Could We Give Mars a Magnetic Field? 

We're going to build a magnetosphere and Earth is going to pay for it

I live in hope that some day, I'll see some grand question posed in the title, sit through the little jingle, then Caitlin just smiles and says "No." Cue patreon information and outro music

If Mars is ever to sustain life over more than a million years, it would need a better magnetic field that does not require human maintenance.

We could, but should we? If we gave Mars a magnetic field, the outcome would be both positive and negative.

Everyone needs to read the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, it goes into this in a lot of depth

Step one - stretch really really really long booster cables from Earth to Mars. Step two - start up Mars' magnet field generator - gently give it gas, don't flood the engine. It's cold so maybe add some fuel line antifreeze.

So let me get this straight: Cost: If we did as you suggest, there's an infinitesimally small possibly we'd destroy a habitat that supports Martian microbes which we've never actually found (4:50). Benefit: If we did as you suggest, at least for the next 5 billion years, we essentially make humanity extinction-proof. How is this not a no-brainer?

We shall take a boring flamethrower with us and melt all the ice!

Yes, let's create global warming on Mars

mars lost its magnetic field 4.2 billion years ago....first life on earth 4 billion years ago...coinsidence??? *xfiles music intensifies

Recently I discovered amazing futurology channel Isaac Arthur, and now sci-show itself touches terraforming topic. I'm so happy.

Elon musk get to it man!

Saw title, thought "someone has been watching Isaac Arthur." *Isaac Arthur for Galactic Imperator!!!*

If that process takes a long time, then the temporary solution would be to build a small underground city to shield us from the radiation, and that would make it easier to keep the air in. And we can have greenhouses above-ground to have plants doing photosynthesis, and if there's not enough sunlight on Mars we can help them a bit with some lights

Sci show fix! Day enhanced. Cheers Sci show. 🤘😄🤘

Mars will be thicc as hell

This Project as a Huge Flaw, the idea of a eletro magnetic device on the planet, should be the definitive course of action! By putting one into space, if someting happens to it ( micro meteorite, Meteor or Comet impact, or even something else), the human dead toll would be tremendous! Every plan should have a backup plan!

it needs a magnetic field in order to sustain life.

Working theory: Mars cools down inside, iron core stops moving, few million years later the iron's magnetic domains contained inside the planet get unaligned causing the magnetic field to disapear.

Here's an idea. Figure out a way to power several of these in space, ( www.sciencenews.org/article/spinning-core ) then launch them into an array sufficient to block the solar wind at a Lagrange point between mars and the sun. We'd obviously have to develop them a bit more to make them stronger and more efficient, plus get theme there, (falcon heavy anyone...) but there's your magnetic shield. Depending on the size of field generated, and the power requirements, this would probably be the best way to protect a ship from cosmic radiation as well.

0:13 She: 'Mars Isn't friendly for any life at all' 4:50 Also She: 'Maybe it isn't smart, because there is a possibility of alien life' but besides that, i like this vid a lot.

1. Play Astroneer. 2. Exploit planets. 3. Glitch through space and time.

In addition to the large magnetic generator positioned at the L1 Lagrange Point, maybe also have a hundred or so satellites with slightly weaker magnetic fields orbit the planet and different inclinations and altitudes to both give more rounded protection (like from cosmic rays and even radiation from Jupiter's wide-stretching magnetic storms) as well as an emergency back up system if something on the main generator goes wrong and needs to be repaired or replaced.

Love this. Great job.

We should just like... crash a bunch of asteroids into it. It’d heat it up and make it closer to earth mass.

Just slam some moons of Jupiter and Saturn into it. It would increase it's mass and gravity; remelt the planet and jump start the dynamo effect for the magnetic field; and Ganymede has oceans worth of water. While you are moving moons around you might as well give Mars own too so you can stabilize it's axial tilt.

I'm glad someone somewhere is thinking straight for ideas. we need to start thinking about htf we gon keep the atmosphere instead of using up the remainder of liquids to warm it up...only to be lost again anyway. I say keep everything how it is nice and steady(ish) and figure out this first before doing anything too drastic.

Colonizing Venus seems far more convenient. Also, living in city-sized airships seems pretty cool.

Who else wants to live on Mars?

Maybe a practice run of terraforming the moon?? It'd be pretty sweet to moltenize the core possibly restarting the magnetic field. With the level of tech required for this we may as well farm the solar system for terraforming elements that are lacking.

Mars (and it’s moons) have a surface made mostly of iron oxide. If you remove the oxygen, and place the iron as dust, in a low orbit (think Saturn’s rings) around mars, that should produce a magnetic field.

Good subject and well presented.

It wasn't that hard to TerrorForm this planet though.

I was just recently researching this causally, DOES SCISHOW HAVE THE POWER TO READ MINDS?!?!

This is the first realistic terraforming plan I've heard in a long time. Most plans ignore the reasons why Mars died in the first place. Any attempt to restore an atmosphere without first establishing a magnetic field would only see the new atmosphere blown away just like Mars' original one. Terraforming a dead planet into another earth is a very romantic idea which generates donations for sketchy nonprofits which tend to be the sole source of income for the founders, and most plans just ignore the lack of a planetary magnetic field. So great to finally see someone addressing the central problem which has to be solved before any atmosphere generating scheme could work.

Wonderful sci-fi for the time being

How about just giving mars a decent sized moon....

Also imagine if we do colonize Mars and u have kids in there. Ur kids would be ALIENS.

This is so cool

Mars:I dont have a atmosphere *gets it back* Nasa:DAMN BOY YOU LOOKING KINDA THICC

I like the LoZ reference.

Planets are overrated. Just build space stations.

Build a small magnetic deflector unit (powered by PV's panels). Build lots of them and align them to deflect charged particles away from Mars in incremental amounts by shaping them into a cone (with the point toward the sun). Have them maintain their positions relative to each other based on the primary unit positioning itself between Mars and the Sun. (I've had this idea in mind for quite a while :-)

One of the problems I see when going with an installation like this is that, Even thoug the Mars L1 point helps with holding it in place, the momentum of the solar wind that is being deflected from mars will push that device/installation out of position so that momentum will constantly have to be counterd. In other words, that installation will constantly have to have some kind of rocket engine running. There will probably be some nuclear reactors or a verry large solar array to power the magnetic field so using some kind of ion drives seems logical, being the most efficient rocket engine of the moment.

How is this comments section not filled yet ?! Hello the video was uploaded 34 seconds ago where are those 600 first comments

Mars is way over rated we should be looking to venus and cloud citys

That was my idea! Pretty sure I commented about doing this a few years ago.

Finally a somewhat more interesting and useful question

I think we should do an atmosphere transplant from Venus to Mars when the red planet can actually sustain one. Just the Co2 to heat up the planet (it could even be the extra Greenhouse gasses from earth). Then we can introduce oxygen producing bacteria and then slowly more and more things beneficial for people. All the while people could live in domed cities documenting the changes, doing experiments, growing food, adapting to the martian environment. Slowly but surely finding answers to questions we still have.

that's why we haven't been focused on colonize Mars. the amount of work and resources to build a habitable environment there are not worth it! we are talking about a dying planet and humans that don't and probably will not have the tech to do terraforming in weeks or months to make this goal reachable. if we had a more friendly planet or moon we should focus on that. but we don't have in our solar system.

I’m actually reading a chapter about Mars right now from an astronomy book.

I was thinking if anybody thought of it, I looked it up. And they did!🔥

drop tsar bomb at ice caps

Or... We could build an object, but just move it closer to the sun. Distance is key. Somebody do the math, I'm too lazy.

What boggles me, is if you put something in space and you want it to be fixed between the planet and the sun, you want it to orbit the sun and not the planet. This means that that object will have a smaller orbit than the planet it supposed to shield/act upon, which means it will orbit the sun more quickly. So you'd want to always slow it down in order to keep it fixed, which is rather impractical, be it efficiency, fuel its own shielding etc. So any solution of that direction is impractical. Or am I missing something?

This would be so cool

Hmm since the magnetic satellite wouldn't be orbiting Mars, I'm guessing it would be orbiting the sun. Having said that, the satellite would need to have the same period of revolution as Mars. Would that be possible given the different orbit sizes?

I'm kind of disappointed Caitlin, by the comments about science fiction. A huge chunk of things we call science now, were first envisioned as science fiction. You have to imagine it before you can invent it and that's what the better science fiction writers do. They imagine it and then scientists invent it.

Woah that's such a good idea put it at L1

Could you build a replacement "north south pole"? How powerful would the two magnets need to be to generate a field around the planet?

well that was one hell of a pointless video wasn't it? "hey we can't live in mars, but if we do this, we probably won't live in mars!"

She just states the obvious in a very complicated way

It would be WAY easier just to hit it with comets. Atmosphere would last a LONG time on human scales.

I like the little "hylian shield" moment.

Why don't we destroy Mars, then we can't go there so we don't have to think about how to go there. Problem solved, gib me nobel prize.

Nice HOWEVER I believe there are many things we can do here to make earth a better planet for living Thanks for the great video

Soooo what you're saying is we need to build a Death Star? Cool!

What if we live underground Mars? We could definitely set up a colony there on the side of a mountain. Doesn’t Metal & large amounts of dirt completely block radiation?

I don't know, I always have a hard time believing people with facial piercings. I don't know why but that's just me

So Earth people are Earthlings, mars people are martians, what do we call people on other planets?

“Should we?” Um yes, for our own good we should definitely terraform mars

Is it close enough to the sun that after u give it a field and atmosphere would it make it warm enough and how would the moons effect the tides also doesn't lighting storms help keep magnetic fields charged

@SciSHow Space: In an older proposal on the Mag Shield, (as I remember), instead of the whole planet, NASA proposed what looked like a 'safe corridor' Pole to Pole around the planet using a string of satellites (mag dipoles I presume) synchronized to Mars rotation. Couldn't locate the picture now but if such a field could be colored it would look like a wide, distant rainbow. Somehow made sense to me then, like iron filings.. Wouldn't it be cheaper to prove the technology this way?

Let the small scale experiments begin!

I would be curious to know if instead of a typical magnetic field, a radio or microwave field of some kind would be strong enough to shield the planet. It would be easier to generate a "radio field" large enough to cover the area needed, as long as the frequency used could actually deflect solar winds. My train of thought is based on radio/microwave/x-ray/gamma rays being apart of the electromagnetic spectrum, and maybe interacting with solar winds... Maybe just a crazy thought.

there is algae or similar microorganisms on mars. that live in craters, rivers and canyons that are deep and warm enough to support pools of water

Thank you, SciFiShow. It must have been a slow week, hah?

The best theory on this is that about 4.2m years ago a asteroid or comet hit mars and stopped its internal mechanism. Some scientists and geologists believe that if it got hit by another asteroid of the same size it might kick start the internal mechanism again.

Great video of sci space

In addition to the artificial magentic field, start harvesting and herding ice asteroids to impact the poles of Mars. This would melt both the ice in the asteroids as well as the ice underneath the dry ice. Kim Stanley Robinson used this idea in his Mars Trilogy books.

Great video.

Lack of pressure due to the relatively small size of Mars, caused its core to solidify. As the metals inside the core are "frozen" solid, there is no longer any motion to generate electromagnetism. Solution would be to either teleport or hyperspace-jump a sizable asteroid containing heavy metals into mars' core, this would increase the pressure and cause the core to heat up again. The rotation of the planet should slow a little bit, but this shouldn't have too much of a negative effect.

Yes that sounds good but there is a problem in that is the core of mars active or as it turned to an is mars core solid or molten can we and if it is solid can we turn it back to a molten state

What mars needs is a deflector screen. My people can help engineer an equitorial deflector screen for Mars.

Whenever people talk about colonizing Mars, that's usually the major hurdle I bring up. Until we solve that, any terraforming would only be temporary.

I massive impactor in Mars' northern hemisphere sent a shock through Mars and into the molten core and knocked out the flow of the core, reducing its magnetic field. Redirect Ceres into Mars in such a way in such a way that it not only knocks the flow back into its original state, but that the remnants of Ceres, becomes the natural satellite of Mars.

Everything seems to take much longer than I'd expect it to. Why isn't this being worked on already?

Terraform it! It’s dead, Jim. But we can bring it back to life!

Define "Field"!

Teraforming Mars will take a long time and as I see it we will have to do 2 things at the same time. 1. Introducing super greenhouse gasses to warm the planet. 2. Restore the Magnetic field of Mars. As we start with the early colonisation of Mars we will need power and the best way will be to use nuclear power. By using fast breeder reactors we can make more radioactive materials, these materials can be injected into the solidified outer core. As it's temperature rises it will melt again and through the planets rotation and convection currants the magnetic field will reassert itself. Understandably this will take a lot of drilling and a lot of time but it could be done in about 200 earth years. First colonies would be in lavatubes and in domed structures as we do this work and at the same time build some factory's that produce super greenhouse gasses to warm the atmosphere enough to melt the dry ice at the poles at which time the warming would be self-sustaining as the atmosphere thickens and gasses from the soil are released the water ice will melt and watervapour will collect in the atmosphere and push the warming further as watervapour is also a greenhouse gas. In a time span of 200 to 300 years we will have a planet with an atmosphere and a magnetic field protecting us from the worst radiation. As Mars develops a watervapour weather system oxygen will form in the upper atmosphere and under the influence of solar radiation an ozone layer will form. Further oxygenation of the atmosphere can be achieved by introducing algea to the forming ocean, and lycons to the land which will help to form soil in which we can plant first grasses and later trees. Rome wasn't built in a day so it would be foolish to think that Teraforming a planet could be done in a few decades. A lot of the resources will be available on Mars or in the asteroid belt as we build our colonies on Mars and build all necessary factories with 3D printing and become less reliant on logistics from Earth.

There is an excellent board game called Terraforming Mars that has events that are pretty much this. Highly recommended.

Wouldnt a giant magnetic confinement fusion reactor do the same?just take away sheilding and you would make energy and a feild no?

Very large mirrors to collect and refocus sunlight would do the trick for melting the polar ice caps

The presumptions of humans is just stupendous...

We shouldn't really be worried about atmosphere loss, it happens over millions of years and we can constantly replenish it.

we need to give Earth universal healthcare first

We could produce magnesite ore on the surface of mars to provide a more localized shield and then have interlocking ones as our settlements expand. They would have to be huge though..

Thank you!

Drill into the core of Mars and explode a thermonuclear device. Voila, magnetic field!

We need to figure out how to put magnetic fields around spaceships so astronauts don't fry exploring the solar system 1st