nickel.

In the center of the Earth, these iron and nickel will melt into liquid due to the high temperature of more than 5,000 degrees Celsius.

When these liquid iron-nickel alloys move at the junction of the mantle and the core, due to the influence of the speed difference, extremely large currents will be formed. The intensity of these currents is far beyond the imagination of ordinary people, and the magnetic field derived from them is enough to extend tens of thousands of kilometers into space to form the Earth's magnetic circle.

This is the current mainstream view of the scientific community on the cause of the formation of the Earth's core magnetic field.

If it is difficult to understand, you can imagine the Earth as a bearing, with the inner and outer circles being the Earth's core and mantle respectively.

The "rotating beads" between the two are liquid iron-nickel alloys and other materials that are distributed between the core and the mantle.

When the inner and outer rings of the bearing rotate at different speeds, the steel ball (liquid iron-nickel alloy) in the middle of the bearing will rotate, thereby generating energy (high-intensity current)

The only difference from the Earth is that in the past few billion years, due to the cooling of the core of Mars and the reduced activity of the iron-nickel molten core, Mars has lost its magnetic field.

As for the reason, humans may not know it yet.

It may be because Mars did not suffer from large-scale meteorite impacts like the Earth billions of years ago, which caused the temperature of the core of Mars to drop too fast.

Of course, it is also possible that the opposite is true, and the slowdown in the movement of the core of Mars is caused by a large-scale impact countless years ago.

However, for the current terraforming of Mars, how to reconstruct the magnetic field of Mars is the most important.

As for the method, in theory, it is similar to reconstructing the atmosphere of Mars. There are two methods.

One is to block the attack of solar wind and cosmic rays by using external forces.

For example, placing a satellite with magnetic force on Mars to shield the impact of solar wind on the atmosphere of Mars.

The current solution recommended by the scientific community is to place a large artificial space station at the Lagrange point L1 between the sun and Mars.

The main function of the space station is an electromagnet that protects Mars through the magnetic field generated by the electromagnet.

Or a set of room-temperature superconducting devices surrounding the equator, north and south poles of Mars can be built to provide energy through a controlled nuclear fusion reactor to provide a shielding and protective magnetic field for the entire planet.

These are all methods of providing additional magnetic fields by building equipment outside Mars to block solar wind and cosmic radiation.

The other method still relies on Mars itself.

Just like stimulating greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor in the Martian soil to reconstruct the Martian atmosphere and temperature.

The main means of reconstructing the magnetic field of Mars can still be implemented on Mars itself.

Through the research, investigation and exploration of Mars in recent years, the scientific community has confirmed that Mars, like the Earth, has a core composed of iron and nickel metal.

It's just that this core is no longer as hot and active as the Earth's core, which also means that the current intensity generated during the convection movement is not strong enough, and then the magnetic field is not strong enough.

But as long as there is a metal core and it has not stopped running completely, there is a way to make it "active" again.

For example, by using a large-yield nuclear weapon to shake the core of Mars and reheat the movement of the iron-nickel core of Mars.

For this idea, I believe many people have seen similar operations in the science fiction movie "Earth Center Rescue".

In the movie, a mysterious force is hindering the normal operation of the earth, and the rotation of the core is about to stop.

In order to save the earth and all mankind, scientists organized a special operations team. They planned to take an underground spacecraft to the center of the earth and detonate a special device there to ensure the normal operation of the earth.

Theoretically, it is indeed possible to destroy the core of Mars through nuclear weapons, so that it can be melted again and generate a magnetic field.

However, this method is extremely difficult in actual operation because it is necessary to drill to a very deep depth on Mars.

Even though the diameter of Mars is much smaller than that of the earth, only about half of that of the earth.

But for current human technology, it is still an almost insurmountable distance.

You should know that the deepest borehole that humans have dug on Earth is only the Kola Superdeep Borehole of the former Red Su, with a depth of 12,263 meters.

And this depth, compared to the radius of Mars of nearly 3,400 kilometers, is not even counted.

Therefore, the feasibility of this plan is relatively low, and it is much more difficult to implement than to provide additional magnetic fields by building equipment outside Mars to block solar wind and cosmic radiation.

However, in the Mars transformation report in his hand, Xu Chuan also proposed two other directions to "stimulate" the magnetic field of Mars.

The first method is to activate the greenhouse gases contained in the Martian soil through large-scale bombing operations.

However, what is needed to activate the core of Mars is not nuclear weapons, but meteorites and asteroids of "moderate mass"!

That's right, after a detailed exploration of the gravity field of Mars and a gravity map, a supercomputer is used to calculate the traction form of the Martian crust. It can be confirmed how large and heavy the meteorite or asteroid is needed to accurately transmit the shock wave generated by the impact to the core of Mars.

In theory, it is completely feasible to guide the force to the core of Mars and reactivate it through the shock wave generated by the meteorite impact.

And this plan is not the first time Xu Chuan has proposed it.

As early as the last century when humans set foot in space and began to explore Mars, someone proposed this idea.

However, unlike the meteorite impact action in the Mars transformation report in his hand, in the past, most of the plans to restart the magnetic field of Mars were to hit Mars with one or more large enough planets to achieve the purpose of reactivating the metal core of Mars.

But the plan proposed by Xu Chuan is much more detailed.

Hundreds or even thousands of asteroids or meteorites of different sizes and weights are used to impact Mars in batches.

Using shock waves in different directions, combined with the distribution of Mars' own gravity field, the core is pulled to make the core work again.

At the same time, the water ice resources carried by asteroids and meteorites and

It has to be said that this plan is far crazier than building equipment outside Mars to provide additional magnetic fields.

Because the technology currently controlled by humans is still far from the technology to plan a "space collision" accident.

Although the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter can provide sufficient meteorites and asteroids, how to stop these asteroids and transport them to the vicinity of Mars' orbit, and even let them fall accurately to the point where they need to hit, is a very difficult task, and various problems and technical difficulties need to be solved.

Moreover, let alone capturing meteorites, it is currently difficult for humans to even recycle space junk in space.

Not to mention controlling meteorites to hit planets.

In addition, the degree is not easy to control. If you use too much force, it will be even more troublesome to scrap Mars, the backup server of the earth.

So in general, the idea of ​​activating the core of Mars by impacting it with meteorites is far less mature and appropriate than the plan of placing a large artificial space station on the Lagrange point L1 between the sun and Mars to shield the solar wind.

However, in Xu Chuan's transformation report, meteorites hitting Mars to stimulate the core has another function.

That is to replace large-scale nuclear weapons to carry out a comprehensive saturation strike on the surface of Mars, and in the basic function of activating the core of Mars, it plays a role in releasing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor in the soil of Mars.

In addition, the impact of a large number of meteorites and asteroids can pull the continental plates of Mars to a certain extent, causing a slight displacement of the plates, while activating the volcanoes on the surface of Mars that had long been dormant in the past.

Just like the asteroid that caused the extinction of dinosaurs 67 million years ago hit the earth.

In addition to the dust raised by the asteroid with a diameter of about 10 kilometers hitting the earth, the impact itself also affected the earth's plates and caused a large number of volcanic eruptions.

And these huge volcanic groups erupted a large amount of volcanic ash, carbon dioxide, water vapor, sulfur compounds and other substances in this impact event.

For the earth, these are the culprits of the extinction of life.

But for the now desolate Mars, it will become an important milestone in transforming the planet and making it suitable for life to live again.

They can greatly change the atmosphere of Mars and quickly add a certain amount of various gases to the thin atmosphere.

In addition to "bombing" Mars with a large number of meteorites or asteroids, in terms of activating the magnetic field of Mars, there is also a way to transport a "Ceres" or "Ceres dwarf planet" to Mars orbit as a companion to Mars.

Just like the Earth of the Moon, theoretically, the gravity of the large celestial body orbiting Mars can act as a mixer on the core of Mars.

This can melt and activate the frozen core of Mars again, thereby activating the magnetic field of Mars.

And it can also act as a protective umbrella for Mars to prevent Mars from being hit by too strong asteroids or meteorites.

However, in this plan, Xu Chuan marked it as too difficult and impossible to achieve in a short time.

But he regarded this plan as an optional plan to continue to optimize and transform Mars in the "future".

If technology has developed to the point where it can promote the control of dwarf planets in the next century or several centuries, then giving Mars a satellite will be the key to keeping its core young for hundreds of millions or even billions of years.

PS: There will be another chapter later, which may be late, so everyone should read it in the morning.

In addition, I recommend the new book of this big guy.

The upper nine classes are Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and the lower nine classes are hundreds of craftsmen.

But in troubled times.

Immortals are not immortals, demons are not demons, monsters are not monsters, and Buddhas are not Buddhas.

Fortunately, Lin Ke is here.

The skills of witch doctors, musicians and hundreds of craftsmen are all used, integrating the supreme cultivation method.

"There are eight million geniuses throughout history. Now that I have been born, do not make a sound."