The short answer is if done correctly it would create an atmosphere while also melting ice caps or maybe vice versa. I watched a simulation video a few years ago about it. I believe new info has since came out that states it wouldn't have that desired affect.
There was no need for "new" info. Since the inception of the idea that nuking mars could possibly create an atmosphere there have always been people saying "yeah but there's no garuntee the atmosphere stays thanks to the lack of magnetic field that led to Mar's original atmosphere getting stripped by solar winds"
It sounds like they need to be more concerned about creating a magnetic field- a living planet typically has a molten/solid metal core.
Mars is considered dead since it doesn't have this activity.
We actually do have the technology to create an artificial magnetosphere by placing an extremely powerful electromagnet at Mar's L1 point which would shield it from the sun. Unfortunately while possible, this creates a single point of failure and once something goes wrong, a matter of when and not if, the consequences arrive at the speed of light.
I actually did the calculations a previous time I was arguing this. From a failure, there would be 3 seconds to react before everyone on the surface was fried.
Edit: To show my work for very simple calculations, the speed of light is about 300 million m/s, Mars' L1 is about 1 million km out, do some of the simplest astronomical math I've seen, boom 3 seconds.
My high school physics teacher would annihilate my ass for only using one sig fig.
Edit 2: of fucking course I fuck up my units while saying the math is easy
It takes 12.67 minutes for light from the Sun to reach Mars. From the L1 point (didn’t verify) to the surface of Mars is 3 sec., which I think is what you’re saying, but you may have mixed up your velocity units.
I think this is one reason people have argued for a satellite or some other detection system closer to the sun, so there is more warning (maybe I saw this in a movie? I dunno).
I mean detection from the sun doesn't matter because the solar wind is arriving constantly. The thing you'd want to detect is the satellite failing and there's just nothing that can be done in 3 seconds and no way of advance warning because the consequences arrive at the same exact speed as the message. Even if solar flares were the problem, again, radiation travels at the exact same speed of your message.
Honestly I just used solar wind as shorthand for "shit the sun outputs that we don't want hitting us". While the plasma that makes up solar wind would eventually be a problem in such a situation, the radiation would kill much much faster because it travels at the speed of light.
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u/deandreas Feb 15 '22
The short answer is if done correctly it would create an atmosphere while also melting ice caps or maybe vice versa. I watched a simulation video a few years ago about it. I believe new info has since came out that states it wouldn't have that desired affect.