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Supervillain Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX declared that dropping thermonuclear bombs ove the poles of Mars is the fast track for human colonies here.
Supervillain Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX declared that dropping thermonuclear bombs ove the poles of Mars is the fast track for human colonies here.
With talks of a human colony on Mars being established as soon as the 2030s ramping up, there’s no surprise that the search for making the climate as welcoming as possible is ongoing. Elon Musk is already a key figure in the race for inhabiting other planets.
His latest statements are already famous, despite the fact that they were made just recently during the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Elon Musk’s
“the fast way is to drop thermonuclear weapons over the poles”
drew Stephen Colbert’s remark:
“You’re a supervillain! That’s what a supervillain does!”.
Supervillain or not, the CEO of Tesla Motors and Space Exploration Technologies is not on his own. Terraforming has been vehiculated before as the proper means to bring the climate on Mars closer to what the Earth looks like from this perspective. NASA is also looking into the matter.
A human colony on Mars is no longer the material of science fiction. Rather, it is a dream almost come true, provided that all preparations are completed in time. Spacecrafts to carry the future colonists, colony establishments, domes, homes, technology, long-term planning are just as many aspects that need to be taken into account.
And according to Musk the key to getting everything on fast-forward track and burning phases is detonating a few thermonuclear bombs at the poles of Mars as to accelerate climate change, increase the temperature of the surface and possibly bring life back. Other life than the human colonies that would freely roam on the planet is climate change on Mars were possible.
Jumpstarting climate change could also be accomplished by introducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of the Red Planet. Yet, this move entails a slow process of change, which humanity can’t afford if we are to colonize Mars in the 2030s. Posited as an urgent matter by Elon Musk:
“Mars is as urgent and crucial as lifting billions out of poverty, or eradicating deadly diseases”,
the crusade for the red planet is gaining momentum.
Human transports to Mars could be happening by 2020, says Elon Musk. Tucked in the SpaceX rockets, travelers would be ferried here to catch a glimpse of what our future could look like. NASA is less optimistic, with estimated of the U.S. space agency extending to the 2030s.
Nonetheless, with every 26 months that pass us by, travelling to Mars becomes increasingly easier. At the farthest distance, Mars is situated 1,000 times further from our home planet than the Moon.
Yet, when the Mars and Earth align, Mars is situated only 150 times further than the moon is from Earth, at 36 million miles away.
In a declaration made for Aeon magazine, Musk stated:
“If we have linear improvement in technology, as opposed to logarithmic, then we should have a significant base on Mars, perhaps with thousands or tens of thousands of people”.
Terraforming is not as easy as Elon Musk makes it sound. A few thermonuclear bombs could be detonated at the poles.Yet, the pressure of the atmosphere and the temperature of the Red Planet’s surface would still take years to shift to more familiar and friendlier.
The sooner terraforming becomes widely accepted, the sooner the bounty of this daring process could be reaped.
Photo Credits: Flickr
