Martian Solenoids

So my sisters and I were discussing ideas about life on some moons in the solar system when the conversation turned toward terraforming. My oldest sister asked, "What place in the solar system would be the easiest to terraform?" I have a certain fondness for the idea of terraforming and colonizing Venus, so that's what I suggested, maybe with a little tongue in cheek. My other sister then pointed out the atmospheric and rotational issues that you'd have to deal with in order to make Venus habitable... so I nonchalantly brushed these points off and said I'd go with Mars then, because it's day is just over 24 hours (we all figured that changing a planet's rotation might be a little too difficult).

We toyed briefly with the idea of melting the (dry) ice caps to warm up the planet with a nice carbon dioxide atmosphere; but of course there are problems to consider when colonizing Mars as well, namely the lack of magnetic filed and therefore lack of protection for any atmosphere one might be able to produce on the planet. So, what is one to do to terraform Mars? Abby suggested building individual colonies as the easiest solution to the colonization problem, but to really terraform the planet for major inhabitation we all agreed that an artificial magnetic field was necessary.

So how does one go about making a magnetic field strong enough to mimic a planet's? Why, giant solenoids of course! And so I figured that what needs to be done on Mars before any major attempts at atmospheric production are started is that one should drill down as near to Mars' core as possible (assuming the mantle and outer core are mostly solid by now) and construct a set of enormous solenoids to produce artificial magnetic fields.

We all laughed at the total absurdity of it all, but I truly believe in this solution. Once a protective magnetic field can be produced, an atmosphere on Mars wouldn't be so easily stripped off by the solar winds, and permanent colonies could arise anywhere on the planet. Not to mention that plant life could then thrive in the Martian habitat (assuming all their basic needs besides the carbon dioxide had already been met). This in fact would be necessary for oxygen production and thus animal inhabitation.

It was quite a fun discussion and I'm sure there are many more angles to explore, but I think the best part of it all is finding an ingenious (if absurd) solution to these far off problems.