"Nuke Mars!" Musk tweeted Thursday (Aug. 15). "T-shirt soon."
Some exploration advocates would like to terraform Mars, making it an easier place for humans to live.
(Image: © NASA/J. Bell (Cornell U.) and M. Wolff (SSI))
Nuking Mars is still on Elon Musk's wish list, it would seem.
Four years ago, the SpaceX founder and CEO went on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" and discussed a strategy for making the Red Planet more livable: detonating nuclear bombs over its poles. The explosions would vaporize a fair chunk of Mars' ice caps, liberating enough water vapor and carbon dioxide — both potent greenhouse gases — to warm up the planet substantially, the idea goes.
This terraforming concept is apparently still bouncing around in Musk's head, because on Thursday (Aug. 15), he tweeted, seemingly unprompted, "Nuke Mars!" A few hours later, he followed up with another tweet: "T-shirt soon."
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Infographic: How Humanity Could Terraform Small Planets
If Musk is serious about nuking the Red Planet — and it's possible that he's not — he'll have to overcome significant skepticism. For starters, many scientists and exploration advocates have concerns about any terraforming effort: Do we have the right to fundamentally transform another world — especially one that might host its own uniquely adapted life even today — for our own purposes?
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