From online transactions to electric cars to going to space, there is never a dull day in the life of billionaire Elon Musk. It seems that the 44 year old South African is always in the news, and is always attempting to change the world we live in. Musk is now back in the headlines again, but this time for something even crazier than before. He wants to launch a nuclear weapon at mars.

In a recent interview  with new Late Night Show host, Stephen Colbert, Musk “dropped the bomb” that he was in fact looking into terraforming mars by way of nuclear weapon. It should come as no surprise that this idea caught the attention of many, and now scientists on both sides are coming forth to give their piece on why it would or would not work.

The basic idea behind Musk’s plan is to make use of the major polar ice cap at the southern end of the red planet. According to NASA, the southern ice cap is made up of almost exclusively of dry ice, which is the solid form of carbon dioxide. If this area of solid CO2 could be hit with many thermonuclear devices, it is feasible that there would be enough force to vaporize the CO2. The hope is that once the CO2 is in the atmosphere, it will begin to trap heat by way of the greenhouse gas. If this were to happen, then there could be a chain reaction where more heat would vaporize more CO2, which would trap more heat and so on. The goal would be to eventually have a self sustaining cycle which would one day allow humans to live on mars.

However the vast increase in CO2 is next problem that humans would have to overcome. According to Brian Toon, the professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder, the amount of carbon dioxide on mars is already too high, so adding more would create a planet where only plant life is possible. Toon finished by saying that it could be thousands of years before the level of oxygen would be acceptable for humans. One possible idea would be to send rockets full of bacteria after the bombs to begin the process of changing CO2 into O2. This idea is not completely out of the round of feasibility, as there are bacteria on earth that are capable of turning CO2 into O2 , but no one can say for certain if this could even work.

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Musk’s arguments have also lead many scientists to a series of ethical problems. First off, scientists are not 100% sure that there is nothing living on mars. Now we pretty much know that there are no “little green men” running around the planet, but as renowned author Greg Bear put it “If there’s life there, it’s evolved over the last several billion years, it’s got incredible solutions to incredible problems. If we just go there and willy-nilly ramp it up or tamp it down or try to remold it somehow, we’re going to lose that information.” It seems clear that at this point we still do not know enough information, and sending mass amounts of explosives would be a poor choice.

It seems that at the current time, it is not feasible for Musk to carry out his plan. Both the science and the ethics behind his idea have proved to be major barriers, but if history is any marker, we will one day be on mars.