Possible Magnetic Perturbations Associated with Starship Lunar Landings

It is demonstrated that there should be a local ion and magnetic perturbation associated with Starship landings. These space plasma perturbations result from the photoionization of the outgassed water vapor from the surface ice created by the Starship ejecta plume during landing. For a landing at 89° latitude at 8.5 hr local time, the newly created ions from the outgassing vapor cloud are accelerated by the solar wind electric field to form electric currents having a density exceeding 10 −7 A m −2 . Within 100 km of the landing site, the strength of the magnetic perturbation from these currents can be on the order of ∼1–2 nT for such a polar morning landing. Space plasma instruments like magnetometers and ion spectrometers would be capable of measuring such effects from the human-created water vapor cloud.