If we built a large moon close to Mars, could we make Mars a living world?
If we made a large moon near Mars, the tidal forces would encourage the tectonic system to rev up again, and start up the inner dynamo effect. There would be volcanoes, producing a new atmosphere, which would capture more of the sun's heat and promote warm humid conditions for life.
To make the moon, it would be necessary to merge Phobos and Deimos and to figure out a domino effect among large bodies of the solar system which would send them all into the same orbit of Mars somewhere where they would join up.
Would we be able to make Mars have oceans again?
What technology plans could we develop to make a new moon possible?
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/62758. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Assuming that you are right that a large moon could actually gets Mars tectonic and magnetic system working again... (which is an interesting idea)
So after merging Phobos and Deimos and getting them in the right orbit, take the four largest asteroids in our solar system and send probes to them. Set up some nuclear reactors and a lot of EM drives and put them on a transfer orbit to Mars.
Several years/decades go by while the delta V for all that mass is adjusted and the transfer happens, and during that time the asteroids can be shaped by robots to fit better together. While the new moons gravity will have an effect on Mars, Mars will also have an effect on the new moon, and tidal forces could break it apart, which would be disastrous for any teraforming plans. Having the pieces fit together could make permanently fusing them much easier.
Once a magnetic field has been restarted, which will help deflect solar rays and keep them from removing the atmosphere, you need to make an atmosphere. Get a bunch of ice chunks and send them toward Mars the same way. These you can impact into Mars in the Borealis basin, as that area will all be under water eventually anyway.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads