Elon Musk and SpaceX have ambitious plans in the pipeline to get humans to Mars, but the South African-born billionaire believes some extreme preparation is necessary. The man dubbed ‘the real life Tony Stark’ has again been reiterating his plans to terraform Mars by dropping nuclear bombs on the Red Planet and create “artificial suns”. Mr Musk, who is reportedly worth a staggering £15.8bn ($19.3bn) said in a tweet: “Nuke Mars refers to a continuous stream of very low fallout nuclear fusion explosions above the atmosphere to create artificial suns.
“Much like our sun, this would not cause Mars to become radioactive.”
Mr Musk, who also runs Tesla, believes that by dropping thermonuclear bombs in Mars’ polar ice caps, enough CO2 could be released to help keep the planet warm – imagine global warming on Earth, but on an almost instantaneous time-scale.
NASA has previously explained: “The most accessible source is CO2 in the polar ice caps; it could be vaporised by spreading dust on it to absorb more solar radiation or by using explosives.”
However, the space agency said that this would still not likely be enough: “vaporising the ice caps would only contribute enough CO2 to double the Martian pressure to 1.2 percent of Earth’s.”
This is why Mr Musk has offered up another solution – placing thousands of solar reflector satellites around the Red Planet in an attempt to heat it up and create a better environment for humans.
Mr Musk tweeted: “Might make sense to have thousands of solar reflector satellites to warm Mars vs artificial suns”.
This is not the first time the eccentric billionaire has demanded the nuclear bombing of Mars.
Just last week, his SpaceX began selling t-shirts with the slogan “NUKE MARS” on them.
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NASA has confirmed this sentiment, stating that there is not the technology available to attempt such an ambitious feat.
The space agency said in a statement: “The results indicate that terraforming Mars cannot be done with currently available technology.
“Any such efforts have to be very far into the future.”
When the likes of SpaceX and NASA are hoping to colonise Mars is unclear, with all of the major space players giving varying timelines.
NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin said that a Mars colonisation is achievable by 2040, while Mr Musk Musk is more ambitious and says that he hopes to get people to the Red Planet by the 2030s.
Last year, the SpaceX CEO said that can be accomplished in about 10 years, “maybe sooner, maybe nine years”.
Russia has also stated that it wants to get humans to Mars although the eastern European powerhouse, as well as China, have remained tight-lipped as to when they think it will be achievable.