At first glance, the phrase “Nuke Mars” seems a little scary and not at all realistic, but it is actually what scientist and inventor Elon Musk wants to do. Musk is the proud owner and CEO of SpaceX, the first private company to successfully launch and return a spacecraft from Earth orbit and the first to launch a crewed spacecraft and dock it with the International Space Station. It is safe to say Musk is a very reputable man in the space industry, and his idea to nuke Mars isn’t actually that crazy!
In the future Musk wants to inhabit the planet Mars, but currently Mars isn’t habitable for humans. There is a severe lack of an atmosphere on Mars. This means that the planet doesn’t retain any of its heat or gasses. As of now the surface of mars is constantly being stripped by solar radiation, magnetic storms, and its water is completely frozen. So to fix this problem, an atmosphere needs to be created.
An atmosphere is simply a barrier of gasses around a planet. Earth has an atmosphere and it is what is responsible for keeping us warm, holding in gas, and protecting us from solar wind and radiation. To create an atmosphere, a large amount of gas needs to be created at once. This is where Musk’s nuke plan comes into play. Ideally, multiple low-fallout, nuclear fusion reactions will take place simultaneously on the poles of Mars. The immense heat created by these reactions would theoretically create enough heat to melt the water in Mars’ ice caps. The melting of the water would release CO2 which is one of the most prominent greenhouse gasses found on Earth.
As we know from our experiences here with global warming, greenhouse gasses are responsible for trapping heat in the atmosphere and warming up the planet. The same idea goes for Mars. The CO2 would trap the heat and an atmosphere would be created. The temperature of Mars would rise to a habitable temperature and people could begin to settle and terraform further.
Another more popular opinion, among the general population, is to use massive mirrors on the poles of Mars to channel the Sun’s heat. The channeled heat would be used to heat up the ice just as the nuclear method would. Although, despite the general population’s interest in this idea, likely due to their ignorant fear of nuclear bombs, it has many flaws. For one, the mirrors would need to be massive. This would require lots of natural resources and many different missions to Mars. This would be very expensive and not something that Musk could do easily. On the other hand, the nuclear method requires less money, less missions, and has fewer places of potential error.
It is too far off to tell now what Musk will end up doing, or what the government will let him do, but the idea is there and it is sound. Life on Mars is possible, and the science needed to get there is fascinating. The human race is full of new ideas, and this might be the next big thing!