SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has never hidden his excitement toward colonization of the Red Planet. However, many of his tweets and interviews have sparked controversy, especially because a few years ago he said he wanted to nuke Mars in order to prepare it for humans. The most recent tweet Musk posted shows that he hasn’t given up the idea of dropping nuclear bombs on Mars. He even announced t-shirts dedicated to the cause.
Nuke Mars!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 16, 2019
Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that he still wants to drop nuclear bombs on the Red Planet. He believes the explosion will transform the planet, making it habitable for life as we know it on Earth. This is not the first time he proposed this idea. The subject first came up publicly in interviews with the billionaire in 2015. During Stephen Colbert’s late-night talk show, he discussed the possibility of bombing Mars.
He believes that if nuclear explosions occurred on Mars, the ice caps at the north and south poles would melt, causing vast amounts of carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere. Given the thin atmosphere on Mars, the carbon-dioxide would fill it up, causing an effect similar to the greenhouse effect on Earth by trapping heat and allowing life to prosper. The greenhouse effect would also change the planet’s atmospheric pressure, providing a sort of life-favoring climate change. The discussion can be seen in the video below starting at around two minutes.
Elon Musk has never hidden his desire to colonize Mars. In 2017 he published a scientific article in the journal New Space describing a plan which sees a 1-million-person colony prospering on the Red Planet. He said this scenario could be possible within a century.
T-shirt soon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 16, 2019
To give his idea wings, Musk further tweeted that he will sell his own “Nuke Mars” merchandise to convince more people to drop nuclear bombs on Mars. Whether or not Musk really wants to turn this plan into reality, it is sure to spark a lot of controversy while adding up to his already-existing plans to colonize Mars.
Starhopper flight successful. Water towers *can* fly haha!!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 26, 2019
Musk’s company SpaceX is currently completing tests of a prototype for a Martian spaceship called Starship. The first tests of the prototype Starhopper were a success, so there’s no doubt the company will continue building a spacecraft that could put the first humans on Mars, making us an “interplanetary species.”
