The best way to colonize Mars is crazier than Elon Musk's idea of dropping nukes on the planet
On a recent Late Show, Musk told Stephen Colbert that a fast way of making Mars habitable would be to vaporize the CO2 in the Martian icecaps by nuking them, creating a greenhouse effect.
An astronomer explains why that would be a bad idea, and how it could be done by bombing the poles with asteroids instead.
The best way to colonize Mars is crazier than Elon Musk's idea of dropping nukes on the planet
By Jessica Orwig
September 21, 2015 1:24 PM
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But unfortunately for Musk, neither of these ways are practical or plausible, according to Christopher Impey, an astronomer at the University of Arizona and author and co-author of over a dozen popular science books, including "Frontiers of Astrobiology" and "Dreams of Other Worlds."
Luckily for us, however, there is a way. Redirect a near-Earth asteroid toward Mars and slam it into one of the Martian poles or even better, redirect two asteroids and slam them into each pole.)
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Bombing Mars is a bad idea
Even if we could afford to launch thousands of thermonuclear warheads to Mars, we shouldn't, Impey said.
"You (would) sort of Chernobyl-ize the whole planet," Impey told Business Insider while explaining how the after-effects of such a bombing would destroy any hope of colonizing Mars even if it grew warmer as a result. "A radioactive cloud would quickly disperse all around Mars ... making it hazardous for anyone who went there."
In theory, humans could still live amid the fallout as long as they stayed inside isolated domes, like some of the Mars-like habitats here on Earth.
But over time the radiation would seep into the Martian top soil. This would ultimately destroy any hope of colonizing Mars because the top soil is a critical resource for its use as building material and also for the water it contains, which future colonies could extract.
"You've got water, you've got oxygen, you've got building material, [but] it's all going to be from that top soil," Impey said. "And you just dosed the entire planet with a radiation cloud ... impregnating the top solid, which means anyone who's going to live on Mars in the future would have to drill or dig down just to find uncontaminated material to work with."
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Blow stuff up!
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)LiberalArkie
(15,686 posts)radiation because its thin atmosphere than the radiation that would fall to the surface.
bananas
(27,509 posts)Radioactivity and radiation are different.
Radiation on Mars surface is similar to the ISS.
There is very little radioactivity on both.
bananas
(27,509 posts)look how rapidly it was rising before the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963:
n2doc
(47,953 posts)And a 2 for 1 deal with extra CO2 and water if comets were used instead.
Of course, the morality of doing this is another question.
aidbo
(2,328 posts)All of our eggs are in one basket.
DiehardLiberal
(580 posts)Wouldn't it be cheaper and faster to protect the one we have?
Peace Patriot
(24,010 posts)...IF we can move our highly $$$-polluted political system to do it.* It hasn't been responsive to the needs and desires of the majority of people on most issues, since, oh, say Reagan. We have a lot of work to do, as a citizenry.
However, even if we were to clean up the political system, starting in 2016*, and start seriously greening the country and the world, the truth is that the Earth can no longer handle our numbers. We are too many for Earth's resources, and human population growth shows no sign of slowing down. This is one reason why I STRONGLY support NASA and its associated projects. We are very likely going to need a second Earth. (Some NASA projects are also important for understanding and restoring or terraforming planetary environments, including Earth's.)
I believe that space exploration and colonization of other worlds is our destiny. That's my reading of human history, and of the story of Earth itself. All other species fit their numbers to available resources. Not us. Why?
Until now, we've had what seemed like endless fertile territory to expand into. And we've just grown and grown and grown, as a population. Now we're up against Earth's limits even if we start serious worldwide greening tomorrow. I think that there is something in our natures, as human beings, that is pushing us "out there" to the great Universe.
We do, of course, desperately need to learn the lessons of this crisis period, where our political, economic and military systems are doing us in, as well as obliterating other species (including what are likely sentient species such as dolphins) and gravely damaging, if not destroying, the very benign planetary environment that begat us.
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*(Our vote counting system is highly compromised, with every system in the country based on 'TRADE SECRET' programming code--code that the public is forbidden to review--with NO AUDIT AT ALL in half the states, and a miserably inadequate 1% audit in the other half. This system has, and will continue to be, rigged in favor of idiots and outright fascists, until we wake up and throw these corporate-controlled machines out of our system. Not much hope of reform in 2016. This 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting system was created to keep real reformers out of high office, and works in tandem with the filthy campaign contribution system and corporate 'news' monopolies. The death-throes of Planet Earth may get disruptive enough to move even idiots and fascists to do something about it, but their solutions will be the worst kind. Count on it.)
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,536 posts)I seem to recall that Mars once had a more significant atmosphere than it does now, but it diminished a long time ago because of the planet's low gravity. It seems any attempt to terraform Mars would be doomed to fail for the same reason.
Perhaps communities built within domes would work better. They could be built with 3-D printing on a massive scale using local resources.
friendly_iconoclast
(15,333 posts)NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)above the poles, concentrating the suns rays directly onto the polar ice caps to melt them. Probably safer than nukes I would think.
greyl
(22,990 posts)He said "there's a fast way and a slow way" to warm up Mars).
Beware the YouTube vid that ends after the fast way.
Maxinedaily
(32 posts)I'm curious also why we don't have small ships going to the moon now and sending back nice HD footage.
bananas
(27,509 posts)There are also other options.
The L5 Society wanted to colonize L5 first.
Others want to colonize low earth orbit first.
Most space enthusiasts want to see all of those eventually,
but get into heated arguments over which to do first.
Musk is a Mars-first person, but he's said he wants to be like a trucking company, if the Moon-first or whatever-first people can pay, he'll gladly send them on his rockets.
So I think things are going to get very interesting once he has a fleet of re-usable rockets!
m night shanahan
(28 posts)Nuclear weapons for positive use? Uh, no.
bananas
(27,509 posts)As someone above mentioned, Musk told Colbert there's a fast way and a slow way.
Musk later tweeted that he wasn't suggesting we do that.
unhappycamper
(60,364 posts)Until that is solved, dreaming of space exploration is a pipe dream. We currently pay the Russians $85,000,000 or so for a seat to the ISS.
Where is the money coming from to build anything?