"Musk then spoke about how we might be able to terraform Mars by using greenhouse gasses to warm it up. ”Mars is a fixer-upper of a planet, but we could make it work.” he added."
I thought that would be difficult because the Mars has a very week protective magnetosphere and any kind of atmosphere is blown away by the solar winds. Am I missing something?
The idea is that the (entirely hypothetical) terraforming technology would accomplish this in something like centuries or tens of centuries while the processes that led to the loss of the atmosphere took millions or tens of millions of years - similar to how the Earth's atmosphere doesn't just whoosh away during geomagnetic reversal.
Another thing to keep in mind is that what atmosphere Mars had, when, how it lost it is something actively studied so understanding of it might still change. There's a probe (Maven) launching late this year that's going to measure the rate of loss due to solar wind, among other things - it will have an elliptical orbit taking several 'low' (150km or so) passes over Mars.
Giving Mars an atmosphere that you or I could breathe is science fiction. It would require designer microbes, or enormous energy input.
Extending life beyond Earth - establishing a simple biosphere that's mostly plants - is much simpler. It's an engineering problem.
Loss to space is geologically slow [1]. Photochemical degradation of greenhouse gases is a bigger problem, but not a likely showstopper. Optimal mixes of greenhouse gases are so powerful that the output from one mine and one factory could be enough to dramatically raise temperatures [2]. We know where the halogen deposits are [3,4], and already have most of the technology to mine and process them robotically [5,6], but it would be expensive. The problem is to make it cheaper.
Use SpaceX rocket to put machinery in orbit to convert atmospheric CO2 into blocks, mass drive them towards Mars, charge carbon tax credits to fund it.
Terraforming Mars or lower atmospheric CO2 content on Earth. Why can't we have both?
It doesn't lose the atmosphere that fast, so it would be worth doing it.
Also, maybe we get lucky and that comet hits Mars next year [1], which might warm up the planet a bit. The downside could be that humans visiting Mars could be delayed by a few decades, but probably worth the wait in the long term if the planet gets warmer.
I thought that would be difficult because the Mars has a very week protective magnetosphere and any kind of atmosphere is blown away by the solar winds. Am I missing something?