A team of engineers and geophysicists from the universities of Northwestern, Chicago and Central Florida have proposed a new method, more efficient than conventional ideas, to heat Mars and make it habitable.
The new method, detailed in the journal Science Advances, proposes creating millions of metal nanorods from materials found on the surface of Mars and releasing them into the planet’s atmosphere to capture heat from greenhouse gases more efficiently.
While space agencies are trying to colonize Mars, recent scientific efforts have focused on the goal of slightly increasing the planet’s temperature, and traditional methods have focused on releasing greenhouse gases if spread, but the ingredients necessary to generate these gases efficiently are not present on Mars.
The other option that the research team includes is metal nanorods, which can capture heat like Martian dust, but remain in the atmosphere for a longer period of time.
Simulations using the scientific climate model MarsWRF revealed that launching nanorods into the atmosphere at a rate of 30 liters per second could increase the planet’s temperature by 30 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit), and this method – which lasts more than 10 years – … It causes the ice on the surface to melt.
The team argues that this approach could be much more efficient than trying to warm Mars with greenhouse gases, which could increase the possibility of making the Red Planet a bigger place. -stay in the future.
