What If We Nuked Mars?

One day, Mars could look like this.

Allowing humans

to comfortably live on the planet.

All we'd need to do is to terraform it.

But how?

Would dropping nukes on Mars make it

easier to live there?

Believe it or not,

this is something scientists

have considered for decades.

Elon Musk of SpaceX

seems to think that nuking Mars

might be one of the best and quickest options

to make it a place where humans could live.

The idea is that

we would explode thermonuclear bombs in the sky

over the planet's two poles.

This would heat up the ice caps,

and release carbon dioxide and water from the poles.

Then, the greenhouse effect would take place.

It would heat up the whole planet,

making the surface more habitable.

This sounds super quick and easy.

But why haven't we done this yet?

It's because there's a high chance that

nuking Mars might not work out the way we want it to.

There are many things that
could go wrong with this plan.

The first problem is it's all just theory,

and the theory could be wrong.

That's because Mars has been
losing its atmosphere for a long time.

Earth's atmosphere is

almost 100 times thicker than Mars'.

And if we're going to live on Mars,

it needs a thicker atmosphere.

Some scientists think we could
release CO2 from the North and South Poles,

and this could make Mars'
atmosphere more like Earth's.

But a 2018 study,

published in "Nature Astronomy," found that

even if the nukes are successful,

it would only increase Mars' atmosphere

to 7% of what Earth has.

Even if we create more carbon
dioxide in Mars' atmosphere,

it still wouldn't be nearly enough to heat the planet.

And the planet could seriously use more heat,

since its current temperature
averages around -63°C (-81.4°F).

And it would take decades
for the red planet to warm up,

even after it gained the extra CO2.

So, in theory,

this could delay humans from ever landing on Mars.

Not only that, but

this assumes that dropping thermonuclear
bombs on the planet would go perfectly.

Keep in mind these are nukes.

You know, the things that can destroy entire cities?

In fact, the bombs we'd use on Mars

would be 1,000 times stronger
than the ones used in WWII.

If a bomb exploded on the planet's surface,

instead of up in the atmosphere,

some severe damage would occur.

Not only would it completely destroy
parts of the planet's surface,

it would also cause even more radiation.

Another thing that would
delay us from settling on Mars.

It's also very likely that

instead of warming Mars,

a bomb could cause a nuclear winter.

This could happen from the
dust and particles in the atmosphere

caused by nuclear explosions.

They'd almost entirely block out the Sun,

causing Mars to cool down even more.

So, nuking Mars probably isn't the best idea.

And maybe we should get some
humans on the planet

in its natural state

before we start trying to change it.

But what if we nuked another planet,

like Venus?

Well, that sounds like a story for another WHAT IF.