Colonizing Mars would require a stable atmosphere that doesn’t lose too many particles or bombard human bodies with too much radiation. Now, scientists from renowned universities and organizations, including NASA’s chief scientist James Lauer Green, suggest that humans can be protected from mars’ deadly atmosphere just by jumpstarting the planet’s magnetic field.

“For a long-term human presence on Mars to be established, serious thought would need to be given to terraforming the planet,” the team wrote in a new paper set to appear in the journal Acta Astronautica in January 2022, first reported by Universe Today. “One major requirement for such terraforming is having the protection of a planetary magnetic field which Mars currently does not have.”

Power of a fridge magnet is enough

Our planet’s magnetic field is strong, while Mars’ is weak and fragmented. One of the first goals of terraforming, as per the paper, would be increasing the atmospheric pressure above the Armstrong Limit, which is the limit humans can survive without a pressure suit.

Below that pressure limit, water inside the lungs, eyes, and saliva boils, the team notes in the paper. So how strong should be the magnetic field of Mars for humans to survive? The team says that the force required to deflect solar wind is similar to a fridge magnet. But that needs to be generated over the entire planet.

Can this be pulled off?

The team also suggests a few ways it can be done, including restarting and circulating Mars’ iron core, creating a continuous solid loop, or making use of a chain of paired sources with a controlled beam.

Previously, scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology came up with a concept to enable producing rocket fuel on Mars that can be used to send a crew back to Earth. The bioproduction concept would use resources available on mars including carbon dioxide, sunlight, and frozen water. However, the process would need transporting of a pair of microbes to Mars.