327 Terraforming Mars: Part 9

The gravitational tugs and tidal forces on Mars’ convective 2000-km silicate mantle and 30- to 100-km crust generated heat. The iron-sulfur and iron-silicon core, which had substantially cooled over the previous three billion years, rekindled.

True North oscillated wildly until settling around a center of gravity. Three thousand kilometers of molten iron sludged about Mars’ gut, and moving metal bequeaths polarity. The solar wind now just bounced off of the planet.

The Aurora Martialis ignited, signaling the creation of the magnetic field that was a necessity for any planet’s atmospheric survival, climatic stability, and armor against the incoming radiation. Home--even a new one--by definition must be hospitable. And Mars, far from there, was slowly but surely making its way toward becoming a second hearth for Man.

Phase I began.

The two moons, Phobos and Deimos, felt to be useful for things other than romance or the tides, without fanfare, were demoted from "moons" to expendable "near-Mars objects." Beyond the theoretical romance and non-existent tides, they were unceremoniously euthanized for their dust that resulted from crashing each of them into a pole and blanketing the planet in a high altitude sweater.

The melted water at the icecaps was appreciated as well. All dovetailed into the greenhouse effect of the carbon dioxide that raised the temperatures enough to continue melting the ice there. Trillions of nanoreflectors, designed to decay over time from the solar radiation that leaked past the electromagnetic belts, were injected into the upper atmosphere continuously for over a hundred Earth years.

Aggressive aerofracking from the automated machinery that had been assembled on Ancile freed massive amounts of water from the subsurface lakes that had sat frozen for millennia, awaiting Earth’s gumption. Acrifiers, acre-sized rovers, treated large tracts of soil to release trapped oxygen.

Mars began pulling itself up by its own bootstraps when electromagnetism, tidal forces, core heat, and liberated, melted subsurface water begot the very helpful geothermal overdrive. Oxygen accrued and stuck.

Mars, the prodigal son, was ready to be re-welcomed back into the fold of Sol. A man from the 21st Century, Elon Musk, had finally been vindicated.

Phase I of a planned three phases had been a success beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.

_______________

Now that my 6-part series, PsyLo, is over (for now), time to get back to "Terraforming Mars," my weekly SciFri series.