How much (metal, refined, produced on earth) wire would you say is required to produce an air (actually vacuum, but we know air core really well so there’s math for them) core electromagnet which can generate a field capable of deflecting solar wind over the area of its pv array? In order to maintain that field strength, how much current is required? Can it be supplied by a pv array equal in area to the effective field area? How many of those are needed to cover the area of mars?

That’s-a lotta metal!

Also speaking as a person who deals with e-waste daily, it’s both by volume and mass composed of petroleum products. Fiberglass is reenforced plastic. Ics are 90% plastic by volume. Discrete components are made of petroleum distillates in a lot of cases and encased in them in even more cases!

Even if you only considered the boards as the e-waste and not the plastic cases and bodies themselves, those dont exist in a vacuum like our hypothetical electromagnets, a reduction in printer boards means fewer printers which are almost completely just plastic.

The scale of what you just described is really goofy.

It’s also a very delicate shield against a very serious problem.

I don’t think it’s feasible to protect a mars-diameter disc of massive magnets from damage by either normal objects traveling through the area or from some human engineered attack.

If you’re imagining the capacity to create such an emplacement, don’t you imagine that such phenomenal effort and wealth of resources would be better spent solving some terrestrial problem?

There’s a real difference between e-waste, which is mostly byproducts of the petroleum refining process with electronic components smeared liberally on, many of which rely on petroleum byproducts themselves and electromagnets, which are, at the scale you’re discussing, massive chunks of metals refined, shaped and organized into configurations that will create magnetic fields when dc is present.

I have a hard time imagining a level of focus required to bridge that gap.

Wouldn’t that make it not an embarrassing way to open the article at all then?

Like how machine gun owners don’t support the repeal of the nfa or fopa because it would tank the value of their stamp items.

Was there a shooting with a printed firearm recently?

Most of the sd card receptacles I see are made pretty cheaply and that means harder, less pliable materials like steel will make them wear faster.

I would like for this to be viable, but right now it just seems like it would tear up your slot.

Uhh… a major party us presidential candidate was shot and the other one dropped out and anointed his controversial vp.

I haven’t been out here advocating third party voting for a tick now because there isn’t a serious line to compare against for either major party since those events.

If you don’t wanna see political stuff in an American election year then stop using all/active.