Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk has said the fastest way to make Mars 'habitable' would be to nuke it with thermonuclear weapons over its poles.
Musk discussed the prospects of living on Mars through various ways suggested by researchers and scientists. One such suggestion – construction of environment domes – is considered as the most practical way to inhabit Mars by the scientific community.
However, none of it is as fascinating as his idea of inhabiting Mars without using any dome or underground establishment and living on the planet without any constraints, just like living on Earth.
"First, you're going to have to live in transparent domes, but eventually, you can transform Mars into an Earth-like planet. You can warm it up. Drop thermonuclear weapons over the poles," he said.
The suggestion made by Musk sounds like a plot straight out of a space-movie where an evil scientist tries to blow up a planet. It seems host Stephen Colbert also noticed it and jokingly addressed Musk as a "super villain."
The idea of nuking Mars does sound evil, but is it actually? Given that the planet is uninhabited, would doing something like that be so horrible? Researchers haven't found even a tiny proof of any life form on the red planet yet, so would it be really a bad move to make?
Since Mars is devoid of any sort of life, accelerating the terraforming process would be a positive thing rather than releasing greenhouse gases and waiting for an endless time for the atmosphere to become habitable.
According to Car Scoops, Mars has an average temperature of -55 degree Celsius(-67 F) and less than 1% oxygen in the atmosphere. Apart from the lack of oxygen, raising the temperature might make it too hot during the day; even now, current temperatures can reach 27 degree Celsius (80 F) in the summer. It must be noticed that the temperature dips to unbearable levels at night.
It is clear from Musk's suggestion that when it comes to pioneering new technology for helping the growth of mankind, he is not the man who hesitates.