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Elon Musk seems serious about nuking Mars.
Founder and billionaire CEO of SpaceX teased the idea in 2015 during an appearance in "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", explaining that the vaporization of the Mars ice caps would be a good way to warm the planet enough for human settlers live relatively comfortably.
Musk launched the concept again last week via Twitter, starting with just saying "Nuke Mars!" and then "T-shirt soon."
Related: Make Mars liveable with asteroids: a terraforming plan
Nuke Mars refers to a continuous stream of very low-impact nuclear fusion explosions over the atmosphere to create artificial suns. Just like our sun, it would not become radioactive Mars.August 20, 2019
Well, the The t-shirt is now here, as did more of Musk's thoughts on Mars.
"Nuke Mars is referring to a continuous stream of very low-impact nuclear fusion explosions over the atmosphere to create artificial suns. Just like our sun, this would not make Mars become radioactive." said the contractor yesterday (August 20).
"No risk imo and that can be adjusted / improved in real time.We must basically find the most efficient way to convert the mass into energy, because Mars is slightly too far from the fusion reactor of this solar system (the sun) ", he added. another tweet, answering someone who asked about the risks associated with this terraforming plan.
Indeed, Musk has engaged in an important discussion with his followers, as he often does on Twitter. For example, someone suggested using "solar airships" on the Red Planet to increase the production of solar energy and heat. "More delicate than it may seem on Mars, the atmospheric density is 1% that of the Earth and that of the gravity of 38%, but achievable for the localized warming", Musk replied.
Scott Manley, astrophysicist and YouTube personality, suggested to derive some comets to influence the Martian poles, which triggered Dennis Wingo, veteran of the aerospace Tweeter"Why does everyone still think it's easy to hijack comets?"
Musk then intervened: "That's right, hijacking a comet would be very difficult.This could be done with small asteroids and a mass driver, but it's risky."
Admittedly, diverting a comet would be very difficult. Could be done with small asteroids and a mass driver, but it is risky.August 20, 2019
Musk aims to help humanity to colonize Mars; he repeatedly insisted that he had launched SpaceX in 2002 mainly for this long-term goal. And the company is currently developing a system of spaceflight to get there: a 100-passenger spaceship called Starship and a huge rocket called Super Heavy.
The reusable duo could begin operational launches as early as 2021 and begin flying people by 2023, SpaceX officials said. If all goes well, Martian crewed missions could take off in the 2020s.
The terraforming thoughts of Musk may have evolved by then. In fact, they could change drastically over the next few days, if another of yesterday's tweets is a guide.
"It might be logical to have thousands of solar reflector satellites to warm Mars compared to artificial suns (to be determined)," Musk wrote.
Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there"(Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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