The article says that volcanism is the reason, and that solar heating would not cause this result on its own, even though it's everyone's first guess.
This is not likely the sole reason, but it must be a factor.
Mercury does have a magnetic field, Mars does not.
It doesn't have a magnetic field, but that could be due to the slow rotation.
There would be little point in terraforming Mars. There’s plenty of places on Earth to terraform
In our lifetimes, unlikely. Over the next 1 million years? Maybe.
But acting on it at this point is tragic premature optimization. Musk isn't a stupid person so I have to think in his heart he knows his story is more about PR and being seen as a visionary as something that will actually be done in the next thousand or ten thousand years. Even if there is some climate catastrophe that causes 99% of the population to die out and any civilization to collapse, the remaining 1% are better off on Earth than trying to spend their limited manpower to get to Mars, even if some crazy trillionaire has established a beachhead there.
As an analogy, it feels like some person living paycheck to paycheck and having only $20 to spare at the end of each pay period and saving up that money ... not to invest it in some way that improves their lot, but to hire a tax attorney to help them plan how to shelter $1B in income in case they win the lottery.
Musk was initially written off initially as crazy for every one of his successful business ventures.
And it's his money to spend as he sees fit.
You can create habitats from scratch, or you can have colonies on the moon.
Even Mercury is better than Mars.
No. It's some combination of cowardice, greed and ego, by those involved.
You can bet your ass those guys are not thinking about saving the species. Lol. Furthest thing from their minds.
Solve the Earth's problems on Earth instead, no need to run off to Mars.
That's just kicking the can down the road.
I'm going to steal this.
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If you admit that terraforming, even after it's 'done', will require an ongoing maintenance effort, it's simple (but not easy). Eg you can use satellites to spin up an artificial magnetic field to shield against solar wind.
However, I suspect terraforming planets is a waste. Far more bang for your buck to build habitats in space from scratch (eg out of asteroids), than to go down another gravity well. You can spin them for artificial 'gravity'. And you can situate them close to earth where logistics of resupply and communication and trade are much more favourable.
Otherwise, Mercury is the planet to colonise, not Mars.
Mercury gets extremely hot in the sun, and extremely cold at night. So if you dig a bit under the surface it all evens out. Pick the right latitude, and you can get basically any average temperature you feel like, including a comfortable 20C.
(Otherwise, even on the surface it's easy to get comfy temperatures, if you bring retractable parasols. Just don't expect to stroll around outside the base.)
Mercury has the benefit compared to Mars that solar power is extremely plentiful.
edit: Plus, it's nice to split our eggs into multiple planetary baskets. And I suspect people would feel a bit happier living on the surface of a chilly Mars than to become mole people on Mercury, even if it is easier. Maybe summer and winter homes?
Venus has too much atmosphere. That's the problem.
Whether or not Theia was the cause - having a fast-spinning Earth and huge satellite in a low orbit* make Earth's situation profoundly different from that of Venus.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon#System_evolution for starters
Still a favorite after 30 years.
That's some brave stuff to try to pull off.
That likely resulted in many species going extinct!
Many of our iron ore deposits we still mine today are from that rusting. (That iron used to be mostly dissolved in the oceans.)
pfdietz•3h ago
taneq•2h ago
westmeal•2h ago
est31•2h ago
pfdietz•2h ago
This scheme would have some negative aspects.
BTW, hydrogen on Mars is enriched in D by a factor of 5 relative to Earth.
taneq•30m ago