Making Mars Warmer Using Nano-rods

[Serendipity]

Apparently it's a far easier method to warm up Mars than all the other methods they've examined to date, which makes the use of nano-rods sound very promising. See

To make Mars warmer, just add nanorods​

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Using nano size particles would keep whatever was put into the atmosphere up there for a long time, very practical. As for what the material should be made of, not sure if a metallic atmosphere would be helpful or not for other considerations besides the temperature.

We are studying exactly that, fine metallic particulates in Earth's upper atmosphere, for interactions with ozone, radio waves, and interactions with aerosols that affect temperatures and other environmental conditions. You go up far enough where the ozone is and there are stratospheric sulfuric acid particles, 10 percent of which have traces of many different metals in them, as well as other exotic substances. The materials include silver, iron, lead, magnesium, titanium, beryllium, chromium, nickel, zinc, lithium, niobium, hafnium, copper, lithium and aluminum. The bulk of it, and for some of them, all of it, comes from satellites and rockets entering, leaving, and burning up in the upper atmosphere.

The number of satellites burning up in the atmosphere is going to dramatically increase in the near future. There are plans to launch thousands upon thousands of disposable corporate satellites, courtesy of Musk, Bezos and others, with 5 year lifetimes and after that they become space junk which will be disposed of by letting them enter the atmosphere and burn up. Space littering should be a finable offense, which should include burning stuff up to get rid of it.

While no one knows how these particles will affect the atmosphere, we will know shortly as we have a front row seats with nothing blocking our view, except possibly the particles themselves. There are plans being studied to introduce sulfur aerosols into the upper atmosphere to cool the Earth's temperature. Might have to do that anyway to put more uncontaminated sulfuric aerosols back into the atmosphere. Adding metal to them probably changes the ph and the chemistry.

 

[dgackst]

There are plans being studied to introduce sulfur aerosols into the upper atmosphere to cool the Earth's temperature. Might have to do that anyway to put more uncontaminated sulfuric aerosols back into the atmosphere. Adding metal to them probably changes the ph and the chemistry.

My first question upon reading the article pointed to in this thread was whether the nanorods, or something similar, could be also be used to cool the earth. That's nice to know studies are being done (or at least being planned) to explore this possibility.

As for the Mars warming possibility, I wonder if we will try and test some of these theories on Mars itself in the next 50-100 years. I would love to see what could be done on Mars to make it suitable for human life.