Just a few day ago , Musk took to Twitter to re - propose his estimation ofnuking Marsto warm up the Red Planet and eventually terraform it . He has now doubled down on those claims , clear up his “ imagination ” and adding a new possibility .
Musk said in histweet : “ Might make sense to have thousands of solar reflector satellite [ artificial satellite emoji ] to warm Mars vs artificial suns ( tbd ) . ”
The thought of using mirror to converge solar radiation is certainly not novel . We can go back all the means to Archimedes and the mirror he allegedly used against the Romans , or stick to a more Mars - related survey . In 2006 , then - undergraduateRigel Woidalooked at heating up a small domain of Mars using a mirror 1.5 kilometers ( almost a mile ) across composed of 150 section that are each 150 meters ( 492 feet ) across .
The mirrors would be made of mylar , a reflective stuff that is presently apply as a solar sail by the LightSail2 project . While the projection had enough potential to get a $ 9,000 Hiram Ulysses Grant from NASA , it focused on warm a midget area of Mars , or so 1 square kilometre . ( 0.38 substantial miles ) . The surface of Mars is 144.8 million square klick ( 55.9 million square miles ) – even a few thousand mirrors would n’t cut it .
Musk also clarified his theme ofnuking Marsin reply to the mirror tweet : “ Nuke Mars refers to a continuous stream of very humiliated fallout nuclear spinal fusion blowup above the atmosphere to create artificial suns . Much like our sun , this would not induce Mars to become radioactive . ”
This is different from the idea he bluster a few year ago to liberate trapped CO2from the Martian pivotal cap . Current hydrogen bombs ( the atomic fusion explosions he ’s referring to ) release atomic fallout because their gun trigger is created either by uranium or Pu . Sure , humble explosive gadget have a lower amount of fallout , but you would need a large routine of these devices to constantly go off . And that ’s just to mime the amount of radioactivity Earth make from the Sun .
The underlying issue that ’s not being discussed is that while Musk hold around outlandish solutions to warm up up Mars , there is still not a single one that would keep it tender . As far as scientist can tell , there is simply not enough carbon dioxide on Mars to create a glasshouse result and keep the major planet warm . Without an atmosphere , whatever solution they choose will have to be lasting .
The mirrors will require constant fueling to retain to orbit Mars and not be pushed about by solar radiation . And if the atomic explosion is more your style , you would have to constantly microwave the higher atmosphere of the Red Planet .
To reiterate what investigator inNature Astronomyconcluded last twelvemonth , we currently do not have the engineering to terraform another planet .
