Houston_Here

Houston_Here t1_jcb88a9 wrote

Highly verifiable too. If it is large enough the orbital tracking data will show dV quite clearly even if it is over a very long duration. I am excited but quite apprehensive. If the thing actually accelerates this will be very big news.

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Houston_Here t1_iu4xx4c wrote

It was a couple years ago we chatted about this on Reddit and I can't seem to find the thread now, but here were our inputs:

  • Earths magnetic field strength
  • Mars circumference
  • Assumed 100kW solar (steady state feeding into the loop at various points so multiple solar fields and power injection points)
  • Permeability (assumed for Mars)

Ill try to find the previous post. It has been a couple years but I remember N was something like 100 or 1000. for the coil to produce a sufficient field.

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Houston_Here t1_iu4kuki wrote

Electrical Engineer here: I have run the numbers in the past. From some quick spreadsheet numbers, it's not the power but the size of the field that is needed. For example, you could run a superconducting tape around the equator of Mars and manage a reasonable field with human power levels in a realistic number of turns. Granted a high temperature superconductor to do so does not yet exist but the point is not the amount of power to generate the field but the size of the field that is prohibitive.

There are discussions of setting a device in space between the sun and Mars but that has it's own challenges/issues.

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