Mars To Be Bombed?

A top space pioneer says that dropping a nuclear bomb on Mars is the quickest ways to heat up the Red Planet for potential human habitation.

16:26 14 September 2015

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said that a nuclear bomb on Mars’ poles is the quickest way to up the planet, before human can hope to settle there while a slow way would involve gradually building up greenhouse gases inside the Martian atmosphere.

 

"The fast way is drop thermonuclear weapons over the poles," Musk said on CBS" Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

 

Musk made it no secret that he want to go to Red Planet himself.

 

Mars’ average temperature is  -62°C while the atmosphere is currently less than 1per cent oxygen. A nuclear bomb would release energy which is about 40per cent heat that could warm up the desolate planet.

 

Mars already suffer from explosive meteor impacts. In March, a nuclear mushroom cloud was observed on the surface of the planet. 

 

"Mushroom clouds can form naturally from impact craters or volcanic explosions," said Peter Muller, the head of the Imaging Group at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory and a professor in the Department of Space and Climate Physics at University College London.

 

He added: "There is no known volcanic activity on Mars so it is most likely to be the result of a meteoritic impact,"

 

"There are some 20 of these every year that smack into Mars but usually the meteorites are only a few tens of centimetres in size."