Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2018

43 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2018 PLANETOLOGY dipole shield between Mars and the Sun at the Lagrange point L1, about one million km away from the planet. Extended enough to shelter the entire hemisphere facing the Sun, the shield would have the task of di- verting the charged particles of the solar wind. Optimistic simulations indicate that the shield, by curbing the atmosphere dis- persion, would allow the regeneration of the latter by natural means. In relatively “short” times, atmospheric pressure could rise to about half that of Earth, and all the